Solarcade in Valley Scene Magazine

Solarcade at Cinespace

By Jonathan Weichsel

Solarcade is unabashedly a pop band, but they don't play modern pop. Their music harks back to the seventies and eighties, when pop music had all the power and force of rock and roll. The band is able to channel Goth, psychedelic, and hard rock into their power ballads, pop songs, and prog-rock excursions, creating a sublime aural experience. Just as important as the music is the fact that they put on one of the best shows in L.A.

Solarcade has in Paul Van one of the most talented and eclectic vocalists to hit the pop music scene in many years. Van's voice is able to exhibit vulnerability, as well as strength. Sometimes Van is quirky, and sometimes he lets his voice quaver, but most of the time he belts out his songs, hitting high notes and low with equal clarity, and with a force rivaling some of the greatest singers of the eighties.

Paul Van has the kind of voice that can fill a room of any size. Watching him play the small room at Cinespace, I kept on thinking, "This guy belongs in a stadium." It is difficult to describe what he did to the mostly upscale crowd that turned out Saturday night to hear the band. During the opening acts everybody was standing around, mingling, and chatting at the bar in that way Hollywood types like to chat. But the second Solarcade came out rocking with their new single "Rise," everyone in the room rushed towards the stage and just went wild.

Paul Van had the greatest effect on the females in the audience. Perhaps the women were reacting to Van's lip gloss, or maybe it was the hint of eye liner, but it is most likely that the gals were sent into a state of frenzy by his attitude. Paul Van commanded the stage that evening with all the arrogance and cockiness requisite of good rock and roll. His is a classic rock act, full of romantic gestures and dramatic poses. You have all seen old films of women melting in front of some rock God. It is quite another thing to be in a roomful of melting women.

This is not to say that the women were the only people enjoying the show. Pomilla's guitar work was stunning. Pomilla is just as versatile an artist as Van is, and channels the same musical genres. When he hits a power cord, it lifts the entire room. His solos are not as intricate as one might expect from this type of band, but in place of intricacy is a kind of psychedelic beauty, full of unexpected notes and colors. The drummer Adam Holt added a pounding, danceable beat to the mix.
Solarcade's lyrics are psychedelic, but they don't have the sense of anxiety often associated with psychedelic lyrics. Take for example the opening Solarcade's single, "Rise."

Some kind of reign for us

A thousand hands to slow

The chains that pull me up

I don't want to be the one to fall

I don't want to run. I don't want to hide at all

Paul Van starts out singing with faux-nervous energy, but by the end of this he is bursting with a full-voiced confidence. Rise is a powerful song, about breaking through the chains that keep us down. It is a song about reaching up from the murky depths, and grabbing hold of the light. Perhaps Paul Van is able to express these sentiments with such sincerity because he is himself a rising star, about to break through the chains.

If you would like to learn more about Solarcade, including upcoming shows, visit them at www.my space.com/solarcade. Make sure you check out one of their shows soon, because in a few months they are going to be huge. Solarcarde's new EP, Songs for the Gathering, is being released digitally February 24th.