The Warwick Boar review
Live Reviews: Kings of Covenience, Warwick Arts Centre, 9/10/04
Written
by Kevin
Shammas
Last updated: Mon Oct 25
16:54:04 2004
The Kings Of Convenience aren't your typical pop-group. Nor are they desperately rock 'n' roll, despite their claims in the last issue of the Core. After a typically understated entrance, they launched into little-known song Until You Understand. It was clear that what we were witnessing was a performance by two of the most gifted musicians to ever place themselves in the pop genre. This skill was most clear during a haunting rendition of Gold In The Air Of Summer and crowd favourite I Don't Know What Can Save You From. But it was not just their musical talent that entertained. Erlend (the geeky looking one) grew in confidence as the evening progressed, and continually provided amusing one-liners, whilst Eirik (the one who looks like Frodo) quietly told us the name of the man who had bombed Coventry cathedral, and revealed that he had met him.
Amidst the stories and joking, the music continued to be faultless. "Two soft voices, blended in perfection", they sang in unison on Homesick the relevance of which was inescapable. Despite the relatively small crowd and the large hall, there was an incredible intimacy about the performance, partly due to Erlend's efforts to get some form of audience participation going. What started out as finger-clicking quickly turned into the transformation of a normal audience into a three part choir, as each section of the crowd was given a different note to hum over the introduction to Sorry Or Please. And by the final song of the encore, I'd Rather Dance With You, Erlend had grabbed a young lady from the front row and dragged her to the back of the stage, where they started busily jiving away. This prompted a mass charge to the stage from the audience, and by the end of the song there were as many people on stage as off it. This was a great spectacle, and capped an incredible performance from the Kings. They may not be the new rock 'n' roll, but they sure are good.
Kings
Of Convenience
Warwick Arts Centre,
Coventry
11 Oct, 2004
Tonight’s
bizarre setting
– the all-seater Warwick Arts Centre – is
confusing Yank support act Call And Response; they’re used to playing
university campuses, just baffled by rowdy beers being exchanged for
croissants and coffee. Their boy/girl rock invites a polite response,
but is clearly better suited to clubs back home.
Norway’s Kings Of Convenience, however, are well used to pulling up a
couple of stools and captivating their audience with their Simon and
Garfunkle
for the new millennium, like a pair of story tellers having a yarn.
Initial fears that these quirky 20-somethings’ dreamy-eyed catalogue of
reflective croons would quickly get old disappear with a few strokes of
their
hypnotic strings.
But it’s the banter between indisputably charismatic performers –
ranging from Eirik’s tale about knowing the name of the man responsible
for
bombing Coventry Cathedral during the war, to Erland’s request to
anyone
exiting the auditorium to the right of the stage to think twice due to
a nasty
“English draft” – which proves there’s more to KOC than meets the eye.
‘Homesick’ provides one of the evening’s many highlights, while ‘I
Don’t Know What I Can Save You From’ – surely possessing one of the
most mind blowing guitar hooks in recent memory – delights 400 or so
ecstatic
faces.
This is an in-joke for the clever fan of music, the fan that thinks
he’s smarter than the next. It’s a gag, which, if tonight’s anything to
go
by, (the band’s stage is quite literally invaded by dozens of devotees
at
the show’s finale) looks sure to spread like fire through a burning
bush.
Italy, we’re told has just seen Scandinavia’s greatest export since
Ikea score their first hit single, charting at number two. It’s just a
matter of time before the rest of the world catches up and KOC bring
their
sensational sound to the masses. Brilliant.