Yumi Zouma enchants Tmuna Theatre
As I was waiting for the doors to open at Tmuna Theatre, I witnessed two handsome guys and a beautiful girl walk towards the door, asking politely to get in. “Who are you?” asked the security guard. “We are performing here tonight,” came the answer. Those were the members of the New-Zealand band Yumi Zouma and this is how they roll: politely, modestly and effortlessly hard to resist.
To kill the time until they have to go on stage, Sam Perry, Christie Simpson and Josh Burgess, hang around in the crowd, listening to the opening band and making (positive) comments. The place isn’t packed yet as I hoped it would be, but every single person there is an active participant in the Yumi Zouma party. The songs basically sound happy, but one who dives further into the lyrics and meanings will discover sadness and less cheerful emotions. The band performs songs from their recent and first full-length album, Yoncalla, which received great reviews from music magazines such as Pitchfork and Stereogum.
It was pretty amazing to see those three enjoying themselves on stage, smiling to each other and swapping instruments from time to time; Christie, the lead singer, walked from side to side on the stage, and during the encore (the overwhelming “Catastrophe”), she even climbed on the side speaker and into the cheering crowd.
At the end of the night, I had the chance to thank the band for coming (it’s not usual for us to get a band all the way from NZ!) and experience, again, their very cool and down-to-earth attitude that makes people fall in love not only with the music, but with the people behind the music. I know it worked for me. And I can’t wait to see what these guys will be up to in the future.
See full gallery of the night.
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Remaining tour dates:
https://www.facebook.com/YumiZouma/
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Twitter: @tmuna @YumiZouma
