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If 2008’s crop of emerging musicians have one thing in common, it’s a tendency to have terrible names. Obviously Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong are the worst offenders, but a band called the Black Kids are likely to raise eye-brows as well. Luckily, when you focus on the sound the Jacksonville five-piece create, there’s nothing but good vibrations.
Taking to their support slot with gusto, the group simply ooze quality. The half full dance floor may contain plenty of excited teenagers waiting for Kate Nash (who later delivers the impressive set you‘d expect), but it doesn’t take long before they’re moving to the dance friendly grooves the Black Kids summon up. There may be a dash of Talking Heads in there, a sprinkling of Prince and a little bit of jittery post-punk but what’s great about them is the way that they use these influences as building blocks, rather than simply paying tribute.
Reggie Youngblood yelps away on vocals, while his sister Ali and Dawn Watley provide not just keyboards and dancing but some girl group woos and yeahs as well. But the real strength of the band, coming through on the likes of forthcoming single ’I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You' is their rhythm section. Kevin Snow’s solid drumming holds everything together, while Owen Holmes bass rumbles out, shaking the bones of anyone in the vicinity.
While the odd problem with the sound mix holds the Black Kids up, with Reggie Youngblood’s vocals sometimes lost underneath the overall noise, this was a confident set, delivered to a crowd that were clearly desperate to see the night’s headliner. That the Black Kids were given such a rapturous reaction as their half-hour set went on is an indication of just how good they were.
