Pizza FM's favorite Pygmalion 2019 acts

While all the acts at this year’s Pygmalion festival weren’t headliners, we felt that the acts we saw all deserve recognition. Below are some of the Pizza FM writing team’s favorite acts from this year’s lineup. 

Michelle Wolf, The Data Waves, Black Pumas - Federico Hernandez Nater

 The addition of high quality stand-up comedians to this year’s Pygmalion lineup was evident in Michelle Wolf’s performance. Several hundred came out to the Great Hall to see her perform, college-aged, middle-aged, and older-aged folks alike. Wolf had just recorded a comedy special a month prior, so some of the jokes were new material. Her self-described “vulgar” humor landed well with everybody, garnering good laughs from the audience. Touching on topics ranging from “What if men had periods?” to race, sexuality, and gender, Michelle Wolf managed to make difficult subjects to discuss an amazing basis for her stand-up. We’ll be looking forward to her upcoming comedy special as much as we enjoyed her performance.  Local funk fusion group The Data Waves filled up the smaller space of the Rose Bowl Tavern with hot and rhythmic groove. The intimate yet joyful setting made everybody want to move; anything they played, fast or slow, made you want to move your feet. There were great solos from each member of the band throughout the set, and they never stopped their foot-tapping, head-bopping liveliness. Check out our exclusive interview with The Data Waves here. If The Data Waves was the hot coffee of the night, Black Pumas just an hour later was the cooling saucer. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the seven-member band brought good vibes for their slice of the night. They grooved too, but it was a more laid back groove. Lead singer Eric Burton was interacting with the crowd, and gliding over the neo-retro-soulful grooves the band put down. It seemed like nothing could get in the way of the Burton bringing those vibes to everyone listening. A light fell off the rack between songs, and in his signature fashion, said, “We really are bringing the house down,” right before starting another tune. Black Pumas came back for a well-deserved encore and left a crowd of people with that relaxed, getting out of the shower sort of feeling after a night of those cool vibes. 

Jerry Paper - Paul Huetteman

 As the final performers of Pygmalion 2019, Jerry Paper and his band proved to be a captivating finale for the festival. Mixing elements of lounge music and psychedelic synthpop, Paper is a uniquely consistent and accessible artist for easygoing listeners. Simultaneously laid-back and invigorating, the show demonstrated Paper’s creative approach to arranging his music in a live setting. Blackbird offered wonderful acoustics and an elegantly casual venue space for showgoers to enjoy the concert in an intimate fashion. Jerry Paper’s band did a faithful job of presenting the vibrant and hypnotic melodies of his instrumentation to the audience. This allowed Paper to focus on giving a memorable vocal performance while two of his band members backed him up by singing some excellent harmonies. I noticed him adding lots of extra syllables and emphasis on certain lyrics to create a distinct listening experience from his studio productions. His setlist predictably featured several tracks from his latest record, Like a Baby, which he sold copies of after the show. However, songs from the rest of his discography were well integrated, leaving long time fans such as myself more than satisfied. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and highly recommend him both as a studio musician and live artist.  

Antoni Porowski - Zoe Jacquat

 Antoni Porowski is most famously know for his role as a mentor on the lifestyle makeover show “Queer Eye”. In the show he takes on improving the cooking aspects of people's lives, showing them how to make recipes and how to enjoy cooking for themselves as well as family members.On Saturday September, 28th Antoni talked about his new book Antoni In the Kitchen. The conversation and salad recipe demonstration was facilitated by the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner. In their discussion Antoni talked about what it was like growing up in a Polish family, and how over time he came to love and respect his heritage. In the Q+A portion of the evening, Antoni emphasized the importance of being comfortable with being by yourself and how to love and respect others. The evening finished with a demonstration of one of the recipes from the book, Antoni and Michelle prepared a salad that Antoni had first tried while on vacation with a significant other. Overall the evening was filled with laughs, inspiration and new food tricks for everyone in the audience.  

The New Pornographers - Jack Moore

The veteran rock band of Pygmalion this year was The New Pornographers, supporting their new LP “In The Morse Code Of Break Lights.” Known by much of my generation for their “Rock Band” featured track “The Electric Version” from their album of the same name; The New Pornographers blend the garage rock of the early aughts with the eclecticism of the baroque, indie-folk scene of the late aughts.  The band featured a majority of their star studded crew including Neko Case and Joe Seiders. The band played a relaxed but tight set to a gleeful crowd of Urbanaites, with a variety of instrumentation including a violinist and multiple keyboards. The band played a variety of songs including many fan favorites and quite a few new tracks as well spanning across their storied career. A.C. Newman, the band leader, was a highlight of the show, propelling the band through the set with his soaring guitar riffs and jubilant vocals. The New Pornographers put on an excellent show for their die-hard fans and casual fans (like me) alike; their amazingly talented lineup and earworm-y songs left me with an experience that I will cherish.