Show Preview: Kongos @ the Showbox, Sun. 5/14
~Dagmar
Kongos
Sunday, May 14th is Mother’s Day. If you’re lucky and have your mother around, be nice to her, get her something nice. Maybe call her or take her out. And then you can see Kongos at the Showbox. You have my permission and encouragement to do so. Hey, you could even take mom to see the South African rock band (comprised of four brothers!), whom you are all probably familiar with via their huge 2012 hit, “Come with Me Now.”
Capturing, in tunes such as Lunatics‘ “I’m Only Joking,” a rather stomping rock sound, and creating unique accordion rock in “Take Me Back,” sometimes they remind me of Travis. I don’t know if they hate Travis; I sure hope they don’t, because I mean this as a good comparison. Kongos are partly based in a South African music genre called kwaito. What’s kwaito? You can research it on Wikipedia, but boiled down it’s African samples used in house music (originally, anyway. The sound, as everything, changes and mixes with others).
For their latest album, 2016’s Egomaniac, they boldly put a giant gorilla on its cover, which makes me think they are not messing around. There’s nothing really tougher than a gorilla, is there? Or so at risk. The photo is by Jean-Christophe Verhaegen, and I find it really moving. The album itself has very cool tracks on it; my favorites are “Autocorrect” and “Repeat After Me,” with this chant: If I could breathe, I’d be free/And I’d get high, I’d turn water to wine/If I could be, I’d breathe free at last/And I’d get high, I’d get so high/I’d get so high if I could breathe. More cool facts: They’ve toured with bands such as Imagine Dragons and Kings of Leon, which are very good fits, and their dad, John Kongos is also a talented musician (believe me – have a listen to “Tokoloshe Man.”)
Head here for tickets and showtimes etc.
