Yesterday Kakkmaddaffakka (how many k’s a band name can have?) played at the O2 Academy Islington. I have been really fond of them since I discovered their album Hest in the summer of 2012. They are a fresh Norwegian band that has been playing around since 2009. Kakkmaddafakka seems influenced by many contemporary groups such as Franz Ferdinand or Artic Monkeys. However, their music is far more festive than any other you could have imagined. They play what we could call easy-listening music, in the sense that one can enjoy their songs even though you’ve never heard them before. Their songs are perfectly fitted to be played in festivals, and have proven so in many Spanish festivals these last years (Sonorama Ribera, Bona Nit Barcelona, Buenas Noches Madrid,…).
After their first album Down to Earth in 2007, their fame came with the release of Hest, produced by the magnificent Erlend Øye. Their style has been defined as indie ‘r ‘n ‘b, and they have some Caribbean/Jamaican melodies that can make dance any human living on Earth. They simply sound fresh and lively. Their music is about girls, party, and sex, but there’s nothing to be critic about, we can enjoy Shakespeare as well as Dan Brown. The band is composed of seven members, the vocals are shared, and many of the members play more than one instrument. This gives a scent of how non-conventional the band is: free to perform in any way they want, no rules, no labels. In their 2013 album Six months is a long time, they dare to play a completely different song, Saviour, with a lot of influences from KoC.
This year they are touring their newest album KMF, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity for going to their gig in London. O2 Islington Academy is a garage-punk-rock style venue that can held ~800 people and I found it the perfect place for a Kakkmaddafakka concert.
The group warmed up the audience playing the UEFA Champions League theme song just before they appeared in the scene, as if it were a theatre show. With the audience already on fire, they started their repertoire with the amazing Touching. Throughout the concert Axel Vindenes, one of the singers, would hype the crowd to cheer us up. The energy they produce on stage is contagiously translated into the audience, there’s nowhere you can find a Kakkmaddafakka member standing still. They jump, they dance, they interact with each other so happily that it engages the public during the whole concert.
My expectations for the venue were really high and they completely fulfilled them. They played all the hits: So many people, Someone new, Young, Track 11 and Track 1 (KMF), Is she, Gangsta, the brilliant instrumental song Heidelberg, and Your Girl. Restless was the last song they played before the bis. One of the most memorable moments was when they learned from a Norwegian girl in the audience that there was a fan in the crowd that was 80 years old!
They ended up the concert with the same joyful energy they started it. They performed Forever alone and Drø Sø, but surely they captivated the audience playing a cover of the great What is love 90s song (I had previously heard the Bailando cover which is great).
I hope you go to a Kakkmadafakka gig once in your lifetime and enjoy it as much as I always do.
Stereo Giraffe 