Kingswood Live At The Rails

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After a few Covid-induced hiccups – rescheduled dates and a short stint in quarantine – Kingswood were welcomed to the NT with arms wide open in the form of two sold out shows at the Rails last weekend. Foldback went along for the Sunday session, with support by the Roy Boys, their husky vocal power and harmonies being the perfect acoustic-rock warm up for the night. Scrubfowl supported the previous night’s show.

2020 saw Kingswood release their third LP, “Juveniles” with the hit singles “Say You Remember” and “Bittersweet”.  Lockdown then stopped their national tour and album promotion in its tracks but instead of being defeated, they got to work and released two more albums before the year finished.

Kingswood seem to have upgraded to a 5 piece with the addition of producer, songwriter, musical director and apparently very gifted guitarist Kyran Daniel. I’m not sure if this is a permanent lineup change but I was definitely grateful to witness 4 amazing guitarists (including bassist Braiden Michetti) on stage for this gig. Almost every song strayed from the recorded version and featured extended sections that showed off the guitarists’ shredding ability and the incredible drummer Josh Koops’ chops to their utmost. Alex Laska and Kyran in duelling guitar solos was a highlight. 

Besides the mastery of their instruments, the easy chat amongst band members and with the crowd showed why they are live favourites. Lead singer Fergus handed beers out to the crowd and gave a mic to the front row to shout out the lyrics. Darwin’s favourite musician Max Fredericks was invited up on stage and handed a guitar to shred with the guys on one of the last songs. The guys performed a range of songs from their 5 albums (although unsurprisingly none from their Christmas album) including crowd favourites “Golden”, “Ohio”, “Big City”, “Creepin” and “Say You Remember”.  

At one point a man in the crowd was yelling out for Led Zeppelin and the band indulged him with some impromptu covers – Fergus telling the crowd, “Imagine going to see a band you like and asking them to play songs by other bands you like, that they also like, and them actually doing it!” This was right before they broke into a pretty funny ABBA rendition which they cut very short and returned back to their own hits.

Great songs played by uber talented musicians with a penchant for whiskey, ripped jeans and good banter. They absolutely have that old school rough-and-ready rock swagger, proven in point when lead guitarist Alex missed a step and fell off the stage mid-song, only to jump straight back up and barely miss a beat. More photos below!