King Blues, Islington Academy, London, October 22nd
King Blues, Islington Academy, London, October 22nd
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Friday, 24, Oct 2008 04:47
More people should do punk on the ukulele.
King Blues looks like the funnest band to be in. Even when they're singing about underage homelessness or the creeping surveillance culture or shouting anarchist demo slogans, every member of the band had great big grins on their faces, bouncing round the stage like kids with ADHD. Every other minute seemed to bring another musician onstage, until there were at least seven of them, two to every microphone and dancing like it was the end of the world, or the start of a new one.
Good as the albums are, playing live seems to smooth off some of their rough edges - on record they can seem a little disjointed (if you heard, say, Mr Music Man and We Ain't Never Down, you'd never know they were by the same band). But live, everything seems to flow together; the reggae songs are a little more punk, the punk songs more ska, the ska songs more indie... High points included Come Fi Di Youth, from the first album (imagine the Specials Ghost Town with a melodica) and, for the first encore, What If Punk Never Happened, done entirely a capella. And then the rest of the band bounded back onstage for a joyful, uplifting rendition of I Got Love.
They seem like such a happy bunch; angry and disgusted with the world, but laughing in the face of apathy and cynicism. They've come a long way from busking outside Canary Wharf tube, and seem to be enjoying every minute of their success - and they damn sure deserve it.
Hannah Tipple