Live: The King Blues @ Academy 2

The King Blues
Academy 2
4^th November
4 Stars

After the support acts finished, I wandered off to grab a beer, praying for more people to show and the mood to lift. The atmosphere was dead at that moment, the last support Cerebral Ballzy had done nothing to endear themselves to the crowd. The lead singer sauntered around on stage swigging on Jack Daniels, shouting into the microphone incoherently, and regularly pulled the finger to the crowd. This arrogant behaviour was pretty boring and pretentious.
I returned to Academy 2 just in time with the venue now packed out. A real buzz and excitement was going around the room. The lights dimmed, and Jonny Fox joined the stage all on his lonesome. He started with some poetry, which went down a treat. It was a savvy ploy to diss David Cameron, people ate that shit up for breakfast. With the crowd whipped up into hysteria with that battle cry for punk, the rest of the band joined Jonny, and straight away they broke into song with ‘Let’s Hang the Landlord’. With such catchy rhythms, I forgot Jonny was singing about murdering someone through asphyxiation. Next up was ‘Set the World on Fire’, this is when shit got crazy. The moshing kicked into life and I was nearly knocked over in the process. The next few songs had a more ska reggae feel to them, before the anarchy returned with ‘The Streets are Ours’ during which the drum cymbals were covered in booze and then set alight. Highly amusing stuff. The gig finished well and of course this cult-like crowd called for an encore. The lead singer returned on his own for some more spoken word entitled ‘5 Bottles of Shampoo’. Once again, I was very impressed.

The King Blues have a cult-like following, and the fans were treated to a very energetic and passionate performance. Quite a big variety of songs, and when you listen to a full set, you receive a convoluted message. The first album Under the Dog is more ska than anything, where as their latest album Punk and Poetry is sincerely punk. Songs like ‘We are Fucking Angry’ is a great theme song for the recent student riots.

Is a Punk revival coming though? I highly doubt it.

The King Blues – Headbutt

The King Blues – I Got Love