Kyng at the Majestic Theatre
April 19, 2014 in Madison, WI
by Sal Serio
Posted: Apr 2014
(2616) Page Views
Kyng rocking the Majestic - photo by Sal Serio
The night before Easter Sunday a gathering of the black concert t-shirt contingency gathered at the Majestic Theatre in Madison for a different type of resurrection. Namely, a resurrection of the rock ‘n roll ritual, punctuated by fists and horned-hand-signals held high. And beer. Lots and lots of beer.
This show was headlined by Italian rockers Lacuna Coil, who are on the road promoting their new album ‘Broken Crown Halo’. While Lacuna Coil are an exciting live band, whom I’ve seen on stage many, many, times, the real draw on this particular evening, for me personally, was the So. Cal. hard rock trio Kyng. This gives me pause for a moment to reflect on the too-cool-for-school routine of many to show up late, just for the headliner, and totally blow off the opening bands. I can not express enough how much I feel this is in grievous error. So many times I’ve caught some impressive up-and-coming group, that I previously knew nothing about, just because I made the effort to get there early and show the openers some respect.
At this show, I was pleasantly surprised by the first band, Cilver, from NYC, who are touring in support of their ‘In My Head’ CD E.P. Lead singer Uliana was completely in command of their short but incredibly energetic set, which seemingly blew everyone in the house away. I know without doubt I wasn’t the only one who walked away a new fan of Cilver. To make the connection with their new-found supporters complete, at the tail end of the set, Uliana walked up to the very edge of the stage, and let herself fall onto the hands of the fans!
After another short and sweaty set by tour-mates Eve To Adam, the three Kyng dudes came out to tune up, and got a rousing welcome by WJJO disk jockeys Biatch and Kai. Immediately blasting off in to the title track of the outstanding new ‘Burn The Serum’ release, it was evident that Kyng had the assembled faithful dialed in and ready to explode.
These guys really make the most of the power-trio format, with a huge, full, heavy, heavy, heavy sound. Drummer Pepe Clarke alone has such a massive presence that he sounds like two drummers, at least. Lead singer and guitarist Eddie Veliz gave the performance everything he had, and I swear I could actually see the air being pushed forward out of Orange amp stack. Bass player Tony Castaneda locked in perfectly with Clarke’s rhythms, and his harmony vocals are the perfect complement to Veliz.
Whether tearing through radio-ready new songs like “Faraway” or “Electric Halo”, or digging back in to material from their first release ‘Trampled Sun’, every song was delivered with passion, precision, and in-your-face attitude. Veliz even got the one jaded rock guy up front standing there with his arms crossed to throw a fist up in the air and sing along. Not to mention the show-stopping cover of Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” which had everyone in the Majestic transported instantly to party mode. I had to laugh when they ended that most excellent interpretation, and Veliz casually said, “Could’ve been worse”! Kyng is the bomb. Next tour they need to headline. Seriously.