Callum MacHattie
Experienced music journalist usually spotted running around gigs and festivals with a mic in hand. Also trying to prove to my dad’s mates that music is as good as it used to be, one interview at a time.
The day before the release of their debut album, we caught Porij at Bristol’s Trinity Centre for a night of tracks old and new
On their eve of their album release, Porij took the stage wide eyed and beaming, with an air of euphoria filling the room before the first note was even struck. As the stabs of ‘Sweet Risk’ punctuated the excited applause of fans, Porij’s frontperson Egg was the last of the band members to hit the stage, skipping to their keyboard and wasting no time to play us the dreamlike melodies that would soundtrack the rest of the evening.
Channelling the energy that is rife in the early stages of any headline gig, Porij wasted no time in playing the pre-album hits. “This one needs no introduction”, Egg claimed as breakout hit ‘150’ was played next. There’s a magic to live performances when the unanimously known tune brings newcomers and old heads together; pockets of fans across the room cheer at the prospect of their memories being soundtracked live and with the prismatic ‘150‘ guitar line playing. It felt extra special.
From there on out, their forthcoming debut LP ‘Teething’ got the spotlight it deserved. Already released singles ‘My Only Love’ and ‘Ghost’ introduced the new material to fans with a warm handshake before they brought in new tracks ‘Stranger‘ and ‘Marmite’. Of the tracks, the latter two proved the band have an uncanny ability to dichotomise emotions, swifting between ‘Stranger’s vulnerablity to ‘Marmite’s ruthless lyricism – “Haunt my life, I’ll haunt yours back” – but all backdropped with Porij’s own brand of sonic dreaminess.
The band previously told CLUNK that “what’s really fun about clubbing is escapism and letting go, and I think that’s what we’re about; letting go of your inhibitions. That’s demonstrated best when humans play it instead of computers”.
This sonic mantra was fully confirmed with both irony and finesse when they covered Calvin Harris’ ‘Acceptable in the 80’s’. Layers of satire felt sentimental when fans screamed the chorus line to a band playing an electronic classic with live instrumentation.
As Egg says, clubbing is about “letting go of your inhibitions” but it also about emotional experiences at both ends of the spectrum. Porij’s set was carefully crafted to create tension and release, both sonically and emotionally, so that the fans could feel as equally human as the musicians playing to them. An important experience to deliver, but not made to be too weighty, with the encore of ‘You Should Know Me’ waving goodbye to the crowd, Porij made sure that fans left smiling wider than they did upon arrival.
Read our interview with Porij here.