Photo: WENN
After an almighty sumo wrestling session earlier in the day, Blitz Kids hosted competition winners in Boston Music Room with a launch party for their latest single, 'Keep Swinging'.
The moment that The Lion King’s 'Circle of Life' pours out of the speakers, and Blitz Kids beam light into the Boston Music Room, becomes clear just how well the band know their audience: through the cheers and starstruck screams you could hear nothing but ‘Nineties babies’.
The connection is closer though. Frontman Joey James holds our eyes and our hands as he takes us on a joyride through some of Blitz Kids’ biggest hits. 'Run For Cover' stomps its grungy bass grind all over the floor, before 'Sometimes' raises the pace with a blistering guitar riff every bit as choppy as the drums that drive it. With 'Sold My Soul', the boys bring a hip-hop bounce to the room, and 'All I Want Is Everything' layers strident guitar shrieks over organ drones, serving new sounds to eager ears.
The band can afford to be confident, and b-sides 'Desert Storm' and 'Disaster Chapter' are greeted as rapturously by the crowd as any single. Blitz Kids’ formula is such a compelling blend of boy-band charm and all-black metal edge, of soaring harmonies and screeching feedback, that every song finds its mark. At the end of the blur, only one remains.
‘This is like a single release party innit? We should probably play that then shouldn’t we?’ With this, Jono Yates plunges into a hypnotic guitar riff that astounds with an electronic precision and texture that the record can only come close to capturing, and Joey James builds the heartfelt euphoria to one last release. ‘Keep Swinging’ we will. It is hard to say who feels more happy, more lucky to be here.
