At some point, perhaps a few years ago, someone must have uttered the words or at the least had the thought, “Let’s get two drummers, one bass guitar, and one amazing singer… Then we’ll lay down the vocals over everything and see what happens.” The question most fans would ask is “What crazy musical mind thought that this lineup would work even for a minute?” The answer is simply this: Poliça did, and believe me, they make it work. It fact, they own this sound.
On what was a rather calm and somewhat foggy Tuesday night in DC, I noticed a larger crowd than usual gathered outside the Black Cat as I turned the corner and walked closer to the venue on 14th street. In fact, the line was so long that it actually stretched up the block past the entrances of a few neighboring businesses of the landmark music club. For a relatively new band and headliner, Poliça and their opening act, Gardens and Villa, this was a really good sign of things to come.
I had caught the latter half of Poliça’s set at a music festival this summer. Not knowing much about them, I do recall the hauntingly strong vocals of the band’s singer Channy Leaneagh. There are always a few bands at every music festival that carry a certain weight among members of the media and are deemed a must-see. Poliça carried that buzz this summer around the festival grounds, and Tuesday night’s performance brought the same energy and excitement to the Black Cat’s sold-out crowd.
Leaneagh’s vocal range and sheer talent cuts through the mix of thunderous drums and the steady groove of the bass to complement the band’s slightly dark sound on every track. At times they would dim the lights and play soft and still; more often than not they would rumble through tight airy hooks and make even the people who just stand there sway back and forth a little.
The backbone of the group is a well thought-out series of melodic hooks and grooves. The bass guitar is enough to hold the interest of any music lover by itself with fast runs up and down the fingerboard never leaving the pocket for a second. The drummers rock two full drum kits and play off each other well. For percussion players, it is really hard not to get in each other’s way, but they succeed at this type of playing. On their faster, more upbeat tracks, they sound like small waves of thunder rolling over each other to make one solid, cohesive rhythm. I believe one drum kit is tuned slightly differently than the other, adding to the dramatic effect of the percussive overload.
Leaneagh’s presence on the stage could be felt throughout the room as she moved from one side of the stage to the other, slowly dancing and slightly moving her small hands in and out and around her face to the beat of the music. Her vocals at times are run through some type of vocal modulator to give it that ever-so-slight chime or echo/ reverb effect. The vocals are by no means overly processed, but swell just enough to send chills through you when she hit the top of her range.
If you have the chance to see Poliça, I highly recommend that you go out and support this inevitably well-respected band.
Photos by Richie Downs
