Popa Chubby

Popa Chubby at La Rayonne

At La Rayonne, we are thrilled to welcome a towering figure of modern blues-rock: Popa Chubby. For decades, this New York-born guitarist, singer, and bandleader has fused raw streetwise grit with virtuoso fire, crafting a signature sound that is both thunderous and tender. His current artistic momentum is unmistakable. Building on the impact of his recent albums, Emotional Gangster and It’s a Mighty Hard Road, he continues to command stages across Europe and beyond, bringing a fearless mix of anthems, grooves, and deeply felt ballads. Fans who follow his new chapters will recognize the way he threads fresh material through his legacy, with titles like Emotional Gangster and It’s a Mighty Hard Road standing out as recent touchstones. At La Rayonne, we champion artists who make the live moment feel urgent and intimate, and Popa Chubby’s road-honed show is exactly that: a cathartic, high-voltage celebration of song, story, and guitar tone that moves from a whisper to a roar and back again.

The onstage firepower and the La Rayonne experience

Expect a power-trio framework dialed to the sweet spot, where tone, time, and telepathy meet. Popa Chubby’s performances have a reputation for turning venues into living, breathing rooms—equal parts club swagger and stadium punch—and La Rayonne is built for that electricity. From the first riff to the final sustained note, his set builds a dialogue with the audience, inviting singalongs, improvisational detours, and those rare quiet moments when the blues pulls you in close. The recent repertoire has showcased muscular, road-tested cuts, with newer favorites like It’s a Mighty Hard Road and Caffeine and Nicotine rubbing shoulders with the title track Emotional Gangster and longtime staples that have become crowd rituals. Our team at La Rayonne focuses on vivid, dynamic sound so every bend, slide, and growl reaches the back row with clarity, while the lighting design follows the music’s own drama—lean and moody in the slow-burn passages, explosive when the solos open up. Whether you’re in front of the stage or leaning back to take in the full panorama, the room’s scale and energy are tuned to amplify the heart of a Popa Chubby show: feel, finesse, and fearless volume.

There’s also a broader story to celebrate: Popa Chubby’s ongoing artistic life remains as restless and creative as ever. In recent seasons he has toured intensively, bringing his New York blues spirit to theaters and festivals across France and the wider continent, with setlists that evolve from night to night. He leans into the songs that define the present tense of his catalog—Emotional Gangster, It’s a Mighty Hard Road, and Caffeine and Nicotine among them—while keeping space for fresh turns, extended solos, and the kind of spontaneous grooves that only come from a band that lives on the road. At La Rayonne, we value artists who make each performance unique, and Popa Chubby’s live language is written in the moment: fierce riffing, big dynamic swells, and lyrics that speak plainly about struggle and joy. Join us at La Rayonne for a night that salutes the artist’s current chapter and the living tradition he stands in—modern blues-rock, New York attitude, and the unmistakable sound of a songwriter-guitarist at full throttle.