portable toilets not all to blame though, police presence is less with the olympics aswell!

I saw the KC back in the day and they were a fun band that seemed genuine and brought some cool tunes to the table. I caught a show the other day and it felt a bit different this time around.

They’ve got some good songs and can do the reggae meets rock and punk thing and they can merge genres. But so much of what they were playing was rock and roll 101. Sure it was catchy and there was the odd reggae style tune here and there or a song that was a little bit new but for the most part it was safe rock and was as you said “Springsteen and The Clash” but seem to miss the soul of these acts. I like the clash cause they did different things but from I’ve heard from KC they don’t seem too keen to try new things.

The other thing that struck me about their shows is that there seems to be style over substance. I like a well presented act but they seem caught up in dressing up and looking the part and having rock and roll dance moves and rehearsed banter. I like when a band can talk with the crowd and share a joke ect but I feels like their singer has written down what he’s gonna say during the show and is caught up in ‘i want to be Joe Strummer’ thing and the other guys in the band seem more like players then a band and don’t interact. The band plays hard and gives a lot of effort and sound really good but it feels like a show you’d go to if you want a loud rock gig with no surprises that’s pretty safe.

As for the EP, Gasoline and Time to yourself are good tunes and are a bit different. Although TTYS almost sounds like they’re to sound Jamaican. Teenage Dreams is the kind of ska/rock fun beer drinking song that has themes you’ve heard before. Smoked out city is a more darker rock song. And Take the Rock is the quiet verse and the big chorus kind of song which tries to go for the political angle but just feels like a watered down Midnight Oil lyrics. Sure they’re talking about topics but it’s all very safe and condensing things down things like climate change, mining into a pop song format with repetitive lyrics. These 3 songs are good in their own right but next to each other you see a formula of big catchy choruses and easily digestible format.

The other shame is most these songs are off older releases. So you’re rebuying this material again.

As for them being on label, its pretty good for the band. Hopefully the band will do something good with this and write some really good original material and become a real live band. If they just want to write big popular songs and videos, look the part and do what so many other rock bands have done and follow a formula to get people to like them to get some short term success then that will be a shame.