WORDS AND IMAGES WARREN MILLAR
Earlstown finest The K’s brought their spectacular brand of indie rock to The O2 Academy, Liverpool, Sunday night and All Music UK’s Warren Millar was in attendance to check out the utter party mayhem that is a K’s gig.
It’s hard to believe that these Earslstown lads are not signed to a big major label. They have a massive following, they have sold out the O2 Ritz Manchester amongst other quite large venues and even had the Tent at Kendal Calling closed to any more festival goers due to it being rammed inside. Formed in 2017 their rise to be the one band everybody seems to want to see at the moment has been rapid, to say the least.
As we board the Train to get to tonight’s venue it’s plain to see a few fans also letting the train take the strain complete with various styles of Bucket Hats and if you know this writer you will know I’m quite a fan of the good old bucket hat, having a vast collection myself. Once we get inside you can feel the excitement even though it’s well over an hour before the K’s are due to take to the stage. One can sense that tonight is going to be good. We managed to get in just minutes after the doors had opened but once inside the barrier was full which is always a good sign.
First, up on the O2 stage, we have “Dirty Blonde” based in Manchester this band performed a solid indie-style set full of well-crafted songs and we can see why they got their support set for this tour. They were a great appetiser for what was about to come. Expect to see a lot more of “Dirty Blonde” in the future a great little set.
Next on stage, we were treated to an excellent set from “Seb Lowe” This Tik-Tok sensation is making waves on the music scene at the moment, and we can understand why. His band come on stage one by one, first, the drummer starts by laying down a beat, The bass player adds the baseline followed by the guitarist adds more depth to the music then a fiddle player adds a little country/folk into the mix followed by Seb himself and it’s into the first song. A sort of Poetry/spoken word brilliantly set to some great melodies Seb uses his words as weapons with a truthful political edge that truly belies his young age. We loved his cover of “Rolling in the Deep” it also seemed he had quite a large number of fans in the crowd who seemed to know the words to all of his songs. We would jump at the chance to see this young talented musician again at the drop of a hat.
So, to the headliners and boy was the crowd ready you could taste the excitement (and it tasted jolly good) as the houselights dimmed and over the PA blasted Talking heads “Once in A Lifetime”. On came the guys and the party started full belt bouncing, arms aloft, people on shoulders and noise ringing throughout the whole venue and not even one note had been played. Lead man Jamie Boyle was also bouncing around on stage and adding to the fever of the moment as were the other band members Ryan Breslin, Dexter Baker and Nathan Peers. It was a riotous reception and the guys on stage revelled in every moment of it adding to the party.
The first tune up was “Picture” played perfectly and Jamie’s voice was spot on. The band moved around the stage like crazy and the crowd loved it bouncing off the vibe being set on stage. Next tune up and always fans favourite we were treated to “Got A Feeling” full of epic indie style guitar riffs and by this time those who had the chance to get on someone’s shoulders were up and at its big style, arms waving and singing at the top of their voices. It was a great sight to see and behold. The roof was already blown off by this time but after a couple of more tunes The intro to “Glass Towns” started and well not only had the roof been blown off but it was blown into a thousand little bits as well. K’s fans just know how to have a great time age from early teens through to (well let’s just say older) all partying, all joining in and all loving the band in front of them.
The K’s put on one hell of a show tonight, but then again, they always do and what’s lovely to see is the contribution the K’s fans make to their gigs. Please if you have never been to a K’s gig it’s one hell of a party and you have to at least give it a go. You will love it!
Set List
1/ Picture
2/ Got A Feeling
3/ Relying On You
4/ TV
5/ Chancer
6/ Glass Town
7/ Hoping Maybe
8/ Hometown
9/ Aurora
Encore
10/ Valley One
11/ Sarajevo
12/ Dacton
FOLLOW THE K’S
FOLLOW SEB LOWE
FOLLOW DIRTY BLONDE
Warren is a live music and festival photographer based in Cheshire and covers gigs/festivals mostly in the North West of England. He has been photographing live music for over 10 years and has covered major artists and festivals
