Kubla Khan – London Indigo2
Kubla Khan
February 19th 2010
Kubla Khan have transformed over the last few months. Their last London gig, at 229 Great Portland in November, showcased a good band but lacked a decent frontman. That’s not to say singer Matt Heanes was bad – far from it, in fact. He just lacked that showmanship quality that a nine-piece band needs.
Fast forward to February, then, and how things have changed. Matt was visibly more relaxed, and interacted much better with the audience. Wandering about the stage and shouting “How you doing?… I said how you doing?!” it was evident his confidence has grown since the last time they were in London, and rightly so.
Heanes has a great voice, and Kubla Khan are a very tight band musically. Funk should be something you can move to, and the band as a whole seemed to be juxtaposed between chilled out and high on adrenalin. ‘Karma Comes Around’ is a catchy song which I still find myself humming to a week after the gig, and it was good to see the band having fun on stage whilst they played; the horn section were rocking out when they weren’t playing, laughing and joking with each other.
There was a good crowd at the Indigo2, and they clearly enjoyed the set, which included ‘Set Me Off’ and ‘I Wish I Could’. I felt the encore was slightly lazy as half the band didn’t even bother leaving the stage, but Kubla Khan ended the evening with a good rendition of Aerosmith’s ‘Dude Looks Like A Lady’. Once again Matt entertained the audience, having a bit of banter with some people he thought were Geordie, but actually just went to Newcastle University. “That’s good enough for me”, he cried, a north-east native himself.
The band definitely had bags of energy to kick off the weekend, and I can’t help but think that if they’ve improved this much in such a short space of time, it will be interesting to see what their next show will bring.
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