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Written by: Ivy Morris
via the Kid Kapichi on Instagram - all rights reserved
Following the release of their tory-bashing, rage-fuelled, punk album Here’s What You Could Have Won in 2022, Hastings beat-punk band Kid Kapichi kicked off their UK and European tour in blazing fashion at Bristol’s iconic venue, Thekla. With the venue being a boat sitting pretty in Bristol Harbour, hours prior to the show the band was already getting the audience fired up, posting encouragement to sink the ship on their Instagram. If the venue capacity was any bigger, that might well have happened. Arriving half an hour before the doors were due to open paid huge dividends, as I was lucky enough to hear the support acts, bands Snayx and Monakis practicing. Without the foggiest idea beforehand as to what I was in for with the supporting artists, hearing them roar their lyrics from the hull of the ship was another cheeky little iota of excitement before the audience boarded the boat.
Monakis opened the show, and as far as opening bands go, the three young Brighton lads made their presence well known and did the job of getting the crowd warmed up better than many other openers. Energetic and thumping noise poured out from the speakers, while heads started bouncing as their first few songs played out. Monakis were hilarious in their nonchalance and self awareness, one of their members even asked the audience to buy their merch so they could pay their rent. The band knew what they were in the grand scheme of the gig, but rolled with it and put on a great set regardless, including their newest single Screw Loose, which they helpfully reminded us was out now!
Snayx’s set was where things got intense and the boat started rocking. Their frontman was an electric presence, whose interaction with the audience made the gig not only feel more intimate but alive as well. Their social issue-driven songs were a welcome surprise, and confirmed that the politically charged and angry Kid Kapichi songs yet to come would “preach to the choir” as it were. Snayx were daring, enthusiastic, and captivating to watch. In a smaller set they managed to do a lot, like let their already-praised frontman enter the crowd and get the audience feeling as anarchic and elated he was. They also struck up several small mosh pits and surprised everyone with a snippet of the Vengaboys’ We Like To Party. A memorable support act, one whom Europe will get to experience as well as the tour marches on to Paris and beyond in its second leg.
With the preliminaries serving their purpose, the main event, Hastings’ very own chaos quartet took the stage to the sound of a mighty uproar from the fans. Prior to their entrance, the now-iconic ticking clock sound played entrancingly round the stage, bringing the show swiftly into the opening song, 5 Days On, 2 Days Off. From there the energy in the room kept rising as tracks like Working Man’s Town, I.N.V.U and Cops and Robbers sparked pit after pit, with Jack Lewis and Eddie Wilson tearing up the stage alongside the crowd. Kid Kapichi’s performance was not, of course, exclusively reliant on a great crowd, their efforts to make their live performances echo the studio recordings beat for beat did not go unnoticed, as the band sonically nailed everything they laid out.
That being said, Kid Kapichi’s energy and how they interacted with their audience was the highlight of the concert. The boys thankfully slowed the pace of the concert during songs like Special and especially Party at No. 10, the latter of which led to several chants of “F*** the Tories”, a welcome sentiment in the current circumstances. Frontman Ben Beetham seemed to be loving the audience’s knowledge of his lyrics, and during the performance of New England, Beetham simply let the audience cover Bob Vylan’s verse, and complimented the result, saying it was as though Vylan himself was singing. After a long and tense gap for an encore, Kid Kapichi blew the roof off of Thekla and the crowd nearly sank the ship as intended, as performances of Smash the Gaff and Death Dips closed out a loud, action-packed and memorable concert. Kid Kapichi are on the rise, with their gig in London on this tour selling out the iconic Koko in Camden Town, and their album inspiring a new generation of punk fans. This might sound a little biased, but I genuinely believe this is a band destined for the very top. Their rage channeled towards a broken and unjust system creates some truly exciting music, and their ceiling is as high as they want it to be.
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