On a Monday evening on February 23rd, I sat in the rain outside of the Wonder Ballroom with the typical Portland affair of indie sleaze and alt riff raff. The cold rain and harsh wind provided the perfect prelude to the low-key performance I was expecting. As I made my way into the main floor of the venue, I stood side to side, crammed against Carhartt and Patagonia-clad Gen Zers who were drumming with excitement. This buzz was infectious, providing me with the energy one might have for a sold-out arena rather than a dimly lit ballroom. They say the true mark of a great artist is if they are even better live; Puma Blue is that artist.
Puma Blue is the alias of one Jacob Allen, a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer from South London. He cut his teeth in the underground scene and saw a steady rise in popularity thanks to his dark, lo-fi textures, sensual falsetto, and slow-jam-inspired grooves. This solemn blend of influences created the perfect soundtrack for my first year in university, masking the Oregon rain with the haunting beauty of his 2023 album Holy Waters. Three years and two albums later, Puma Blue is once again back on the road, touring with his new album Croak Dream. The album is a haunting reflection of Allen’s want for intimacy yet struggle for connection, with a dark soundscape indebted to the works of trip-hop greats like Portishead. The slow, reflective album had prepared me for a night of quiet swaying and waving my phone flashlight in the air; I was proven wrong almost immediately.
The opening artist was Bay Area native Salami Rose Joe Louis, aka Lindsey Olsen. Salami’s sound is a quirky blend of progressive electronic, dream pop, lo-fi hip-hop, and just about every other beat-based genre I can think of. This eclectic sound came as a pleasant surprise to me, as the hall was rattled by the pounding 808s and quirky drum-machine percussion that underscored her ethereal vocals. This prompted the stereotypically too-cool, nonchalant zoomer crowd to dance and cheer along. The set lasted 40 minutes and brought me through every emotion on the human spectrum, with Salami proving herself to be a real musical chameleon.
As the final track of Salami’s set faded out and she thanked the crowd and walked backstage, the crowd was thoroughly primed for what was to come. This excitement burst out from the crowd the moment Puma Blue and his band hopped up on stage, with continuous cheers as they tuned their instruments. After eons of anticipation, the band opened their set with the title track of the album, Croak Dream. Live, the quiet melancholy of the studio version is replaced with a visceral sense of dread, with the punchy drums and dissonant guitar leads emphasizing his calls of “This is the death”. The overwhelming wall of noise felt like I was listening to a twisted version of a Phil Spector production.
As the night continued, the band only found more and more footing with the audience, delivering a punchy performance of Puma Blue’s greatest hits. The raw feel and explosive yet measured performances traded in the cavernous reverbs of the studio, offering the audience a bare look into Puma Blue’s psyche. This exposed feeling displayed itself well on slower cuts like Hold You, Hush, and Silently. Hold You in particular was a standout of the night for me, with the grainy electronic textures and hushed refrains of “I’ll never hold you” forcing me to reflect upon loss in my own life. Loss and yearning haunt Allen throughout the album, and these dark themes only furthered the surprisingly visceral sound of such low-tempo songs.
Halfway through the show, Puma Blue continued to please an already enraptured crowd by playing cuts from his aforementioned 2023 album Holy Waters. He played the singles O’, The Blood! and Hounds in near succession to thunderous applause from the audience. These tracks were definitely the crowd pleasers of the night, as the band’s keyboardist and saxophonist ripped awesome solos and passages that rivaled Puma Blue’s in sheer crowd excitement.
In the concerts’ last legs, Puma Blue ended the show with the jazzy tracks (She’s) Just a Phase, Moon Undah Water, and Pretty. The slow grooves and call-and-response instrumentation provided a much-needed emotional catharsis after the almost uncomfortable ride the audience was taken on. It’s here that I think Puma Blue shines the most as an artist, as the polish of the studio melts away into something more real, more connected. He speaks directly to the audience, offering them the version of himself he writes about in his lyrics, the version he has difficulties with, a version that we all see inside of ourselves. As the final notes of the set rang out, Puma Blue set down the instruments and quietly headed backstage. In the subsequent minutes that followed, a solemn crowd began to find their fire again as they chanted out for an encore. After a few minutes of waiting that felt hours long to me, they came back on stage and performed their 2018 single Only Trying 2 Tell U. The whole audience swayed along with swinging R&B drums, Puma Blue’s hushed falsetto, steady piano chords, and guitar and bass that danced around each other with a beautiful call and response.
As the encore track ends, the band leaves the stage once more, and the lights come back on. As I turned toward the door and walked past the loud chatter of boisterous youth rushing to leave to find the next function, I managed to take it all in. Puma Blue’s last track had all the same sad lyrical content that I was used to, but the way it was delivered left me with a feeling of hope rather than despair. The chorus of “Only trying to tell you” felt like an olive branch, assuring me that, while life can be bleak, there is a release and an almost-beauty to experiencing it all in full. I initially believed that my enjoyment of the concert was merely due to the sonic reframing of his music; the instrumentation had been divorced from the studio. Now, I believe that that enjoyment came from the strange connection I felt watching him bare it all on stage.
