Three men. Three instruments. Seven albums worth of songs, with a unique, gripping sound. If you could break this show down into its component elements, you would come up with only a handful. But assembled together, the synergy is too huge to grasp.
Though the Galactic Cowboys put on a captivating opening performance, there is a reason they're only opening for Kings X, and it's not due to any lack of talent on their part. The last time I saw these two bands together, the Cowboys stole the show, but that must have been a very rare night. I can scarcely imagine having such an opinion after this concert.
For those unfamiliar with Kings X, they are a hard-rocking power trio with progressive tendencies, though less so in their newer material. Their three-part harmonies bring delight to all who listen, and lead singer and bassist Doug Pinnick's soulful, sometimes gospelly, voice fills each song to the brim with passion.
This show featured music from all of their albums, including, Tapehead, the one released one week after the concert. The new material doesn't sound like a particular departure in style, at least as performed live. Excepting the new songs, the first two albums were better represented than any of the others. Conspicuously absent were any songs featuring lead vocals by guitarist Ty Tabor.
Whenever they performed older songs, the concert took on a sing-along atmosphere, as well-seasoned fans joined their voices together in appreciation and fellowship. This reached its pinnacle during the main set's closing song, "Over My Head". This number has developed a certain tradition, where the audience continues the rhythm clapping and repeats the chorus sans band for a while, letting the momentum build until Pinnick comes back with a mostly ad-libbed vocal exposition featuring a sermonette of sorts. This night's topics wandered from the Grandma of whom the song speaks, to a general love of music, to the theme of love as a whole. The climactic line, and a theme which Pinnick repeated at the end of the night, was "If you don't love yourself, you can't love nobody else."
Other notable points included a delicious guitar solo from Tabor in "A Box", and a scat solo by Pinnick in "Sometimes". They also reached deep into the vaults and blew the dust off of "Far, Far Away". Due to the complexity, such earlier songs best showcase the band's incredible musicianship, though the new song "Fade", with its intricately woven vocals, certainly proves they haven't lost a step in their writing ability.
King's X closed the night with their final encore number, "We Were Born to be Loved", the sole entry from the third album, Faith Hope Love. The recorded version features an closing sequence that keeps feigning an end, only to start up again. On the album, it can get annoying, but the fake-out endings are actually quite fun live, and pulled off with impeccable precision.
Impeccable. Yeah, that's the best word I can summon to summarize this performance.
Titi Ala'ilima (11/3/98)
There is a theory that any band which plays with exceptional immediacy, skill, and crowd-pleasing energy can become the best band on the planet for at least that given night. On October 13 at the Axis club in Boston, Massachusetts, King's X was that band. If you catch them on another night in a different club in some other city and come to the same conclusion, maybe they are "that band" more often than they are not.
King's X played a powerful set that drew primarily from their 1997 Best of King's X collection. Omitting the three new out-takes, of the fourteen remaining songs on that disc, they played about half of them. They also concentrated a surprising amount of stage time to their earliest hits from their 1988 Out of the Silent Planet album including "King," "Goldilox," and the not-oft played "Far, Far Away." These three songs were among the best sounding of the evening, showcasing their considerable skills as musicians and garnering a great deal of fist raising fan enthusiasm.
Regrettably, their brilliantly fun 1996 album Ear Candy was neglected except for two highlights, "A Box" and "Sometimes." The latter proved to be one of the evening's funkiest moments, and "A Box" packed more punch live than the album version, giving Ty Tabor an opportunity to throw in an impressive moody guitar solo.
Even though the 1992 self-titled album is not often chosen as a fan favorite, two highlights, "Black Flag" and "Lost in Germany," proved to be favorites with the audience. More aficionados cite 1989's Gretchen Goes to Nebraska as their preference, and King's X offered three songs from it, including their show-stopping "Over My Head." The crowd was to delighted to clap and sing along in what was easily the show's biggest highlight, although Doug Pinnick's well articulated yet preachy bit (about loving oneself as the basis of loving others) seemed shortsighted compared to the other songs' more forthright messages. Far better was Tabor's soaring guitar work on the solo.
If the three songs from the new album Tapehead King's X treated the audience to are any indication of the album's merits, it should be an extremely solid release. "Fade," "Groove Machine," and "Ono" all had the signature hard rocking King's X progressive punch via pop sensibilities that fans have come to expect, without sounding like the band is resting on their laurels.
Ending on a high note, King's X closed with "We Were Born to Be Loved" culled as the only offering from 1990's Faith Hope Love . Not many bands are tight enough to start, stop and restart in the precise way this song requires. It was a superb bit of showing off as well as a powerful message about our nature and need for love. The evening's only complaint was the show length. Though blown away, the audience left the too-short show wanting more.
Show openers Galactic Cowboys are worthy of special recognition.
King's X Set List (Approx. 100 minutes):
The Best
of King's X review
Ty Tabor: Moonflower
Lane review:
Tapehead review
