Kid Kapichi | Gig Review

The Attic Bar in the Garage is a cosy little venue so feels busy even when it’s Wednesday night and the first band, their mums and a reviewer are about the only folk in. It seemed to be enough for The Stoned Immaculate, who got straight down to business as if they knew the rest of the crowd were just on the way up the stairs. By the time the choppy bass intro of “Are You New” kicked in, the room had filled up and the band had settled into their stride. Their name points towards The Doors but their sound is more The Stranglers, with Harrison Todd’s bass often at the front of their sound and Callum Hughes throwing some nice guitar solos in amongst his angular guitar riffs. They all took solos, although songs like “Hawaii” gave them all a chance to show off anyway with Scott Lennon’s racing drum intro feeding into a surf-sound twangy guitar lick that stops abruptly leaving the bass carrying the break into the verse. If you’ve got it, flaunt it! Louis Jamieson delivers his vocals in a mostly deadpan style (barring the occasional scream) and his lyrics and voice had me thinking back to Lou Reed. A guitar fault unfortunately meant they had to cut a couple of tunes from the set but they finished with a chantable romp called “Don’t Run, You’re Caught (Ya Dick)”: playground game or a run in with the Glasgow Police? Maybe we’ll never know.

Another local band were next up. New Rebel Cult are David McMeeking (vocals and guitar), Matthew Buil (lead guitar and Buckfast – I guess he wasn’t driving the van tonight), Sean Kerr (bass) and Gary Young (drums) and they tended more to the melodic punk part of the spectrum (Arctic Monkeys on speed?). Honest, raw, heartfelt lyrics in songs like “Out of Your Hands” deal with the frustrations facing much of our younger generation but the music lifted the crowd who enjoyed a right good mosh. They rounded off their set with a cracking rendition of “Is This As Good As It Gets?”, with Gary spinning his drumsticks like a good ‘un: there’s always room for a bit of circus carry-on behind the kit, I reckon, and left the crowd catching their breath ahead of the headline act.

Kid Kapichi hale from Hastings, where a battle was if I remember my school history lessons. I’m not surprised there was a battle if the anger in these boys is anything to go by. Straight out of the trap we got “Thugs”, with the singer sporting a three-hole balaclava and looking like he meant business. A quick swig from their bottles of Buckie (do they have that in Hastings or was it a disguise) and into “Revolver” – ‘Too young to die / but I’m gonna try’ is a cracking, if disturbing, lyric. Jack Wilson and Ben Beetham share songwriting, lead guitar and vocal duties and they are obviously both angry and eloquent young men. Their well-crafted lyrics in songs like “Glitterati” (I wanna do no work, and reap rewards / I want to fly to Mars on a gold Concorde / I want a million likes, Mercedes Benz’) and “2019” (‘Flick the switch on my TV / They’re making porn out of poverty’) proclaim their dissatisfaction, while the percussive chop of the guitars underpinned by Eddie Lewis and George Macdonald in the rhythm section had the crowd crashing around through the whole show. “What Would Your Mother Say” from the forthcoming album gave us a glimpse into the future - there is clearly more good stuff coming. Kid Kapichi’s set closed with “Death Dips”, and mayhem in the crowd. Aaaaannd breathe…