At the end of Júníus Meyvant’s set here, he plays a cover of the Scottish folk song “Wild Mountain Thyme.” Its windswept environs see the singer and his two-piece band joined by Jökull Júlíusson, the singer in Kaleo.
The rest of the set was as oddly beguiling as the man himself. Drum machines, loops, folk music, and the idea that “I like to make you sing along to punish you.” Yet somehow it all comes together. “High Alert” and “Payload,” for example, are full of lo-fi charm.
And even if he looks like he’s ready to embark on some ocean fishing expedition, you don’t have to search long to find something interesting here.
The first thing you notice with Shane Smith and the Saints is the voice. My goodness, the boy can sing. Actually, to be accurate, that’s the second thing because it’s very obvious from “Mohicans” alone that the Saints part of this band is just as blessed with talent.
That said, “Adeline” and the brilliant “Book Of Joe” are stunning examples of the “Norther” album that brought him to my attention this year.
They make their cover of Levon Helm’s “Hurricane” their own too, largely because of Dustin Schaffer’s lead guitar, and if “Runaway Train” initially slows the pace, then it too soon bursts into life.
Quite apart from anything else, there’s a mix of styles here that is incredibly interesting. Fiddle player Bennett Brown wields it like a guitar gunslinger, and when you couple it with the rawness of the lyrics on songs like “Cocaine Habit,” it makes for thrilling stuff.
Rather like The White Buffalo (with whom there are similarities elsewhere too), Smith has had a song on a hit TV show, and “Fire In The Sky” graces not just Yellowstone but here too, and by the time the epic-sounding “Heaven Knows” has finished things here, there’s nothing to stop Shane Smith and the Saints from playing these types of gigs with their name topping the bill in the future.
As I often say, I like to cut through clichés when I write reviews. After all, someone always knows more than you, even about your favourite bands. So…
MV wasn’t on any guest lists tonight, and we’d bought our tickets just because Shane Smith was on the bill. As a result, I’m not going to claim I’ve been a Kaleo fan for a decade.
Indeed, before I bought the ticket, I had listened to precisely one song. The current single, “USA Today,” was enough to convince me that the Icelanders were the type of band I should have known about.
They play that song first up here, and its blues roots take off into other areas rather than set the tone for what follows in the other 75 minutes or so.
Rival Sons had played in the changeover, and Jay Buchanan’s boys would be proud of “Break Me Baby,” but when it comes to Kaleo, it’s all about the surprises. Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson rips a harmonica solo in “I Can’t Go On Without You” before he gets out his mandolin on the laid-back “Automobile.”
By turns, they are reminiscent of a funky Stones, like “Hey Gringo,” while “Hot Blood” is a real arena rocker.That seems to usher in a kind of second act, with “Lonely Cowboy” as wide as the desert sky and a song “Vor í Vaglaskógi” in their native tongue—for which JJ sports an Icelandic flag on his guitar.
And JJ, it must be said, is magnificent. A mighty singer, he also has the charisma to hold an audience without needing to resort to the usual frontman tactics.
Instead, the songs speak for themselves, like the huge-sounding “Skinny” or the raucous set closer “No Good” absolutely does.
Only one song in the encore too, but “Rock N Roller” is worthy of ending the show.
In the first verse of that, the words go: “You wanna beat ’em all.
Do you have what it takes, son?
What it takes, son?”
Look, this band from a little place by Reykjavík had played Wembley Arena a couple of nights before this, and there’s barely a seat to be had here.
No hype. Just great music. “Beat them all?” Kaleo has already won.
