South African origin, now state of Arizona based, alternative rock band Kongos are on tour supporting their latest album 1929, Pt.1 which was released on January 18th this year. They are supported by Los Angeles based duo Fitness.
On a cold winter day, in the summer beach resort town of Asbury Park, people crowded in the small but very nice music venue called Asbury Lanes to see their favorite band Kongos, who hail fromthe warmer climate state of Arizona. Consisting of four brothers – Dylan, Daniel, Jesse and Johnny Kongos, the band’s origins are found in Johannesburg, South Africa where the brothers spent their childhood before moving state side to Phoenix, Arizona.
The band is very popular amongst alternative rock fans and while their music has some hard rock vibes, there is quite often in their songs the use of an accordion, which is played by Johnny. It is however still very much energetic upbeat rock music and the band prides themselves as being completely self-contained by doing everything on their own, including making their own music videos, producing and releasing albums as well as engineer and mix their music in studio as well.
They opened their set with the song I Am Not Me from their new album. All together they played five songs from this latest release – Something New, Stand Up, When You’re Here and Keep Your Head which was all received very well by the audience. They played a little bit of everything from their previous studio albums too of course including their most popular smash hit song Come With Me Now which was saved towards the end before the encore. Astonishingly that song has almost one hundred million views on Youtube and has been featured in movies and TV shows. They wrapped up the set with I’m Only Joking from their second studio album Lunatic.
They played their set flawlessly, proving that they are an excellent live band. Every one of the brothers sing besides playing instruments and they interacted with the audience casually giving the show a very warm and friendly vibe. If not for the frigid temperatures outside this gig would surely have been sold out, but those who braved the cold got their money’s worth. Kongos will be on their winter tour until the end of the February wrapping it up in San Diego, California.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Andris Jansons
