Live Review: Kids In Glass Houses - O2 Kentish Town Forum, London 18/10/2023
Kids In Glass Houses corrected some old mistakes with a cathartic show honouring ‘Smart Casual’ at Kentish Town Forum on Wednesday night.
The band were here before in 2011 on the ‘In Gold Blood’ tour, rambling vocalist Aled Phillips revealed. He called it “a bad day at the office”, and said it was time to “exorcise some demons”.
It’s an all-South Wales occasion, with headliner and support from our friends to the west. There are nightmares outside – it’s tipping it down, the local Tube station has no Northern Line, and well, the news. Inside, The Nightmares filled the room with a loud post-punk noise akin to Interpol or Angels & Airwaves. Singer Adam Parslow said opening here was the “biggest show we’ve ever played”, before blasting into their latest single ‘Cruelly Yours’. The size of the task didn’t seem to intimidate the five-piece, who blasted their angular anthems with fervour, mostly taken from the ‘Séance’ album, released in April. They played with Funeral For A Friend last week, and tour with Creeper next month, and The Nightmares felt like a band who know how to cut through to a crowd that doesn’t know them. My highlight was ‘Cursed’, which brought together Adam’s vocals with those of keyboardist Eleanor Coburn to make something more like a good dream than a bad one. It’s not just “heartbreak at full throttle”, The Nightmares are at it too.
The music between acts included Thin Lizzy. ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, in KIGH’s case, for the first time in nine years, and back to make up for the wrongs of 12 years ago. Just after 9pm, the band walked out to Peaches & Herb’s ‘Reunited’, with Aled out last, his arm aloft, ready for ‘Fisticuffs’.
It’s been 15 years since their debut album, ‘Smart Casual’ rising from a cubicle in an industrial estate to become a Silver-selling record, maybe even more than that with a newly remastered version out too. They didn’t expect to be playing it a decade and a half later, but it’s clear the fans needed it.
The opening track, and its refrain of “Don’t tell me I don’t know what it’s like to be alone”, is the first of several singalong moments, before racing into a clap-along accompanying ‘Easy Tiger’.
‘Give Me What I Want’ was treated with the enthusiasm of a closing track, not the third song. Aled split the audience in half to sing it back - and when everyone came together to join in unison, it filled the room with an aural equivalent of technicolour.
“Wow. Good evening, London. It’s been a minute. We’re back, baby.” Aled sang the opening line of ‘Saturday’, before standing back with his bandmates, soaking it all in, as the crowd took over. One merch item was adorned with the lyric “I love my demons cause they keep me company”, sung proudly by band and audience alike.
“Kentish Town, how’s your spelling?” the singer called out during ‘Good Boys Gone Rad’. At first, it was just ‘D-E-A-D!’, but it then turned into ‘A-L-E-D!’ Maybe egotistical for other acts, but for KIGH, it felt sensible. He barely stopped moving throughout, going from side to side, engaging with fans on the barrier, wielding the mic stand as a weapon, and acting with bold mannerisms. You can barely take your eyes off him. The rest of the band – Joel, Iain, Shay and Philip – are a sturdy, professional base, which Aled shines on top of.
‘Pillow Talk’ had a beautiful ‘Purple Rain’ outro, with the lights in Prince’s famous hue, before switching to red for ‘Raise Hell’, and then ending ‘Church Tongue’ with a trail of of ‘nah nah nahs’.
A brief encore break is ended with a different set of similarly catchy ‘woah woahs’ in front of yellow lighting for ‘Sunshine’. KIGH will inevitably do a similar show for ‘Dirt’ in a couple of years, with five of their encore songs from the 2010 album. ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ and ‘Lilli Rose’ were lapped up by gleeful fans who missed them first time around, or haven’t heard them live in years. The band seemed grateful they could still cut it after so long away. Aled said it was their favourite ever show – a possible overstatement, but the genuine happiness was obvious.
‘Peace’ was surprisingly one of the biggest anthems of the night. KIGH could have gently forgotten about their third and fourth albums for their reunion tour, but here was the latter’s title track, standing proudly in the ‘Dirt’. Everyone came together: “We’re singing peace in the valley and sex in my soul, death to my body, bury me in rock and roll.”
The singer introduced the band during ‘Youngblood (Let It Out)’, before urging fans with any juice remaining after a packed 80 minutes to “spill it”. ‘Matters At All’, like everything else, was frantic and beautiful. What matters is subjective – as true in 2010 as it will be in 2036 – but it encapsulated a show that was a cathartic distraction from it all, and that matters as well. We all need an escape, especially on a wet weekday. Let it out, let the juice spill, and let yourself live, briefly, in the past.
The band posed with a ‘Thank You London’ sign for their Instagram page, like they had in other cities, and celebrated righting their bad day a dozen years ago. It’s been a ride, but with the trusty band at the heart of Kids In Glass Houses, it felt like a positive rating.
The crowd sang every line, from “Gentlemen, I found a spokesman for a generation on the fence”, to “Could you always be the one to say goodnight, goodnight, goodnight”. It would be harsh to pretend it wasn’t returned in kind. Kids In Glass Houses, it was a good night – at last.
Words by Samuel Draper
Photography by Megan Smith
