Kosheen @ La Scala 17.07.03
In Review
My review:
Wow its the morning after the night before, I'm sat in my hotel lobby feeling rough as ever, but just had to let everyone know how fuckin amazing last night was. It was THE best Kosheen concert i've ever been to, I say that everytime but each time they go that little futher pulling out all the stops. It was great to hear most ok kokopelli live. Sian was as ever on top form.
I knew La scala was an intimate venue but it was great to have the band on the same level literally as the the fans. perfect!
It was great to meet the rest of the fantastic four, good to see people as mad as me!
Cheers for the interaction Sian and meeting us afterwards. Will keep my autographs for ever, all though I'm dissapointed to say the Dawn and Jess have already washed their signed arms! Light weights!
Thanks for inviting us to the aftershow party too guys, good to see you mingling with your posse!
Asked Sian if they intend to release Recovery and she said she thinks they should so can't wait to see remixes for that stompin tune!
Still got the bottle of Jack Daniels that Darren gave me, although nearly lost it couple times in the night but managed to grab it back.
Kokopelli went down a storm with the crowd, I'm glad that crowd reaction is making the band more confident with the new stuff, it should do well.
Watch out for the sudden influx of photos to kosheen.net, between us we got loads. If anyone has a photo of me and sian roilling around on stage send me a copy?!!!? Please it'll be so funny to see!
Cheers Kosheen, till next time, luke
www.dotmusic.com's review:
This is a review of the la scala gig taken from the dotmusic.com as a source:
Note the reference to me at the bottom of the gig ;o) (kid indeed!)
Gig played on Thu 17th July
Venue: Scala, London
"Was my label showing?" asks a shiny, happy Sian Evans as a roadie scurries into the wings. "That's what you get if you make it to your second album - someone to pull your pants up."
The last time your reporter saw Kosheen live was at Camden's Jazz Café, back when they were on the cusp of success, being hyped senseless, heaped in expectation.
It's now two years since the 500,000 plus-selling 'Resist' appeared, and Kosheen are approaching the commercial crux point for their second LP, breaking new material in a series of UK gigs.
They've always been a self-consciously contradictory proposition - dark breaks and basslines mixed with acoustic guitar and sweet vocals, framed by traditional song structures and pastoral imagery (like the stag on their last album cover and the American Indians on the new one).
They're the band that finally gave drum and bass its chance to go pop… and were promptly disowned by the 'real' drum and bass heads. Whatever your thoughts on Kosheen's genre cocktail, you can’t help but admire their craft.
Tonight, for the capacity crowd at Scala in Kings Cross, Kosheen are in fine spirits. Sian has a shorter, funkier haircut to top her trademark flowing black dress and looks radiant, very much the seasoned frontperson, making everyone in the crowd think she's singing to them. Her voice, as usual, is breathtaking.
Markee Substance has grown his hair out a bit, softened his look to Madchester guitar rocker, and looks all the better for it. Darren Decoder is, well, exactly the same thousand yard staresman he was before, but you get the feeling Darren Decoder will look like that when he’s eighty (although he might change his surname back to Beale).
He's the Adam Clayton of the Kosheen world. A live drummer and becapped computer gentleman join the core three on stage.
In just over an hour the band power through a mix of old and new tunes, every one crisply performed and received with wild applause. On this evidence, Kosheen's new album 'Kokopelli' (out August 12th) is closer to a soundclash of Avril and Portishead than it is to fellow Bristolian Roni Size.
Heavy, half pace guitars, fat breaks and gothic lighting dominate the set, although new single 'All In My Head' is more uplifting, and gets a clamorous response. Still, the big older tunes like 'Catch', '(Slip & Slide) Suicide', 'Pride', 'Hungry', 'Empty Skies' and 'I Want It All' get the biggest cheers; and when the stabs of anthem 'Hide U' peal out the whole Scala starts to bounce, balconies and all.
The final encore is interesting - a new downbeat effort that has rings of Jesus Jones' 'Welcome Back Victoria'. And as a sweet closing touch, Sian strolls out afterwards to meet her fans - the kids who were singing along to every lyric in the set - and makes their night with photo ops, handshakes, autographs and smiles.
Who else, you may wonder, could make a tune about suicide sound so cheerful?
The Guardian's review:
Caroline Sullivan
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian
Kosheen's amiable trip-hop ticks all the Espace generation's boxes: the Bristol trio have been endorsed by Ronan Keating and nominated in the watered-down dance category at this year's Brits. One of their songs popped up on EastEnders, and all that now stands between them and admission to the big leagues of dad'n'bass is not having had a track used in a car ad. But give it time - Hide U, the inescapable single from the million-selling 2001 debut album, Resist, may yet find its haunting melody employed to sell people-carriers.
They may not be fashionable, then, but somebody's got to hoe the allotment between the dance underground and Dido, and it may as well be Davina McCall lookalike Sian Evans and a pair of black-clad guitarists called Darren Decoder and Markee Substance.
Evans, who has a way about her, hoists the band above the rank and file. In a permanent flap - imagine McCall asking Jim'll Fix It to let her front a band - she throws herself into the set with almost too much enthusiasm. She's of the "I'm mad, me" school of leadership, capering like a hen-night bride-to-be meeting the Chippendales. At least it removes the burden of responsibility from Decoder and Substance's stolid shoulders; hunkered down over their guitars, their task for the night is simply to crank up the riffs to match Evans's cavernous wail.
"Riffs" is the operative word, for it is evident that somewhere along the way Kosheen have discovered rock in a big way. Despite a backdrop of hazy percussion loops, many songs, including a smattering from new album Kokopelli, are only nominally dance. With guitars this prevalent, especially on the new single All in My Head, Kosheen are no longer beats/rock fusionists but straight rock-dogs. The last top-20 single, Hungry, is served up with big descending chords and a towering chorus ("Are you hun-GREE?") that demand to be used as a Burger King jingle. And when Evans really hits her stride, during a monumental makeover of the once-plaintive Catch, it's in a Bonnie Tyler-meets Meat Loaf style that blasts the front rows toward the balcony. She roars, "Outta my way, I'm running," and it's clear that you get out of the way or you're roadkill.
A speeded-up Hide U leaves band and audience breathless, and I have to admit, the new Kosheen isn't pretty, but it works.
Teletext's review:
Threesome Kosheen made this corner of the capital an outpost of Bristol with this striking comeback.
The band are primed to release the follow-up to hit album resist-the enticingly named "Kokopelli".
All eyes were on raven haired lead singer Sian Evans, dark clothing, subtly embellished with silver jewellery. She turned into quite a siren at the heart of a strong retutn to scene.
It was tricky to strap a label to this effort. They dipped into guitar driven indie rock with dance sensibilities, sweetly soaring ditties and thumping beats backed by a knob tiddiling DJ.
Promising material from the new album blended in well with established favourites and definite crowd pleasers. Rock-pop ditty Hungry contrasted to drum n bass throbber Suicide-whilst Hide U was given the same treatment.
Sian's distinct voice and pivotal stage presence was a constant while musical styles markedly shifted. She's not a performer who stands still, interpreting every song with a flourish and making some sultry dance moves.
Kosheen cannily rounded off their set with upcoming single All In My Head and then the moody, chilled out encore.
This performance showed how they are an evoloving act and very much a musical force to be reckoned with.
