aKing – Dutch Courage

If one adds Hunter Kennedy and a good vocalist together, sorry Francios (van Coke), you necessarily end up with something that is bound to steal a SAMA or two. Yes, the band also includes your friendly neighbourhood bassist, whatshisname, and Snake, the drummer from Fokof-fame.

Their debut-album, Dutch Courage, was kicked off with the single “The Dance”. Mistake number one. Why the foursome ever recorded the song (nevermind used it as the posterchild for the CD) no one knows. When Hendre introduced me to the band using The Dance, it inspired me to promise myself never to give another listen to any Fokof-spinoff. Even the quality of the recording lacks behind, and leeches and the standard of the rest of the CD. Enough about the song.

After taking my break from the (at that stage) terrible band, and deleting The Dance from my playlist, I commenced to give the rest of the CD some play. After a few loops the break in “Decomposing Lullaby”, the driving force in “Holy Train”, the first two sentences in “I Believe” and the backing vocals in “Safe as Houses” drew my attention and helped the band reach a listing on my Top 25 Most Played playlist.

Now, 5 months later, the band lists as one of my favourites, and I reserve my aKing t-shirt for events that require an immediate hierarchy. It only came to my attention recently how much I have fallen in love with Dutch Courage. In fact, I can’t think of one reason why they shouldn’t be crowned the best band in the world. Yup, I said it. Their lyrics are awe-inspiring, the vocals are on par, diverse and fresh, and the guitaring suffices without even trying.

In my mind, they only made 3 mistakes:

1. Making The Dance their first single.
2. Their drummer stinks. I’ve been irritated by Snake since his Fokof-days, and back then I also saw him as one of Fokof’s only flaws. The guy really does look like an idiot. I’ll admit that his playing is quite good, but any band member that jeopardises the band as many times as Snake does (back in the day he jumped out of their tour-bussie, going on to break his arm and forcing them to train some new guy (just shows how quickly he can be replaced). Recently he stuck his hand into a blender (yup), injuring his hand and forcing aKing to do an unrehearsed acoustic gig) makes it tough for me to take him seriously. I suppose that he adds some sense of camaraderie to Hunter and the rest, but I really can’t get used to the guy.
3. Their popularity makes it tough for me (and I’m sure many other anti-mainstream fans) to like them. Stupid, I know, but a heartache nonetheless.

My favourite song on the CD has to be Safe as Houses. Lyrics like “the silence knows how afraid we are of it”, “the rain will fall and baptise our strongholds, our sheltered lives”, and “our secrets like weeds creeps up to the roof” demand attention. The song is cleverly structured and the lyrics catchy. I love how the song mocks the sadness that the listener sees in it.

After seeing the band live (considered the true test of a band), I am only more convinced of this foursome’s supremacy. I can safely say that they might well be the best band in the country at the moment.