Review by Ben Hecht & Photos by Steve Thrasher

It was Saturday night at LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles. The Lakers had just come off a big win at Crypto.com Arena, but the energy was coming alive across the street at The Novo where Icelandic blues rock band KALEO was taking the stage. Starting the night with a song from their newest album, Surface Sounds, KALEO set the mood with “Break My Baby”, a bluesy rock song that took full advantage of guitar player and lead singer JJ’s incredible vocal range. Behind JJ, the rest of the band, comprised of drummer David Antonsson, bassist Danny Kristjansson, lead guitarist Rubin Pollock, and mandolin/harmonica player “Thor,” played with equal parts of soul and style.

One of our favorite parts of the whole set was the attention and selection of musical gear. JJ played an eclectic selection of different styles of guitars throughout the night ranging from an acoustic resonator to a beautiful sunburst telecaster to an electric guitar designed to look like the bands’ home country of Iceland’s national flag.

JJ’s guitars weren’t the only eclectic part of the set. For a band with such a masterful hold on the blues, KALEO was able to easily traverse the range of heavy hitting songs like “Alter Ego” and “Hey Gringo” that got the entire crowd moving with the guitar riffs and vocal power to the heartbreaking “All The Pretty Girls” which the band played almost entirely acoustic. KALEO was extremely effective in taking us on this journey of highs and lows with a consistency in both sound and emotion true to the blues genre. Looking around we saw the entire audience laughing, dancing, swaying, and connecting to every song performed throughout the night.

They concluded their initial set with one of their most popular tracks, “Way Down We Go “from the 2016 Album A/B. However, after thunderous applause and a pleading demand for more, the band came back on stage to rock the house with two final tracks. After not having toured in multiple years, the band was excited to get back on the road to tour their newest album Surface Sounds and is already sounding amazing only one week into what will be a tour across the entire US and Europe.

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KALEO Light Up The Night at The Novo