A little under a year ago, embarking from the quaint city of Chester to the contrastingly eccentric Manchester, I went to see Michael Kiwanuka at the Apollo. It was not only a fantastic gig, but it was the first time I got to write for Silent Radio, the very publication which you find yourself reading now.
In many ways, I felt a strong sense of deja vu when travelling yet again, from Chester to Manchester, to go see another artist perform there. It wasn’t an exact replica however, the venue was the Ritz on Whitworth Street, and the band were an exciting upcomer. That band was London-based rockers Keo.
Keo have only been around the UK music sphere for a few years now, and if you only paid attention to Streaming services, you may only think they’ve been around for just a singular year, given they’ve only released one EP thus far. Their gigs primarily comprised of unreleased material.
That scarcity of their available music however, I believe added to the experience. For context, this gig was essentially a first listen of Keo for me, having only heard one song of theirs prior, which I will come on to later. Otherwise, I practically went into the Ritz as blind as a bat.
Before the lights had even dimmed to pitch black, recurring chants of “KEO, KEO, KEO” echoed through the Ritz. And from just the first couple of tracks, I knew I was in the right place. ‘Hands’ kicked the gig off, and it may as well have kicked the door down, from Finn Keogh’s wailing and aching vocals, and brother Conor’s driving bass, Oli Spackman’s brazen drums and Jimmy Lanwern’s hazy guitar riffs and solos. Few first impressions have been as strong as what blasted through my mind and soul with Hands.
Keo can be described in many ways and via many influences. Keo’s sound is a pastiche of the 90s, the murky grunge, evidenced by the emotive and pained performance of Finn on the microphone, the swirling fuzzy shoegaze, found in the loopy riffs that feel like a shockwave through the heart. Think the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden as the main influences. A truly enticing set of bands to draw your style on.
Those influences are worn on the sleeves of Keo’s songs and performance. Finn, in-between the howling performances, jumps up to play his guitar in front of Oli, or to the barrier right next to the crowd. Jimmy spends the gig mostly covered up, a hooded figure as he plays away with confidence. That energy and thrill is matched by tunes such as ‘Be Happy’ and the popular ‘Thorns’ one of a few released materials by the band.
But as the performance drove on, the songs noticeably started shifting down a couple of gears. The haze was still there, but the intensity was reserved, saved for the moments when it was most needed, best seen in the slow build-up of ‘Superman’ and ‘Fly’.
After the latter, in a first from my personal experience, Keo gave the audience the choice to choose between 2 songs for the penultimate track. The crowd emphatically chose ‘Stolen Cars’, another released song, and the track that left me most blown away. If the crowd hadn’t already been buoyantly singing along, this was the highpoint. A song carried by the moving performance of Finn, conveying to me, both the sad and the loud sides of being remorseful. The main setlist then closed with ‘Black Dress’ which I got major Pearl Jam vibes from.
The band came out to perform of all things, a cover, of ‘The End’ by The Doors, a heavily shortened version compared to the near 12-minute behemoth of the original. And unlike the slower, contemplative original, Keo’s cover is unabashed in switching from the slow, dimmed verses to the abrasive chorus.
The Keo show closes out with two fan favourites. Remember that vote earlier between two songs? The other song in that choice was ‘Kind, If You Will’, which is almost split into two halves, a first half that starts off slow and paced, before crashing in like an avalanche in its second half, each guitar pick growing loopier and more fuzzed. To exit stage, ‘Amber, I Lied’, the one song I knew from Keo, is the band at their rawest, a song that filters through many different emotions, of darkness, of melancholy, of desperation.
The general feeling after Keo’s gig was surprise. From the performance, the on-board crowd, the dynamic tracks, it was a very pleasant surprise. Keep your eyes peeled out for Keo, I suspect they’ll soon explode into the public eye more than they already have.
