Entertainment

Review: A Royal Visit from KINGSWOOD!

The rockin’ Aussie band all the way from Melbourne, Kingswood, just hit up Adelaide’s UniBar last Friday night.

The rockin’ Aussie band all the way from Melbourne, Kingswood, just hit up Adelaide’s UniBar last Friday night. They were supported by the almighty MANE and Pinkish Blu. All of the acts playing absolutely blew the crowd away with epically powerful performances. It was almost a packed house by the time the headliners took to the stage and the good vibes in the air just kept on getting stronger as the evening went on. It was certainly a night worthy of a royal applause, and the crowd went absolutely wild.

Pinkish Blu kicked off first for the night and set the common theme with their ambient original sounds. These hipster rockers warmed up the crowd with their own brand of sad alternative pop music. All of their songs had groovy bass undertones and some awesome vocal effects in the mix, the crowd were all swaying along to the groove by the end of their set and were buzzing with anticipation for the next acts to come.

The lioness MANE was up next, and triumphantly introduced herself by exploding onto the stage with both vigour and enthusiasm. Her guitarist Luigi Donnarumma rocked it steady alongside her on his amazing custom relic Fender Telecaster with P-90 pickups fitted. His absolute machine of a guitar seemed to have such a diverse tonality, and the mild overdrive pedal used added a really nice grungy effect. Combine that with an Empress Reverb/Delay pedal with a mild booster, and the guitar became something really magical on its own. Teamed with the mighty roar of the incredible woman behind the mic, and it was simply next level. All their songs had haunting clean tones and pleasant mild distortion that really gave the tracks an extra edge. They played both a combination of new and old tunes with the recently released hit, Chasing Butterflies being their highlight. About three quarters of the way into their set, MANE switched to electric guitar to perform a song about domestic violence as well. With an emotional crowd and passionate singalong, the end of the set was packed with avid fans, bursting with excitement for the headlining act.

When Kingswood hit the stage blasting the crowd with fiery passion, the crowd roared with approval. The lead singer bounced across the stage with an unstoppable energy, and all of the members beamed huge smiles, warming the hearts of the audience. Their own sound engineer took control for their set, and rightfully so as he had them sounding amazing. Epic drums and a mix that’s incredibly on point, the audience were entirely present as the frontman toyed with the audience. With crazy antics like holding out from kicking in the vocals on his own song during the beginning of the third song because he was appreciating the sea of people before him dancing a little too much.

The bass player rotated between a couple of different Fender Precision bass guitars for the performance (they both seemed equally as good as the other, and very similar in terms of sound) both the guitarist and the bass guitarist assisted at times with heavenly backing vocals and heart wrenching harmonies on some tracks. The vocalist not only sang with a fiery passion, but also played the tambourine and synth / keyboard at times, dancing around the stage running from one side to the other and interacting with his band mates. Kingswood played a good collection of their hit songs from over the years such as the songs ‘Micro Wars’, ‘Golden’, ‘Creepin’, ‘I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me’, as well as three brand new songs that they had never performed before. What a treat. They had the crowd mildly moshing along from beginning to end. They performed with exceptional crowd interaction, talking to the punters in between songs, and pausing the songs midway through at times to let the audience sing their own version of the lyrics back at them. It was great, and added a fun, community aspect to the show. They certainly delivered an exceptional performance, and had the crowd begging for an encore, but after playing for over an hour and a half, the band did not comply. Instead, they went down to the well-stocked merch table to greet their fans in person!

Overall, the night ran really smoothly, and all three of the bands performed amazingly. The venue was really great, with friendly staff and a great atmosphere all round. All things combined made for a great night, and I’m sure Kingswood fans can’t wait until they return after this absolute cracker of a gig, with (as promised by the band) with ‘at least three new tracks, and hopefully a whole new album by then!

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