by Erin Allwood
King Nun are a London four-piece alternative rock band currently on the rise with increasing demand on the indie scene. Having toured as part of the Dirty Hit Tour with Superfood and Pale Waves in early 2017, they played a gig alongside Bloxx for rock band in heaven in Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach on the 14th October. Clwb Ifor Bach resembles something out of 1980s Manchester, where underground music comes to life and fills the small club venue with thrashing guitars and hammering drums: messy with a certain art of perfection.
The mysterious group saunter through the small crowd and take their place on the stage area, and there is a rush of Dr Martens to the front. They began playing two songs that are not on their Spotify, ‘Wet Wipe’ and ‘Chinese Medicine’, and I couldn’t stop tapping along to both. Everyone was swaying, everyone was happy.
Lead singer Theo then asked the dreaded question ‘does anyone here speak Welsh?’ to which the silence was deafening. So with that, songs ‘Sponge’ and ‘Hung Around’, both of which have been released on Spotify and Apple Music, substituted the lost Welsh conversation. Theo’s screeching is both beautiful and raucous at the same time, and ‘Hung Around’ could easily be placed on an early album by The White Stripes with elements of Jack White running through his vocals and stage presence.
The instrumental on ‘Sponge’ is probably one of the best I’ve ever seen live, with guitarists Theo and James, and bassist Nathan throwing themselves around the stage while drummer Caius lets the noise possess him, as we all did in the audience. With influences such as Television, Pixies and Sonic Youth, King Nun have the ability to sound so on trend yet so individual, almost universal in indie and rock.
The storm that is King Nun is on its way and personally, I can’t wait. There is certainly a future of headlining stages in store for them, and they can only get bigger and better. With a record label like Dirty Hit and playing with Julian Casablancas’ new favourite band Inheaven, it’s safe to say that they are definitely on their way there.
