At his kit in the shadow of Pomegranates’ messianic frontline – three beatific faces swathed in curtains of hair – drummer Jacob Merritt seems the odd man out. His tidy Ian Curtis haircut offers clues to his style, though not strictly in its relation to the stripped-down muscular nature of Stephen Morris’ drumming with Joy Division. Imagine Curtis supplied with a drum kit on which to vent his famous nervous energy and you can begin to imagine what Merritt brings to a band whose melodic loveliness occasionally has them teetering at the precipice of mere prettiness.
Pomegranates playing "50’s" live at Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR on April 27th, 2011:
While the lilting melodies intoned by his bandmates’ guitars and voices have been well served by the echo-laden production of the group’s recordings – including their most recent, 2010’s One of Us (QRO review), helmed by Aloha’s T. J. Lipple – this focus on space and the manufacture of gauzy textures has come at the expense of the rhythmic thrust so readily offered by Merritt.
During Wednesday night’s performance at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland on April 27th, the reverb was dialed back considerably and while certain songs – particularly those culled from 2009’s Everybody Come Outside – suffered from the loss of their atmospheric cushion, the stronger rhythmic presence gave most of the songs a vibrancy not captured in their recorded versions. This more straight-forward attack transformed the group’s current single – and One of Us highlight – "Skull Cakin’" from something inspired into something inspiring, bashed out with a sure-footed looseness that most group’s have to dig into a cover version to attain.
Pomegranates playing "Skull Cakin’" live at Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR on April 27th, 2011:
The band’s generous flow of recorded output – three albums in as many years, despite the time pressures of day-jobs and touring – has allowed Pomegranates’ audience the privilege of hearing them develop their craft in as near real time as seems possible. The downside is that the changes from one release to the next have been very subtle, more along the line of refinements than revolutions.
In addition to a bolder sound, recent performances from Pomegranates have introduced a batch of new songs marked by their streamlined construction. On the unreleased "Sisters", a barrage of buzzing guitars and pummeled drums created a glorious din against which Joey Cook’s coo couldn’t help but evoke Superchunk’s (QRO live review) Mac McCaughan. Although it is easy to imagine Pomegranates continuing to excel at the dreamy echoing pop that they have made their trademark, their performance suggested a future a little more dangerous and exciting, one where the members’ diverse influences aren’t whirled together in a cloud of reverb. One where the drums get to snap and pop on the record like they do on stage.
