King of Conspiracy live at Buffalo Bar 13th May 2008
Parisian three piece, King of Conspiracy, are back over in the UK for the fifth time and proving that great music is alive and well in France. Mid way through their tour has had its mixture of ups and downs. The ups are no doubt playing in front of a growing UK fan base and the downs being everything that could go wrong has! This includes the bands fan breaking down while not even making it out of France and then in their second gig their amp decided it didn’t want to carry on.
With these obstacles now over come, King of Conspiracy can get back to playing their intelligent brand of punk and roll. All the aggression of punk bit with the rhythm of Rock and Roll, which with Michael Destouches ingenious guitar playing, something that has to be seen to believed, it all makes for a refreshing change to the norm that is out there.
Showcasing songs from their recently released debut album, Noisy Sounds and Heartbeats, at Artrocker’s club night in London’s Buffalo Bar they launched into their powerful opening track Secret Radio and it was clear that there was going to be no holding back from the start. In the second, yet to be named, track Monsieur Destouches gave an indication of his guitar playing skills by playing with the drum stick he was using on the cow bell.
The members of the crowd who had not known what King of Conspiracy were about were soon taking notice and were completely sold by the time they launched into title track of their debut album. This was followed straight after by the dramatic anguished slow building Corporate Bodies Shape Marys Fantasies. With We Are The Enemy, they have a song that could easily be an anthem for a better known band.
Then comes the epic ending final song, which actually is two songs merged into one. The angst ridden B-Side is played in full, complete with prominent rhythm on Ronan’s Bass, Frank who is looking exhausted after working hard on the drums and excellent controlled guitars. The song carries into Mike is a Liar where Michael goes even better on his guitar playing. Picking up his mic he proceeded to play his guitar with it better than a lot of guitarists can play normally. I did over hear someone comparing it to the great Jimi Hendrix and I’m struggling to disagree.
With 12 dates still left on the tour, I would say go see them if you like your music to grab you by the lapels and shake you around in a intelligent way.
Remaining dates all in May:
14th Vibe Bar, London
15th The Grosvenor, London
16th The Fox, Lewisham
17th The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
21st The Horn, St Albans
23rd The Bridge House, Copsale
25th Brixton Jamm, London (Afternoon gig)
25th The Fleece, Chelmsford
26th The Horseshoe, Bristol
27th Rhythm Factory, London
28th Guildford Tup, Guildford
29th The Standard, London