Concert Review: Paris Paloma- Sinclair, Boston
There’s more than a “sad girl” trope in Paris Paloma. The 23-year-old British singer-songwriter’s lyrics possess a quiet kind of rage that maintains an even simmer through most of her songs with moments of boiling over, searing the skin with their acerbic accounts of controlling men.
Paris Paloma’s “labour” became an anthem for women oppressed and controlled by (mostly) male partners, with the refrain “for someone I thought was my saviour, you make me do too much labour.” With a whopping 26 million views on the “labour” music video – in contrast to Paloma’s 157K subscribers, Paloma has since toured with the likes of Maisie Peters, released two also excellent new singles, and is on the cusp of releasing her first album, Cacophony, due August 30.
So the young artist’s first U.S. headline tour was much anticipated, selling out in minutes. At the Boston show on June 22, at the Sinclar in Cambridge, several unreleased tunes graced the setlist, but the show was disappointingly short.
At 450 capacity, the Sinclair is a fantastic small venue, and the people who made it into the room will in some years undoubtedly talk of how they “knew her when” Paloma was playing tiny rooms like this one. Folk opener Edwin Raphael prepped the crowd which, by the way, was terribly nice and gracious. Someone who arrived late and wanted a photo from the side of the stage was ushered near the front by magnanimous attendees – women, mostly – to get just that right shot.
Perhaps it’s the three-quarter sized guitar she plays with quiet ease, the perfect melodies she wrings from simple chords, or their similar derbyshire/yorkshire accents, but Paloma reminds this reviewer of early Ed Sheeran, with arresting melodies over simple chords and dark themes emerging out of folk-pop sensibility.
Paloma spoke little during her 11-song set, but what she said was heartfelt, thanking the room in her quiet voice, accompanied only by a drum set and backing vocal track. She opened with “my mind (now),” a steady beat of “what did I do wrong” chant rippling through the audience with echoes of Imogen Heap. The 2023 single “drywall” followed, along with her most recent release, “boys, bugs and men.”
The mostly female crowd sings along with beaming faces until the new ones come. Paloma played a whopping four unreleased songs: “knitting song,” “last woman on earth,” “bones on the beach,” and “the warmth.” Hushed and rapt doesn’t begin to describe the room while she played these, each person stock-still and surprisingly few cell phones capturing the moment. The songs continue with Paloma’s signature dark brooding - “the last woman on earth” stunned with the line “For the first time since I drew breath, I’m undesirable again.”
Encore “labour” is a triumph, but feels entirely too short. Maybe that’s because one could literally listen to it for hours scrolling TikTok – but it feels great to hear it live. The real gems from this show, though, are these album tracks coming on August’s LP. This reviewer wants to hear those again, and hopes there’s another US tour coming after that.
Cacophony, by Paris Paloma, out on August 30.