Black Pumas' Performance on Fire

The core of the Austin-based Black Pumas — vocalist-guitarist Burton and guitarist-producer Adrian Quesada — first connected three years ago, and it’s been an upward trajectory ever since. Paul and the Tall Trees opened for the show at Canton Hall.

Although Black Pumas is anchored by Burton and Quesada’s alchemy, the pair was augmented with five additional musicians on Thursday: drummer Stephen Bidwell, vocalists Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller, keys player JaRon Marshall and bassist Brendan Bond, all of whom added texture, color and crunch to the hypnotic songs, which skate freely across genre lines, touching upon R&B, soul, funk and hallucinatory, Latin-tinged rock.

Photos by Andrew Sherman