Longford trio Poroma make debut at Café Sessions tonight

Damian McCarney

A Longford trio are set to make their Cavan Town debut tonight with a support slot in the Café Sessions. Poroma will whet the appetite of the Chapter 1 audience for the main attraction My Fellow Sponges at the show, which kicks off at 8pm.
The band - Ballinamuck pair Mark Prunty and Podge Gill, and Moyne’s Ross McNerney - are still in their first year, having formed last March, but they are already in demand with gigs lined up for the next 10 weekends. They mostly play in their home county with a few shows in Leitrim, Athlone and Virginia.
The band was formed when multi-instrumentalist Ross, a second year DCU student (“so it’s not too stressful yet”) who is taking PE and Maths, approached Mark and Podge after a gig last St Patrick’s Day and suggested including himself in a threepiece. Initially called ‘Dutch Courage’ they decided they needed a new moniker to shed the boozy associations and settled on the cryptic Paroma.
“We wanted to come up with a word that no one knew what it meant. It’s literally the first two initials of the three of us - Podge, Ross and Mark,” explains Ross, who gives music tuition from home on the weekends.
For the unitiated how would Ross describe Poroma’s sound?
“We try to be quirky, so even with covers we try to make them our own.
“We do Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, Talk Dirty - we just try to mash them up, and put our own little twist on them. The originals - they’re all different. We don’t have a unique style - we’re a bit of everything. We try to get as much in as we can without over doing it.”
To get their name out there the lads have uploaded two DIY homevids onto Youtube, with their reworking of Talk Dirty and Get Low yielding a highly credible 5,000-plus views.
“To be honest I wouldn’t have been a huge Youtube man, I would have been - just keep it quiet, you know what I mean? But the two boys twisted me around. In fairness from Youtube we’re getting a good reaction and people are talking about us so it’s all positive so far, and it’s enjoyable.
“It’s a bit of fun, we’re not taking it too seriously, we’re just literally going out and having a good time - that’s what we enjoy doing.”
Ross says they have no plans to release an EP yet as they are “taking it as it comes”, but in the last few months they have begun to build a repertoire of their own compositions.
“We’ve another few in the pipleine, but they’re not really finished yet and we want to get them recorded properly before we get them up [on Youtube]. that’s basically where we’re at.”
No we haven’t planned that far ahead, we’re taking it as it comes.
Ross says they’re looking forward to Thursday’s Café Sessions gig.
“It’s something different, while the pub scene is good you find a lot of people don’t even listen to you but this I think we are going to get people to actually listen to us and that’s what we want, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Trees of elation
Meanwhile the Galway based headline act My Fellow Sponges have come off the back an impressive line of festival dates from Knockanstockan to Sunflowerfest to Body and Soul. As far as what they sound like, their light hearted press bumpfh is more on the intriguing side rather than illuminating:
“Come with the Sponges as they take you on a bright and colourful journey, with music that will have you falling over with laughter, floating on waves of sadness, and climbing trees of elation. Their trickster melodies will ensnare you like an old crone merrily luring children into a gingerbread house.
“Some say that the Sponges play every instrument ever known in all of time and space. Some say that their songs contain such simple but powerful observations on the world around us that hearing them regularly enough will make a listener grow immeasurably wise and jolly.”

Blue Valentines presents My Fellow Sponges and Poroma at Café Sessions Chapter 1 on Thursday, February 13, 8pm. While there’s no admission, suggested donation is €5, and for the unwaged €3. The gig is assisted by Cavan Co. Council Arts Awards and The Anglo-Celt.