Live Review: Cyan Kicks & Autumn Kings in Arnhem

How does one make sure one’s Saturday night is spent in the best possible way? By attending a co-headline tour of two rock bands from very different parts of the world, of course. On the 8th of March, Canadian band Autumn Kings and Finnish band Cyan Kicks took to the stage in Arnhem’s Willemeen to rock the audience’s socks off. 

The doors to the upstairs venue in the center of Arnhem opened at 19:30. Fans slowly but surely trickled in, filling the room maybe not physically but definitely metaphorically with their enthusiasm. When at 20:15 the first band took to the stage, it was to loud applause from the audience. The bassist for this tour, Marty Bak, and drummer Troy Dawdy came on first, joined seconds later by vocalists Joe Coccimiglio and Jake Diab, who is also the band’s guitarist. They opened their set with ‘Echo (Ready for War)’, a track that opens with a very catchy shout that wakes up the crowd right away, and ‘ALIENS!’. Afterwards, Coccimiglio stated how this was the band’s first time ever playing a show in The Netherlands. The singer also recognized some people from the show in Oberhausen, Germany, and gave them a shout out for showing up again. Several people in the audience sang enthusiastically along to all the songs, including third track ‘Go for Gold’, which Coccimiglio thanked them for right after. The crowd may not have been a huge one, but they absolutely gave it their all. It definitely helped that the band is very charismatic, taking their time to interact with everyone, with Diab even fistbumping the fans in the front row while playing the song ‘Terrified’ – which the crowd clapped along to excitedly.

After performing ‘POWER’, a song about taking back power in the music industry, recognizing the lies they might sell and knowing when to walk away from that, Coccimiglio stated how he saw people in the audience who he beforehand had only been speaking to over Facebook for the last decade. As this show was part of Autumn Kings’ first European tour ever, this was of course no surprise, but how cool is it to finally get to see one of your favourite bands in your own continent after such a long time? He then asked if there were any 90s babies in the room, as they might be familiar with the upcoming track: a cover of Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’. Of course, even the younger people in attendance were familiar with this track, and all sang and clapped along. Diab even treated the audience to a smashing guitar solo. After playing this cover, Coccimiglio asked the crowd if it was indeed the case that it is normally not so warm in Europe this time of year, which all agreed to, and stated how the band “takes full credit for bringing the heat” – thanks, Autumn Kings! He then introduced the band’s next track ‘Riptide’, which they wrote about all the crazy things that have been happening in the world and how that can make one feel. “I’ve been drowning and I can’t break hold” the lyrics in the chorus go; surely everyone has felt this way at some point, making it a heavy-hitting track even if one was not familiar with it before. 

The band continued with ‘Electrified’, which included a fun drum solo that is not part of the song’s studio version, before stating that they would be playing an older song next. They told the OG fans in the audience to teach the lyrics to ‘If I Leave Today’ to those who have not heard of Autumn Kings before. They switched it all up right after by continuing tonight’s setlist with a “brand new Autumn Kings song” called Snake Charmer, a revenge anthem that includes a flute in its instrumental arrangement, creating a very unique track – in the best way possible. Then, the band moved on with their track ‘Clouds’ and a cover of Linkin Park’s ‘Bleed It Out’ – another song that everyone could sing along to and that fit the voices of Coccimiglio and Diab perfectly. It must be noted that their vocals could be clearly heard the entire night, never drowned out by the instrumentals at all – which is a feat that must be commended in a small venue like this. Finally, Autumn Kings ended their set with ‘HELLBOUND’ and ‘SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD’, the audience clapping along one last time. 

At 21:35, about twenty minutes after Autumn Kings had gone off stage, the intro to the second band’s set sounded over the speakers. Cyan Kicks consists of lead vocalist Susanna Alexandra, guitarist Niila Perkkiö, bassist Leevi Erkkilä and drummer Pietari Reijonen. The crowd was clapping along to the beat of the music playing while the band members one by one took to the stage and as soon as they were all set, began with their tracks ‘Don’t you say I didn’t warn you’ and ‘Wish You Well’. In between the second and third track on the setlist, Alexandra took a short look at her left arm – not to check the time, but to make sure she would correctly pronounce the Dutch words she had remembered for the night – “Goedenavond Arnhem” and “Bedankt”. The night continued with ‘See the Light’, a rock cover of Alec Benjamin’s ‘Let Me Down Slowly’, and Cyan Kicks’ own track ‘Someone Like You’, the cloud enthusiastically singing and clapping along to everything. 

For the sixth track of the night, Alexandra took off her leather jacket – the temperature in the room had steadily risen throughout the music – as there would be a moment to dance during ‘Addicted’. Halfway through the track, the singer took the time to give a fan in the front a big hug, and before the final chorus, a sample of ‘Everybody Dance Now’ sounded over the speakers. Alexandra and Perkkiö, but especially Erkkilä and his bass, took this moment to show off their dance moves. The band continued their cool moves in ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Bed’, with Perkkiö ditching his own guitar for a hot second to play Erkkilä’s bass instead – who, yes, was still wearing it. After playing their cover of Heart’s ‘Alone’ which they released last year, Alexandra asked the crowd to scream to see how loud they could get, and also wondered aloud who in the audience was at the Smash Into Pieces show in 2023 where they were the support act. Finally, Alexandra used the end of her speech to give a shout out to all the women in the room as it was International Women’s Day and told them to “always stay true to yourself”. 

The band continued with ‘Middle of a Breakdown’, ‘Tidal Wave’ and ‘Satellite’, with Erkillä doing his first epic jump of the night. It must be noted how energetic all members of the band were, making use of the entire stage to show off kicks, dance moves, jumps and a lot of headbanging from Alexandra – all as close to the audience as possible without accidentally hitting anyone. “Goedenavond” and “bedankt” turned out to not be the only Dutch words Alexandra had practiced; before ‘Invincible’, Alexandra counted from one to four in Dutch: “Eén, twee, drie, vier”, which she had written down on a paper towel. The band continued with ‘Echo’, telling the audience to hold their hands up at the start and motioning for them to clap along, and ‘Gasoline’ during which Alexandra ended up strumming Perkkio’s guitar, who played the chords himself. It was clear how well the band works together, because each and every moment such as this one worked out effortlessly. 

Cyan Kicks ended their set with two more songs, both of which they tried to represent Finland with at the Eurovision Song Contest. While they did not manage to do so, both songs are absolute hits. They played the more recent ‘Dancing with Demons’ first, Alexandra moving on her knees across the stage like a serpent for the first verse, and jumping down the stage into the mosh pit they had finally managed to start at the end of the track. The evening ended with ‘Hurricane’ and Erkkilä’s second epic ‘jump’ of the night: a one-armed cartwheel while still carrying his bass. 

All in all, the night was simply astonishing. Both bands gave the maybe half-filled room all their energy – they deserve to be able to do this on way larger stages. Autumn Kings and Cyan Kicks also took their time to meet the fans after the show was over, signing things and taking pictures with everyone who asked. Their co-headline tour will be continuing throughout the rest of March with dates in Austria and Germany among others, so if you are in for a night filled with heavy rock, headbanging and grant guitar solos – make sure to check these bands out!

Photos taken at the show in Haarlem on March 9th, full photo gallery can be found here.