Mount Pom Performs at Clatter Cafe

Clatter Cafe welcomed Koda Murphy, otherwise known as Mount Pom, to the stage Saturday, Feb. 8th where the audience was wowed by an amazing performance from this Frostburg student.

Opening her set with an original song titled “Trashman,” she showcased her skills on the guitar and brought the audience to attention with the power of her music.

She thanked everyone in the audience for supporting her and carried on to sing a second original, “Sovereign Worm,” once again ending with an ardent round of applause.

Clatter Cafe recently expanded their business to include this stage for local artists. Koda said this is around her 10th performance since April of 2019. However, it is a first for her to perform in this venue type. After the applause died down, she had friendly banter with the audience asking just how emo they want to get tonight and with immense crowd support, she continued on to play a cover of My Chemical Romance’s “Sleep” saying she had always dreamed of performing this song for people. Once again, her guitar vocal combination was full of raw emotion, and she blew the crowd away.

Continuing on to sing her original love song in her repertoire telling the audience it is her, “one and only, and that it won’t happen again”, floating her opening chords along with audience laughter. She thanked the staff of Clatter and everyone who was able to make this happen, shouting out her friend who is also playing an open mic night in England the same evening.

To close her set, she finished with “Knife Fight or Fight Club,” a song of anger not aimed at anyone in particular. However, after her final bow, the audience chanted for, “one more,” urging Koda to go back on the stage and close out the cafe with “Cat Song”. In this final tune of the night, lyrics were raw with emotion, making comments about the impacts of pollution on wildlife, quipping of a fish with green gills and scales covered in gasoline, and lamenting about the “want to go back, I want to be reborn a cat”. As the audience roared with applause for the final time of the night, she looked at her front-row audience members joking, “that’s all I have, I don’t have any more,” after having left her all on the stage.

After the set, Koda noted she likes to write songs about things people sometimes forget about, and if people are the main topic, she tries to be as vague as possible with it. This music is almost a love child of the unique aspects of Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson’s music as well as a powerhouse voice to hit the audience in the chest. Koda says she gains inspiration from the artist Conor Oberst. It is she who is the inspiration exuding comfort and poise on the stage, not only having talent but being brave enough to share it.

Thank you for sharing with the Frostburg community. To check her out, its @mountpom on all socials. Listen to her Bandcamp profile to hear her music for yourself.