The indie pop band Power Plush is undoubtedly the next big thing from Chemnitz. The quartet showed why on Sunday afternoon as the opener at the Lollapalooza Festival in Berlin: Beguilingly glittering and yet urgently taut, the band pulled those who were there early into the sunshine by the nose ring.
Anyone who saw this young band in the Saxon music cosmos in their early days, which is only two years ago, might still think they are somehow nice and capable of development. But the touring experience of the last few months has given Power Plush a lot of wings, so that the debut album “Coping Fantasies” announced for February can be more than exciting.
The band’s exclamation marks at Lollapalooza in Berlin made that clear once again: If The Whitest Boy Alive was already a sensation in the noughties, what can one say about the three front women Maria Costantino, Anja Jurleit and Svenja Schwalm with their drummer Nino Cutino ? Power Plush play for long stretches in a similarly summery way with a feeling of sunshine, with this light lounge elegance and great reduced beats, which are pushed into the legs by an almost technoid-discotic driving bass. The Chemnitzers leave out the elevator factor and instead show a harmonious hand that makes you spit away. Power Plush somehow has the class of Tear For Fears in its genes. Yes, not everything has awakened yet, not everything has matured and been teased out. But: It is already very noticeable, vibrates in the songs, in the whole performance, in which each one taken together simply melts the chocolate in the listener’s inner freezer. And then the four of them sprinkle super-cool, slightly off-beat Primus moments over it again and again as nut splinters.
At the Lollapalooza, the band had to be on stage as early as 12 noon on Sunday – seamlessly after the sound check: To get in the mood, you could watch the musicians setting up the stage themselves; a halfway impressive show start is not possible. A band has no choice but to start with the best songs – and with “Heavenly” and “Smth Cool” Power Plush immediately drew the first festival visitors away from the breakfast plates and in front of the side stage. As I said: Without a ruckus, without the usual droll gestures and without a debut album on the market. But there is an urgency, a possessed mission in this fable music that immediately grabs your heart and grabs your nose ring. The sunshine is certainly not carefree with this band, but it is sorely needed in every shimmer.
The thing about the “three front women” isn’t a gimmick just because there are three women: it’s a fact. Svenja Schwalm, Anja Jurleit and Maria Costantino are three independent singers, each with different nuances. On the one hand, you can hear your own favorite colouring, but at the same time they harmonize very well together and can conjure up quite a hurricane from their rather fine voices as a vocal set. Power Plush proved that the day before when they were allowed to support Kraftklub on a song on the main stage – and damn, there was so much pressure in the boiler with these voices!
The single concert was over after only half an hour, that’s how it is with an opening act. But it was very clear that the little plant that is beginning to dig its roots into the soil of pop culture can one day become something really big. After all, not everyone can manage a sing-along part that also sounds good under these circumstances!