KING KRULE at Wrongbar, Wednesday, September 11. Rating: NNN
If felt like something special was happening at Wrongbar last night. A last-minute venue change from the Drake (the event sold 400 tickets in no time) gave King Krule’s first Toronto show even more buzz than the ginger-haired, 19-year-old British singer is used to trailing along with him. A couple of people even tried to get in with counterfeit tickets.
Ambling onto the stage with little fanfare and a bright-white electric guitar at around 10:20 pm, Krule, aka Archy Marshall, fixed that penetrating stare and let loose that moaning howl. (If you haven’t listened to his first full-length, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, that voice – and the maturity and pain it conveys – would be pretty shocking.)
Backed by a three-piece band, Marshall worked the new album as well as songs from his first EP. The soul/blues/jazz/rock-blending tunes translate well enough live, sounding less PBR&B and more like jazzy jam sessions. It was a no-nonsense performance: on time, straight-forward and minimal audience interaction. “The next song I’m about to play is about reptiles,” he said. And that’s about as much chat as we got, except when he slightly awkwardly but earnestly introduced his bandmates
But it’s the songs that people came to hear, and even when you couldn’t make the lyrics out through his wounded wail, you sensed that the words – if sometimes a little clunky – are important, and were important when he wrote them (some of them as a very young kid). The best crowd response, predictably, was for 6 Feet Beneath The Moon’s lead single, Easy Easy, which inspired an emphatic clap-along.
So, maybe it didn’t live up to all the hype, but it will be interesting to see how Marshall’s career progresses. One can imagine seeing him in a few years, having honed some stage presence and a little more banter, having written a few more songs. All the raw tools – distinctive voice, intense gaze, uncategorizable sound – are there for a very interesting performer.
