Live Review from 14th Year Anniversary Party
1. The Octobeast Rises
2. Sunshine of Your Love
3. Why Do You Do the Things You Do
4. Kataklysm
5. My House is a House Full of Blues
6. Unmei. No. Sekai.
After an evening of perfectly produced pop-rock, Kongo’s scuzzy late night blues jam was both refreshing and bewildering, like beetroot juice. Or something. And with their matching blue biker jackets, the singer/guitarist and bass player certainly made a style statement. Completed by a Beach Boys look-alike virtuoso drummer/battery bunny who played a thousand beats to the bar all night (whatever he was on, I want some) this was an eyebrow-raising ending to the evening. There was no question they could play – the guitarist’s fluid Jimi-meets-Eric soloing was as impressive as the bass player’s “Smoke on the Water” rendition – it just wasn’t always straightforward to see quite where they were coming from. And at this stage of the evening, the audience probably could of done with something a little livelier to see them through the midnight hours. Still, as everyone knows, proper rockers are enigmatic, sunglasses-wearing Les Paul players who don’t give a damn about bouncy crowd pleasing pop numbers, and that’s exactly what we got.
– Dan Creffield
