Concert Review - We The Kings, Auckland New Zealand, 2018

We The Kings

31st January 2018
The Kings Arms, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Chris Zwaagdyk.

It certainly is the season for anniversary tours, with more than a few bands now plugging into that ‘feel good nostalgia buzz’. Interestingly, in turn there also appears to be a growing number of artists who vehemently refuse to ever participate in such a thing … but not We The Kings; tonight they have arrived at one of Auckland’s oldest music venues, the – sadly soon to be gone – Kings Arms for the ten year anniversary tour of their debut album ‘Self-Titled’.

Warming up both the stage and the early arrivals, the five piece Auckland based Fire For Glory. The self-confessed pop punk band has been making the rounds and have picked up their fair share of support slots recently with their brand of energetic musicality. With the highly animated Josh Pinho as vocalist, the band delivers a tight little set to the already well populated venue. Finishing on the track ‘You’re Talking, but All I’m Hearing is La, La. La’ from their latest album Shipwreck!; it would be safe to say that they have picked up a few new fans tonight.

Next up Written By Wolves who only just recently graced this venue in support of Four Year Strong (you can read that review here) a couple of weeks ago. Led by the rather charismatic Michael Murphy, the – now with the addition of Oli Lyons – five piece are well versed in how to get a crowd up and rocking, especially with their opening track ‘Not Afraid to Die’. A couple of songs in and Written by Wolves have the audience’s attention, however it certainly isn’t exactly the ‘rock fest’ that this band can usually get going with the drop of a hat; perhaps not quite their target audience. Things only go from bad to worse when a rather pitchy cover version of the Lana Del Ray song ‘Young and Beautiful’ is delivered to a less than enthusiastic reception; which might well explain why it was cut rather short. While a well delivered cover can certainly be a talking point for any band, Written By Wolves may have chosen unwisely with this particular Del Ray song. Moving swiftly instead into their cover of ‘Elastic Heart’ by Sia, a regular on their set list, and the crowd once again becomes a little more involved; many (unsurprisingly) knowing the lyrics and taking the opportunity to indulge in a bit of sing along; Murphy himself getting in on the action, by jumping down into the crowd to sing along with them.

Now nicely warmed up, the – for some of the more eager fans in the crowd – long wait began til We The Kings took the stage.

As they arrive some thirty minutes later, one could have been forgiven for thinking that they had accidently entered an amateur wrestling match as a slightly comical announcers voice came over the PA system welcoming everyone to the “extravaganza” before a countdown from ten gave the predominantly under thirty female dominated audience the chance to hype themselves up for the big reveal. As stage lights illuminated the band, the crowd went wild, multiple shrieks and hands punctuating the air, the enthusiasm with which they did only increasing by tenfold as We The Kings kicked straight into easily one of their biggest hits to date ‘Check Yes Juliet’.

Hailing from Bradenton, Florida the four piece has long been associated with the pop-punk/emo genre of music. Regulars on the Vans Warped tour circuits, We The Kings have steadily built a dedicated fan base across the world and have systematically released an album every two years since their first in 2007. While tonight’s show promises to play their debut album in its entirety, that doesn’t mean that the band is going to play it as per the track listing, preferring instead to keep their fans on their toes and mix it up a wee bit. The reason for this being due to lead vocalist Travis Clark wanting to ensure that each and every show is something different; as discussed in a recent interview (which you can read here) Clark states that this tour is more a ‘thank you’ to the fans then an anniversary. And this sentiment is certainly obvious in the performance that they gave tonight. Besides delivering each and every track as if they were playing to a crowd five times the size, Clark, supported often by lead guitarist Hunter Thomsen, took the show from being a straight music gig to part comedy night.
If you wanted crowd engagement, you got it in spades tonight. Clark beginning his evening of storytelling by admitting that it has taken the band so long to get back to New Zealand (We The Kings were last here in 2016) due to the fact that “nobody wants to do that flight”.

Interspersed between the tracks of the album were conversations with the audience that included the relationship status of each band member; NB four out of the five band/crew members present tonight all became fathers in 2017, a couple of them, like Clark, for a second time, and humorous plans of procreating until they have a band that they can send on tour in place of themselves. While banter with the fans can often be enjoyable, and for those in the audience tonight who were singled out, a dream come true – there can also be a fine line between too little and too much, with We The Kings possibly plonking a toe on the edge of the ‘too much’ line. In particular, Clarks story of losing his virginity – which he attempted to deliver via a Tetris analogy – quickly went from mildly amusing to cringe worthy in a matter of minutes. But at least now, everybody knows exactly what inspired the song ‘Secret Valentine’…

The band took a quick break while Clark gave a solo performance of ‘Don’t Speak Liar’ and ‘This Is Our Town’, those piano lessons that he began when he was four years of age certainly paying off as he delivered both tracks beautifully. The debut album done and dusted it was time for a little bit of fun, staring with a track that had been requested via social media. ‘Just Keep Breathing’ may have been another ballad, but the band put a bit of a spin on it, melding the song with the last verse of Coldplay’s epic ‘Fix You’. Followed up with the catchy pop tune ‘Say You Like Me’, Clark feigned surprise at the fact that the crowd knew all the words, the fans singing with joyous abandonment. A nice little cover of the Jimmy Eat World track ‘The Middle’ (a personal favourite of the bands) soon saw the Kings Arms bouncing; even the bar staff reveling in its pogo potency.

After a few more anecdotes and numerous outpourings of love for the fans, We The Kings delivered on their promise to once more play ‘Check Yes Juliet’, the crowd taking every opportunity to rock out one last time. Clark requesting the sound engineer to run the outro track, suddenly changes tack and requests the stage lighting to be killed as he sings over the top of the track solo and in the shadows, leaning over to take fans hands or give a playful high five; before exploding into a trap style breakdown!

Credit where credit is due – the band certainly gave it their all tonight and left the fans ecstatic, and at the end of the day, as far as We The Kings are concerned, that’s who matters most.

We The Kings:

Written By Wolves:

Fire For Glory:

Were you there at the Kings Arms for this good time rock gig? Or have you seen We The Kings perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!