In the follow up to the Desert Storm post from yesterday, this one is about the gig headliners, Karma To Burn (K2B). The three-piece band, originating from West Virginia, USA, delivers heavy, stoner rock/metal with southern rock accents.
Kind of like the hard rock world’s spin on classical music, K2B’s set was entirely instrumental, no vocals/singing at all.
I was already familiar with the band’s music (I listened to “Almost Heathen” in the car on the way to The Craufurd), but I didn’t expect the gig to be quite the way it was.
Having never been to a K2B show before, I was anticipating darkness, lots of red/blue light and dry ice to give the experience a real intensity, a bit like I experienced when seeing Samsara Blues Experiment (when the lack of other sensory type input gave the music a greater power/resonance).
But, my expectations were completely wrong. In fact, the fellas turned up and played without a light show, dry ice, branded back drops or any other glitz/glamour.
William Mecum, guitarist, was the most unassuming, restrained, unanimated frontman that I have ever seen in charge of a band. He had a microphone, but he kept away from it, almost like he thought it was going to bite him.
Mecum had a good act of coming up to the microphone, looking like he wanted to say something, observing the audience hanging on in anticipation and then, with a wry smile, moving away having said nothing. Comedic, well timed/executed and well appreciated by his audience. When he did step up and say something, he was pretty much monosyllabic and/or indecipherable.
At one point of vocal clarity, he joked about playing a love song – how the heck can you do that with no lyrics thought I. The tune played after this announcement was in no way different in style to the rest of the set. My kind of love song then – hard, no nonsense, uncompromising rock.
Love songs clearly don’t involve any sloppy stuff in K2B’s world.
Whilst Mecum was right of stage, Eric von Cutter, on bass, was to the left and Evan Devine in the middle on drums. Both were as unassuming as Mecum. Devine looked like Jesus if you ask me.
After the gig I had a conversation with Eric and later with Will and both were as laid back off stage and they were on, no show off/showbiz distance or petulance about them at all. I paraphrase but when mentioning the lack of “show” the response “We just want to play man, if the rifts don’t do it for you then tough, that’s all you’re getting!”. And I couldn’t argue with that.
The set list for the gig was as follows:
For the band, the music (and the joy of playing it) is everything. In fact, so much so that there’s no other “performance” at all. And rather than be boring or disappointing, it was a slightly odd but surprisingly refreshing experience.
The only shame was that the gig wasn’t the sell out that I expected it to be. I bought my ticket on the same day the venue announced it; on the night of Tuesday 26th June, I could have bought one (as could many others) on the door. Maybe it was just too hot and a “school night” because K2B and Desert Storm are class acts that deserve packed gigs. Still on the bright side, it was an intimate event that allowed those present to be close to and engage with the bands during and after the show.
I’ll be frank, I really liked this band and I’d like to see it again. Not sure when I’ll get the chance again though. I’ll have to defer to the Craufurd on this matter.
My thanks to K2B for a great gig and to The Craufurd Arms for booking the band. It pleases me no end that this little venue in down town Wolverton can draw in well-known, interesting and decent bands from around the world.
And on that subject, my next visits to the venue are on the 24th and 25th of August. I’ll be seeing Anvil (the long established, influential Canadian metal band) and then Electric Six (from the USA).
Maybe I’ll see you there.
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Kind of like the hard rock world’s spin on classical music, K2B’s set was entirely instrumental, no vocals/singing at all.
I was already familiar with the band’s music (I listened to “Almost Heathen” in the car on the way to The Craufurd), but I didn’t expect the gig to be quite the way it was.
Having never been to a K2B show before, I was anticipating darkness, lots of red/blue light and dry ice to give the experience a real intensity, a bit like I experienced when seeing Samsara Blues Experiment (when the lack of other sensory type input gave the music a greater power/resonance).
But, my expectations were completely wrong. In fact, the fellas turned up and played without a light show, dry ice, branded back drops or any other glitz/glamour.
William Mecum, guitarist, was the most unassuming, restrained, unanimated frontman that I have ever seen in charge of a band. He had a microphone, but he kept away from it, almost like he thought it was going to bite him.
Mecum had a good act of coming up to the microphone, looking like he wanted to say something, observing the audience hanging on in anticipation and then, with a wry smile, moving away having said nothing. Comedic, well timed/executed and well appreciated by his audience. When he did step up and say something, he was pretty much monosyllabic and/or indecipherable.
At one point of vocal clarity, he joked about playing a love song – how the heck can you do that with no lyrics thought I. The tune played after this announcement was in no way different in style to the rest of the set. My kind of love song then – hard, no nonsense, uncompromising rock.
Love songs clearly don’t involve any sloppy stuff in K2B’s world.
Whilst Mecum was right of stage, Eric von Cutter, on bass, was to the left and Evan Devine in the middle on drums. Both were as unassuming as Mecum. Devine looked like Jesus if you ask me.
After the gig I had a conversation with Eric and later with Will and both were as laid back off stage and they were on, no show off/showbiz distance or petulance about them at all. I paraphrase but when mentioning the lack of “show” the response “We just want to play man, if the rifts don’t do it for you then tough, that’s all you’re getting!”. And I couldn’t argue with that.
The set list for the gig was as follows:
- 39
- 14
- 1
- 61
- 34
- 5
- 19
- 32
- 62
- 9
- 57
- 20
For the band, the music (and the joy of playing it) is everything. In fact, so much so that there’s no other “performance” at all. And rather than be boring or disappointing, it was a slightly odd but surprisingly refreshing experience.
The only shame was that the gig wasn’t the sell out that I expected it to be. I bought my ticket on the same day the venue announced it; on the night of Tuesday 26th June, I could have bought one (as could many others) on the door. Maybe it was just too hot and a “school night” because K2B and Desert Storm are class acts that deserve packed gigs. Still on the bright side, it was an intimate event that allowed those present to be close to and engage with the bands during and after the show.
I’ll be frank, I really liked this band and I’d like to see it again. Not sure when I’ll get the chance again though. I’ll have to defer to the Craufurd on this matter.
My thanks to K2B for a great gig and to The Craufurd Arms for booking the band. It pleases me no end that this little venue in down town Wolverton can draw in well-known, interesting and decent bands from around the world.
And on that subject, my next visits to the venue are on the 24th and 25th of August. I’ll be seeing Anvil (the long established, influential Canadian metal band) and then Electric Six (from the USA).
Maybe I’ll see you there.
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