PENETRALIA LIVE;
HALF-MOON MUSIC HALL, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, USA
31, JANUARY 2015
The four members of ‘Penetralia’ walk out onto the stage with a confidence in their own ability, rarely has a band came out of nowhere and seemed so at home onstage and on record. Helmed by frontman ‘Koda Espinosa’ who pens the lyrics for this band and as you’d imagine takes the majority of the adulation of the fans, this four-piece are just about as close as a band can be, childhood friends and brothers alike, Koda and drummer Jonah being the only blood relatives in the band, but the connection between the four of them onstage is undeniable and it’s bassist Gunner Lee that keeps things running smoothly onstage, very much the underrated workhorse of the band as you’ll notice onstage with his relentless playing and his interaction with his bandmates.
The quartet open up with their previous single ‘Stargazing’ a chart hit, which as you’d imagine the majority of the 500 fans in the audience known word for word, musically it’s fast-paced and full of energy which the majority of the music seems to be, despite the emotive lyrics the band somehow make sure that their crowd has fun listening and watching them play live, they seems to be in their elemtent onstage and Koda’s face seem to light up at the sight of fans passionately singing his words back at him.
The interaction between lead singer and crowd is always full of respect and praise, at one point during their performance he chuckles and says, “You guys are f*cking nuts!”. The band are entirely comfortable in their abilities and it shows, it makes their live concerts enjoyable experiences for everybody in the venue and that’s the hardest part for any band.
Having just released their second album, the band are already forming the nucleus of a very strong back catalogue which is impressive so soon in their careers, it means that live performances as a support band will give them tough decisions on which songs to play, this also suggests that it won’t be long before they’re headlining theatres around the world, but this is a band that you’d have to say are destined to be selling-out stadiums all over the world.
“A Different Kind Of Angel” and “Picture Perfect Family” bring a different feeling to the arena as it’s heartwrenching emotions are displayed to the crowd through softer instrumentals and tender vocal delivery by Koda, the crowd sing along as much as they can, not easy with the album still very new in the minds of their fans, but the fans in the venue tonight are the obsessive fans, only 500 tickets made available means that the dedicated ones made sure they got their place at the gig ahead of casual fans.
Koda dedicated the next song “Gem” to the crowd, “This is for everybody out there that has ever felt lost or worthless” he paused for a moment before continuing, “Just know that you’re not the only ones that feel this way and that somebody out there loves you all.” of course tonight is different from a normal show, the band are playing these songs live for the very first time in an intimate capacity, it seems like they have their latest songs fully engrained in their mind because they never missed a beat.
They then delivered their final two songs of the evening, “Sleepless Nights Under Dirty Sheets” and the shorter “Forevermore”, the crowd didn’t want the performance to end but after they finished their final song of the evening, bassist Gunner Lee took the microphone to thank the audience, “You guys are incredible, man! The album has been out for less than a week and you’re already singing along to every word, that’s crazy dedication right there. So on behalf of the band, we just wanna say a huge thank you for supporting us so enthusiastically over the past year and we hope to see you guys when we go on tour this year. Also give a big thanks to Cara and Faith for making tonight happen, they came up with the idea, so when you see em’ hanging around the bar later tonight, buy them a drink or two. So stick around, we’ll be hanging out here for a few more hours and I hear the DJ is gonna be playing out album in it’s entirety.”
And with that the band left the stage, heading to the backstage area while the DJ began the evenings entertainment by playing the bands first ever single ‘Cupid’s Scythe’.
SETLIST;Stargazing
A Different Kind Of Angel
Picture Perfect Family
Gem
Sleepless Nights Under Dirty Sheets
Forevermore