KING'S X — Live Love In London (review)

KING'S X — Live Love In London album cover

Live album · 2010 · Hard Rock

3.5/5 · 2010-12-07
AtomicCrimsonRush

"Good evening London, this is my favourite place to play." So begins this lengthy concert experience of Kings X. On 22 January 2009 their concert at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London was filmed. The trio are Doug Pinnick on bass, vocals; Ty Tabor on guitar, vocals; and Jerry Gaskill on drums, vocals. The sound is ACDC meets Pearl Jam with a funky gospel vibe.

Kings X Live in London is the first full album I have heard from Kings X. It is a 2 CD live experience capturing some of their most popular material and some very good guitar solos that are always best heard live.

Disc 1 begins with the funkadelic Groove Machine and it took me a while to adjust my ears to the gospel style vocals. By the time Alright begins I have grown accustomed to Doug's vocals. Pleiades has a great sound with riffing guitars, and the different less gruff vocals are nice from Ty.

Move is a highlight with a great melody and I am getting used to that funky sound the band generate. Another highlight is What Is This? It has a deep distorted riff and lyrics that state; "oh lord it gets so complicated, oh lord I don't know what to do", then as I begin to think it's a Christian band Doug curses in anger dropping the F Bomb? searching for what? I thought these guys were Christian, certainly in the beginning they were with Greg X Volz, Petra singer, being involved, but obviously they have moved on unfortunately.

Pray is a grungy dirty guitar like ACDC's style and it has a low distorted 'St Anger' style rawness with a very cool bassline. Dogman has a grooving funky riff, and then Go Tell

Somebody follows, one of my favourites featuring a great riff, and an awesome lead break too, that has been a rarity on previous tracks so far.

This is followed by Julie, a quiet pop ballad with a pleasant tune. So at the end of the first CD, I found myself thinking they are OK with some shining moments but this is going to be a 2 star CD at the most, not very proggish and mainstream the way I don't like my prog.

Then Disc 2 changed my mind. It begins with Looking For Love featuring great drums from Jerry, competing with a crunching riff, and a dirty brilliant lead solo. Summerland follows, a popular one with fans, with another killer lead break from Ty, as if he were saving up all these breaks for the last half of the show. The crowd sing the next verse and it's fabulous to hear their enthusiasm.

Over My Head clocks 12:50 and features a lengthy lead solo and its brilliant! Just with the cymbals and some drums, keeping time we are treated to some awesome speed picking and sweeps, and arpeggios and tapping, just phenomenal. He hits the high notes and screams that axe to the depths of his soul. Then some nice softer guitar melodies follow. Doug tells the crowd "Welcome to the first church of rock n roll we're the pastors?. We bring you music to fill your soul ? music to lift you up, music to make you think, music. I don't know what I would do without music, it got me through a lot of hard times, all purpose music, it's all good, if you make music don't let anybody stop you , or deter your direction, if it's from your heart, I decided I'm gonna make fine music" and after this preaching the crowd sing the chorus like a choir. It's a real moment in a live concert you wouldn't forget if you were there.

It's Love is next, a calming melody and different vocalist breaks things up a bit after the previous showstopper. More lead on this too.

We Were Born To Be Loved is a highlight. Kings X get straight into this without a break and it rocks. Noisy guitars and some harmonies drive it along. There is a proggy mid section, choppy tight guitar drum riff and fractured rhythm.

Goldilox is very popular, in fact the crowd sings all of this song by themselves and its quite moving to hear them sing the sweet melody. Can't hear many women though, if this were surprising. This is a really nice moment I believe in the performance to hear the crowd singing in adoration. The minimalism of a lone guitar and an adoring crowd. Then there is a beautiful lead break with only a drum beating in time. The crowd just keep singing along the whole song, having a good time which is what it's all about.

Visions is next. A feedback intro draws us into this track, and at 7:50 it is one of the longer songs. Ty's killer riffs breaks up the verses, bluesy and grooving hooks, it picks up speed with prog style time sig changes, a great beat, riffing excellence, and the lead is awesome , with shredding fret melting brilliance.

Moanjam is next. After an encore the guitars return, teasing the crowd as such for a while, then there is "1,2,3,4" and then drums kick in and it just rocks along with a jamming feel and a massive beat, and this thing pumps along for 7:30 mins or so. There is some great gospel like singing too. One of the heaviest numbers on the Cd, there are some speed drumming riffing on this, and really dirty guitar sounds, vocals mimicking lead guitar, repetition of riffs, lead solo finesse, hammering excellence, skilful speed fingering and jamming, and the air raid siren effect is great. I love Ty's guitar soloing improvisation, not over bearing but passionate and emotive.

At the end they just smash their instruments with a ferocity you can feel, creating an intense concert vibe. By the end of it I know I have been treated to a passionate full blown concert experience. The crowd go wild. They are thanked and loved, "for making this such a great night". And she's over. 4 stars for this second CD, 3 stars for the first. Let's round her off at 3 ½.