Review: To Kill A King, Thekla

To Kill a King are a constant surprise. Despite producing stellar folk-rock with an appeal that seems ideal for mainlining to the masses, each show feels like a special, secret experience, populated only by the fans that can mouth along to each song word perfectly.

Their show at Thekla for third album The Spiritual Dark Age was no exception.  Illuminated from the back by lights painting a toppled chess piece the band step out with 2011’s Bloody Shirt and the crowd are understandably hooked.

Despite having only released their latest album earlier this month it’s clearly been played on repeat by those in the crowd. Frontman Ralph Pelleymounter has described it as “the last three years of my life painfully distilled into forty minutes of music.” Their lyrics have always ranked highly but the newest tracks are triumphant, powerful, cutting, cynical about cynicism and the perfect soundtrack to play against a world that is so focused on the disheartening.

Second song of the night Compassion is a German Word is possibly the best instance of this, practically demanding that the crowd shouts along with “compassion is my weapon of choice.”

The band bring hits from each album alongside the seemingly effortless composure gained from being late into the tour. Every time Ralph opens his mouth between songs little comedic gems escape. At one point a heckler slurs out “new song”, which is met with the chuckled response of “I can’t tell if you said new song or you suck but you can bet that I’ll be debating it later tonight.”

Each song is produced flawlessly and it’s impressive to see that the vocal harmonies and lead ins that are so commonly used throughout their music are performed live and it’s a benefit to the experience.

As we come to the end of Good Old Days the band lets us know that they are happy to skip the encore to fit in an extra song, on one condition. “We are musicians and we love to have our egos stroked so if you give us a little extra whoop at the end of this one we’ll call it quits.” They barely had to ask, as the crowd had been willingly obliging at every other opportunity.

The extra song is recent album closer And Yet, Ralph’s favourite new track. Starting out as a slow ballad the song slowly crescendos into chaos as he leaps from the stage grabbing fans and pulling them close to sing in harmony. Tossing the microphone back onto the stage he leaves through the ecstatic crowd to man the merch stand.

To Kill a King offer a perfect form of escapism, from a rainy January evening or the depressing state of world affairs. Having last toured in 2015 we can only hope it won’t be so long until we see them again.