Kaleo – Concert Review
Last night, Icelandic rock group Kaleo made their sequel appearance to a sold-out Turner Hall in a glorious way. Kaleo shatters everything you think you know about Icelandic music by ditching all the weird shit that made Bjork famous and in exchange giving us good old American style rock/blues. It’s clear who this band draws their influences from by creating their own sound reminiscent of The Black Keys, The Rolling Stones and just a dash of The Darkness. The front man of Kaleo, JJ Julius Son, provides these amazing vocals that filled Turner with sounds of heartbreak and redemption all at the same time in an almost gritty way. As the band carried on with their set it was clear that Kaleo and the audience were building a bond of motion as each song they played seemed to build more and more excitement for what to come next. Halfway through their set, they played their most famous song “Way Down We Go” and even though it is a slower song there was no sign that people wanted a break anytime soon as the haunting vocals sent shivers through the crowd. Following up, was a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang”, which I can still hear that guitar riff in my head as I’m typing this. Next, Kaleo followed up with “All The Pretty Girls” in which JJ Julius shows his level of vocal talent by switching from grungy vocals to a much softer, almost Bon Iver-esque sound. Seriously, go listen to that song and tell me you don’t hear “Skinny Love”. After three fairly slower, but equally substantial blues songs, the show cranked it up to 11. As soon as their hit song “No Good”, made famous by the HBO show Vinyl, came on it was clear that everyone decided to let out the devil inside of them as the roaring crowd and the band became something completely different. With their momentum now in full tilt, Kaleo had not only me but everyone else around banging their head and thrashing about like we were all 16 years old again. For the rest of the show, the crowd and band alike were jumping, clapping and screaming for more. I feel like it takes a large amount of energy to really get into a show on a Wednesday night, but Kaleo delivered more than just a show, but a true rock and roll experience.
