He: “What do you think of the White Stripes?” She: “Get a bass player!” Two impressively wrong sentences that not only hammered the final nail into the Freaky Friday coffin, but manage to unerringly underestimate the power of two piece rock. Beyond the mainstream of success of Meg and Jack, Giant Drag, Black Keys and more recently Drenge worked the stripped down drums and guitar combination.
Consisting of Kevin Breen on guitar and vocals and Steve Gannon on drums Kid Karate are the most recent take on a still relatively unused format.
Growing up together in Dublin the duo are musical grafters, collaborating with Kodaline and Overhead whilst hosting their own indie club night. “Big, aggressive, noisy, alternative rock with a polished feel” in the words of Irish Times and “a rougher, noisier LCD Soundsystem” in their own. Truth be told Kid Karate are a band that make far more sense on stage rather than on record. Managing to shake off the shackles of feeling like a competent yet restricted small time rock band, Kid Karate have a sheen of originality glossed by energetic live performances and cemented by good song writing. When not powering through bursts of punchy storytelling the pair lend their hands to surprisingly good covers, most notably Tinie Tempa’s Pass Out. With this and a subtly self aware sense of humour in mind, Kid Karate are a safe live bet even for those uninterested in noisy youth music.