Thursday night at The 1865 in Southampton, saw King King in town. They are currently on their UK tour as well as being part of Planet Rock’s Rocktober set-up. Tonight was a headline show, and a chance to give their many fans a wonderful and full set.
The evening started with the support band for this tour, The Damn Truth, whose job it was to warm up the crowd ready for the main event. Although the majority of fans were in the building to watch the mighty King King, there was visible support for the Canadian quartet in the crowd with The Damn Truth tees on show. One reason for this is probably the fact that the same band had supported King King at the start of this year, so some of their fans were already familiar with them.
As mentioned before, The Damn Truth has come all the way over from Canada to give us their wonderful and psychedelic-infused rock n roll. They are a band that whenever they step onto the stage, always give 100% and with their individual energy on a show for all to see, and Lee Baum’s amazing vocals, they really do make everyone in the room stand up and take notice.
Their performances are full of energy with plenty of bands and audience interaction, and their songs are just incredibly addictive. They only have a 30-minute set unfortunately tonight, but that was more than enough to show everyone what they are all about, and just how good a band they are.
Their latest album ‘Now Or Nowhere’, is given a good outing tonight with all songs coming from this 2021 release. We start with the pumping ‘This Is Who We Are Now’ which is the album opener, and one of the tracks that were featured on Planet Rock radio last year, along with a few more from tonight’s set. The pace stays high with the smoking ‘Full On You’ next, before the band take it down a notch with the slower and sultry bluesy number ‘Lonely’. The wonderful and uplifting ‘Only Love’ is up next followed by the current release ‘Look Innocent’. They end an all too short set with one of my personal favourites ‘Tomorrow’, which is just so good and will have anybody up off of their seat.
These guys deserve to be headlining every show they play, they are that good. Their energy and passion is wonderful, and I would encourage anyone who hasn’t seen them to rectify that as soon as possible. The crowd have been well and truly warmed up by The Damn Truth.
Setlist:- ‘This Is Who We Are Now’, ‘Full On You’, ‘Lonely’, ‘Only Love’, ‘Look Innocent’, and ‘Tomorrow’.
Just after 9 pm and the sound of ACDC fills the room and the crowd is waiting with anticipation for the imminent arrival of our headliners tonight, King King.
They all come onto the stage with the lights dimmed before you can see frontman Alan visible through the red glow, clapping along to the walk-on music.
They kick off the evening with the rockin’ ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’, from 2017’s ‘Exile & Grace’ album, before we are treated to a couple in a row from the ‘Maverick’ album. We start with the driving ‘Fire In My Soul’, followed by ‘One World’, before a more mid-tempo break for ‘Waking Up’ from ‘Reaching For The Light’ album. Another from the same album next with the anthemic ‘Rush Hour’. A couple of ballads next from 2013’s ‘Standing In The Shadows’ album. The last few are a mixture from ‘Maverick’ and ‘Reaching For The Light’ before the encore with a great cover of ‘Old Love’ by Eric Clapton.
This band has been around for well over a decade now and have built up a solid fanbase with their brand of blues rock, and tonight was another excellent array from their substantially filled back catalogue. There seems to be a settled group of musicians now that all complement each other very well and allow Alan to just do his thing out front. A wonderful headline performance from a very good band.
Set list:- ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’, ‘Fire In My Soul’, One World’, ‘Waking Up’, ‘Rush Hour’, ‘Coming Home’ (Rest Your Eyes), ‘A Long History Of Love’, ‘Whatever It Takes To Survive’, ‘You Stopped The Rain’, ‘I Will Not Fall’, ‘Stranger In Love’, and ‘Old Love’.
Review & Photography: Will Carter // Two Finger Media
