WORDS AND IMAGES KIERAN ANDREWS
It was Clwb Ifor Bach on 19th Feb for a night of Irish folk, indie rock awaits from the much talked about Kingfishr an Irish trio from Limerick, Ireland and it’s going to be a busy year for the band already announcing big festival appearances such as Trnsmt and Reading with a second supporting tour later in the year following the current Prologue Tour part 2. The current tour fully sold out showing these boys have a bright future ahead of them.
Support for the night is Benjamin Steer, armed with all new songs for us to hear, taking the stage with just an acoustic guitar, a loop box, and his words it’s about as raw as you will get to hear. Being only his 4th gig he absolutely blows the room away. The standout song for me was the brilliant “Give Me More” a jumpy song with a very catchy chorus that gets picked up and sung along to instantly by the packed out room of people, who i am sure are pretty happy they got there early doors, to catch Benjamin.
Then it was time for Kingfishr, the trio of Edmond Keogh Guitar – /Vox, Eoghan McGrath Banjo, and Eoin Fitzgibbon Bass all from Limerick, Ireland.
Running onto the stage full of energy, screaming at the crowd to get their hands up and jump. The first song kicks in with thumping bass and deep pure Irish vocals that hit you head-on. Announcing this is their first time playing in Wales on their own tour. Edmond jokes about how they be playing some new songs tonight as if they only played the released tracks they would be finished in 20 minutes.
As they make their way through the set and get to their newest single “Shot in the Dark” the front 3 leave the stage, walk to the middle of the room to make a circle amongst the fans and perform in the middle of the room with the crowd around them lighting the room and centre circle with their phone lights and its looks amazing and you get them feels.
One of the biggest cheers of the night is for “Eyes Don’t Lie” the first song written and the staple to the band’s fan base. And as they get to the end of the set the last song “Anyway”, ends with the whole room singing back word for word.
Leaving to cheers then returning to cheers and Wales, Wales being chanted as they run back on. They go straight into a never-played live before the Encore, for new songs they seem to go down a storm
As the night came to an end I realised that this was an Irish band with a difference, they throwing the Irish playbook out of the window and doing it their way, creating a new sound/making their own mark.
Kingfishr is a must-see band. Expect a bigger tour and bigger venues in 2025.
With only a few venues for Kingfishr first tour fans here have traveled some distances to see them, speaking to a couple before the show they tell me they first saw Kingfishr when they supported George Ezra in Chepstow, then again at Camden. “We love their voice’s and their music is something else”.
Emma, Carl, Golding all the way from Wiltshire for Kingfishr.
Setlist
1/ Heart In The Water
2/ Headlands
3/ Shadow
4/ Leave
5/ Coward
6/ Shot in the dark
7/ Vancouver
8/ Eyes Don’t Lie
9/ Anyway
10/ School days
11/ flowers-fire
12/ Caroline
FOLLOW KINGFISHR
FOLLOW BENJAMIN STEER
