Life has not been straight forward for Kira Mac after a flying start to their career, with line-up changes and industry troubles which have culminated in a decision to release their long awaited second album independently. Neither was it a good sign that this London date of an extensive tour was downgraded to the smaller of the two Academy venues, though it did feel full and they had no trouble generating an atmosphere.

There were a pair of support bands in Wrex and Hell Hotel, both with female co-lead singers, and both based in Brighton. The former mixed a punky approach with elements of Linkin Park- style nu-metal, and the latter were more in an emo and hardcore vein. It was too shouty for me to personally enjoy, and I suspect many of my fellow older fans in the crowd felt the same way, but their levels of energy and raw enthusiasm were admirable.

After a lengthy intro Kira Mac opened with ‘Climbing’ and singer Rhiannon Kira Hill, always the focal point with her long blonde hair, got the crowd moving from the off. ‘Dead Man Walking’ and ‘No Way Out’ both boasted some heavy riffs and tidy solos from Joe Worrall. The four piece band, completed by bassist Vernon Whitmore and drummer Loz Riley, behind a massive Perspex screen, have been stable for a while now. At the early shows I saw with this line up I thought the band were trying too hard to toughen up, but now they have settled down and found a nice balance, no less heavy but with a leaner and tighter sound.

‘Chaos is Calling’ saw Rhiannon, who has a naturally personable rapport with the crowd, orchestrating air punching and shouts of ‘hey’. Now familiar songs from the debut album such as ‘One Way Ticket’ and ‘Hit Me Again’ nestled alongside ‘Monster’, which I remembered hearing last year at Firevolt, with an excellent hook.

What makes Kira Mac an interesting proposition is that the music is modern, downtuned hard rock, yet Rhiannon’s vocals have a soulful or even country pop tinge to them, hardly surprising given her varied background. She copes with the different style with ease and yet those vocals not only make the lyrics very audible, but smooth off some of those harsher edges. A variety of favourites were played one after another, from the heavier such as ‘Save Your Whiskey’ to the more overtly commercial including the bouncy chorus and feisty sentiments of ‘Scorned’, and ‘Playing the Game’.

Some of the ‘new’ songs are older than others as they were already blooding them when I first saw them in the Summer of 2023. However as the night wore on, and to promote some special demos the band were selling at the show of numbers that may or may not make it to the album, unfamiliar songs eventually predominated in the latter part of the set.

‘Haunt Me’ saw Rhiannon involve the crowd in swaying their arms: however the backing tapes that had been audible but mainly on intros and fills were unduly prominent on the chorus on this occasion. I’m afraid that is one of my bugbears as a grumpy old school rocker and another was in evidence all night, the youthful ‘content creators’ tasked with generating a social media buzz, which unfortunately is a modern fact of life. Not for them the photographer’s code of the ‘three songs and out’ pit as they get right on stage and in the band’s faces.

Many of those new songs were lyrically influenced by their own recent challenges including ‘Comeback Better’ and ‘Demons’. ‘Go 4 Blood’ and recent single ‘Try’ were both distinctively heavier and more aggressive, though as the set wore on a slight unease struck me that too many of the songs seem to be written to a very similar structure, and sound naggingly like others.

‘Farewell’ was lyrically a suitable closer for an hour and a quarter set where they crammed in an impressive 16 songs with little padding. This show was a good sign that they have come out swinging from some challenging times- lets hope they are soon in a position to release that long-awaited second album.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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