“DISGUSTINGLY, PAINFULLY, GOOD”: KALEO’S OUTSTANDING WEMBLEY ARENA HEADLINER

LIVE REVIEW | KALEO w/ Júniús Meyvant, Shane Smith & The Saints | LONDON WEMBLEY ARENA 14/11/24 by James O’Sullivan

The music scene is full of a variety of voices. Some good, some bad, some passable, some great. Some are political, on either side of the aisle. Some are outspoken, happily spouting and singing their thoughts on topics that, really, they should probably have nothing to do with. Some are quiet, reserved — in the case of Sleep Token’s Vessel, some don’t even seem to exist at all outside of the context of a text-to-speak program. And then there are some that are so disgustingly, painfully good that it changes your meaning of the word.

Icelandic Jökull Júlíusson, also known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of rock band Kaleo, possesses one such voice. 

And yes, disgustingly is the perfect adverb — in that you find yourself disgusted at your own paltry voice whenever you try to sing along.

Yet, after seemingly exploding up and out of their home country with hit ‘Way Down We Go’ — much like Thrihnukagigur, the volcano whose crater plays home to the heavenly video of one of the said song’s live playthroughs — and being featured on frankly any and every piece of media that could fit Júlíusson’s vocals in, Kaleo never seemed to reach the level of success that their discography deserved. Even Thursday, which saw them play London’s Wembley Arena as part of the European leg of their ‘Payback’ tour, should arguably have still been on the smaller side for their UK live legacy. 

But Wembley is where they found themselves, along with both their excellent-yet-still-widely-unknown (in the UK anyway) supports, Junius Meyvant and Shane Smith & The Saints, and the thousands of fans clamouring for their Blues Rock aural wizardry.

Júniús Meyvant

First up, then, came the musical project of Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson; Júniús Meyvant. Also hailing from Iceland, his soft, gentle, soul-caressing melodies proved the perfect amuse oreille for the crowd as he and his band delicately serenaded Wembley with their rich, harmonious, and delicate sounds. Having supported Kaleo’s European tour back in 2022, European audiences were lucky enough for him to make another appearance; it says a lot when a support from tours gone past is invited back, particularly to a tour spanning venues more than twice the size, and in this it’s saying that his calm, comforting vocals are the perfect counterpoint to Kaleo’s sometimes more despondent and emotionally pained sounds. Basically? Check him out if you haven’t already.

Shane Smith & The Saints

Coming up next, it was time for Shane Smith & The Saints. Hailing from Austin Texas, the blues-tinged, country-folk rockers were in fine form; from the husky, roaring, eponymous frontman Shane or the straw-hat-bedecked fiddler Bennett Brown to guitarist Dustin Schaefer, bassist Chase Satterwhite and drummer Zach Strover, the five-piece roared with squealing guitars, bass-heavy harmonies and an altogether monumental soundscape that refused to let up for even a second. As an instrumental intro taken from Last Of The Mohicans led happily into openers ‘Adeline’ and a cover of Levon Helm’s ‘Hurricane’, the stage alight with the band’s overflowing passion, you couldn’t help but be swept away in the maelstrom of passion left in their wake; then, as the Yellowstone-featured ‘Fire in the Ocean’ gripped the crowd, phone flashlights lighting up the arena, that same sense of emotion was evidently struck anew. 

It was crazy to watch them owning that stage and think that just a year ago the band were putting on their own headline show at the mighty-but-small Bush Hall, playing to less than 500 people — but, as the group ended on the one-two of ‘All I See Is You’ and ‘Heaven Knows’, the crowd loving every second, one thing was for sure. It certainly won’t stay that intimate for long.

Kaleo

A short while later, it was finally time for the main event. Kaleo had arrived. Opening with recent single ‘USA Today’ — a particularly poignant and scarily relevant choice given the US election just the week before — and with the crowd singing along to every word, the at-times mournful, at times-desperate, and all-together seething track served as the perfect introduction to the band’s latest salvo of songs, full of distorted guitar, hammering bass and Júlíusson’s soulful, evocative vocals. That’s not to say that the primarily ‘A/B’-themed setlist wasn’t equally powerful; the entire night seemed to turn on a dime between working-song blues, hauntingly emotional ballads and folksy sing-alongs, and each and every track offered something new. 

There was the haunting, desolate instrumental intro to ‘Can’t Go On Without You’, piercing whistling giving way to the mournful, emotional crooning Júlíusson’s often known for; there was the jaunty ‘Automobile’, upbeat, anthemic and soothing; you’ve never seen community until you’ve experienced a crowd of ten thousand clapping to the blood-pumping ‘Broken Bones’. ‘Hey Gringo’ saw frantic efforts from harmonicist Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson as Júlíusson’s voice slid from silky smooth, through raspy roars, all the way to crooning falsetto, the toe-tapping, hand-clapping instrumentals drawing out every iota of energy from the crowd in one big explosion of pure musical passion, all before the guitar licks and strobe lights of ‘Hot Blood’ whipped the crowd into a frenzy all over again. The gunslingers-at-dawn, horse-hoof pounding instrumental intro of the stirring ‘Lonely Cowboy’ led to the otherwise wistful track taking on a new sense of excitement, while the plaintive-sounding ‘Vor í Vaglaskógi’, sounding as desolate as an Icelandic tundra, saw the venue coming to life with phone torches. Meanwhile, the sardonic, seething ‘Skinny’, Júliússon’s primal scream building to a fiery crescendo of squealing guitars, gave way to both the stunning, oppressive ‘Way Down We Go’ and the rocky, lively, and oh-so-fun ‘No Good’, the latter of which left no boot unstomped and no hand unclapped. Though, despite every voice in the venue screaming out in sheer exhausted joy, there was always time for an encore. A final trio of the unreleased ‘Backdoor’ and the one-two of deep-cuts ‘Glass House’ and the recently-re-released ‘Rock n’ Roller’ brought the night to a steaming, roiling, rollicking crescendo, the likes of which no-one will forget in a hurry. 

A beautiful, brilliant gig — although the ever-present, seemingly extra-strength spotlights beaming from behind him likely led to some trips to the opticians!

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