Show Preview: Kongos, the Ecstatics

[ROCK…WITH ACCORDION?! WHAAA?] It's hard to rock out in this wacky, post-Mumford world. Not necessarily to perform rock music—that's been pretty much the same since the '60s—but to be the sort of swaggering, long-haired, model-dating guitar shredder dudes the four brothers in Kongos presumably grew up admiring in South Africa. Sometime after they arrived in Phoenix, they must have discovered that, while you can still have a busty blonde in your video, today's sophisticated tastes demand you put on some pretense of peculiarity. And thus we have a little accordion to open and close many of their songs, particularly on the band's big single, "Come With Me Now." (Sample lyric: "Whoa, come with me now/ I'm gonna take you down/ Whoa, come with me now/ I'm gonna show you how...") You see that accordion much more than you hear it ("It came about kinda by accident," the bearded accordion player told VH1), but its conspicuous presence does the job, assuring you there's something exciting and new happening here. It's kind of a shame these guys have to put on such airs, as they're not a bad little rock outfit. Not nearly as vital as tourmates Kings of Leon were at their age, but occasionally anthemic as they thump along and encourage you to come with them now (times 17).

WWeek 2015