Concert Review: Kongos Celebrate The New At Bowery Ballroom

The Kongos have been through a lot, and their concert feels like a cross between displaying their talent and visions while remarking on the hurdles that have stopped them from prospering them. While every artist dreams of a hit-making career where they get signed to a label, fill out arenas, and have their music move people, the music industry is not exactly like that. Yet, at Bowery Ballroom, Kongos affirmed that their brotherhood is steering them toward new music and new confidence.

Splashing new songs in between classics, Kongos felt light and hopeful. They brimmed with an excitement that played into their anthemic, blues-rock and their now more genre-expanding songs.  From “Everything Must Go” or  “I Am Not Me,” their songs made you feel like you are were cleaning up shop after coming from a spiritual war. Their melodies drove like tractor trailers taking out all the emotional baggage and furnished traumas you have left in your home, but you are not pining over what should be tossed. You are READY to get rid of BS because you have been through ENOUGH! Their current tour is a celebration of starting anew, without fearing, because you know “the old” was so overdone.

Sonically, Kongos’ new music feels like the maturer. more mindful version of themselves. Their lyrics feel more emotionally and intellectually aware, while their sounds feel detailed; as if they chose every rhythm the same way a painter chooses the tiniest speck of color upon his or her canvas. Now more than ever, they appear visionary; fusing multiple genres into their core rock sound to prove music is more sentimental than symphonic. Tracks like, “Stand Up,”  “When You’re Here,” and “Pay For The Weekend” felt more befitting of emotional attributions then sonic ones. This could explain why the brothers felt more like story-tellers, interchanging songs and banter as if there was an invisible talking stick, and, when one brother had it, then it was his turn to ROCK ON AND VENT! 

Johnny, Jesse, Dylan, and Daniel all have voices that steam like a vent trying to bring heat to your soul’s infrastructure, which feels right for the themes their music touches upon. There is difference between moving on and moving forward in life, and the Kongos siblings thrust their voices forward as if their lyrics were tied to the sentimental pulleys of this truth. Add that, throughout the show, you are crossed between wishing you could play instruments like them, whipping out an accordion at your leisure, and truly desiring to have a bunch brothers that are with you, in music, even when the world tries to leave you without a song. For More Information On Kongos Click Here.