PAPA brings its big heart (and new songs) to a ‘Romantic Getaway’ at the Roxy

Kevin Bronson on
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Outside a random Los Angeles show last year, a few months after PAPA released its debut “Tender Madness,” singer-drummer Darren Weiss fielded a compliment about that album. “But you just wait,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “The next one will really rock.”

Judging from the new songs PAPA played Saturday night at the Roxy Theatre, Weiss will make good on that promise.

Not that anybody at the sold-out Sunset Strip venue was busy dissecting the setlist, though: Saturday’s show was the wrap-up of PAPA’s short West Coast “Romantic Getaway” tour, and since it was Valentine’s Day, the night was all about love, shouted at the top of Weiss’ lungs and punctuated by his furious drumming. Playing
on a stage festooned with balloons, Weiss and PAPA’s co-founder, bassist Danny Presant, along with guitarist Jacob Munk, keyboardist Ben Usen and guest backup vocalists Rachel Fannan and Brandon Intelligator, pretty much brought the house down.

The night ended with a three-song encore of a cover of “Tell It Like It Is” (sung by opener Harriet’s frontman Alex Casnoff, who once played in PAPA), a cover of “Dancing With Myself” (foreshadowed, perhaps, by the house DJ playing Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” right before PAPA went on) and, finally, the band’s first single “I Am the Lion King.”

Weiss, equal parts lovable romantic and mischievous lothario, commanded attention from his front-and-center drum kit all night, foraying into the crowd late in the set.

For the record, the four new songs are titled “Hold On,” “Lake Life,” “Comfort’s a Killer” and “What Good Is the Night” — all from an album PAPA is in the midst of recording. A departure from the blues-based indie-rock on the EP and album, they hint at PAPA as a post-punk band. To generalize, think the Clash’s “Combat Rock” married with the black-dressed post-punkers of the ’80s. Neither of which is new terrain for Weiss, a punk-rock drummer in his early youth with Wires on Fire.

For their part, Harriet sprang some news on the already-full house during their opening set, Casnoff announcing that the band’s long-awaited next release will come in the form of an EP in March. Among the highlights of the quartet’s set: elongating the heartsick ballad “Burbank” into a raucous jam, and the new keyboard-driven single “Irish Margaritas.”