As the grey clouds and the threat of rain loomed over France’s capital, people began to queue for Good Kid’s first headlining show. At 4pm, 4 hours before the doors would open, a group of fans played Uno in front of the venue. Despite the cloudy weather, today’s show dress code was “summer”. As the time went on, more and more colour filled the street, forming a vibrant queue in front of La Belleviloise. As the doors opened for VIP, people started to make their way in and pick up their lanyard and pass by the merch stand.
After an hour, doors opened for everyone, the merch stand was flooded and the stage was surrounded by people. As the lights turned off the crowd cheered, Cardigan Inn walked on stage, opening for Good Kid as their first show out of the Netherlands. The new wave band would play an electric set that absolutely captured the crowd, chanting “Hey! Hey! Hey!” to the beat and singing guitar rhythms. With his grey suit and funky dance moves the singer showed a mastery of stage presence. As the set went on the energy only grew, the final song ended and the crowd cheered.
Between the two sets people were vibing with the pre-show playlist while the band’s team passed out QR codes to share photos with Good Kid. The energy only grew as ‘Gnarly’ by Katseye played while the lights turned off and the band came onstage.
Good Kid would not waste a second, starting the set with ‘Slingshot’, fittingly ending with “It’s gonna be the start of what you are”. It would set the tone for an intense and fast paced set. Then came ‘Break’ and ‘Bubbly’ from their latest EP, and as the guitars resonated through the venue Good Kid’s bassist Michael Kozakov sang with fans. ‘Bubbly’ would end in a clash between lead singer Nick Frosst and guitarist Jacob Tsafatinos leaving Jacob on the ground after the peak of this third song.
The band would finally introduce themselves before jumping right back in with ‘Tell Me You Know’, the energy only rose as the crowd screamed “Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell me you know” with the band during the chorus. People gave it their all, dancing, singing and moving their arms in the air to the beat. During ‘Witches’ Jacob split the crowd in two, going in with his guitar and making both sides sing (or more accurately scream) each verse of the chorus. To start ‘Alchemist’ Michael counted in French with the crowd “Un deux, un deux trois quatre”. As the song ended and the band tuned their instruments, a scream suddenly captured everyone. It was ‘Ground’, sounding like straight out of a Western, the song absolutely hit live.
Then came ‘The Wheel of CHAOS’, a prop they had to size down from their previous tour. This wheel featured options like “stop the show and go home”, “get shreked” and “speak in French the whole show”. As the wheel was spun by a member of the crowd, tension and anticipation was at its highest, until everyone laughed. Good Kid had to speak in French, and they did surprisingly well! Helped by the fact that they were Canadian they spoke it more than correctly. But since they thought it was boring they shreked the crowd anyway, playing a cover of ‘All Star’.
The pace slowed down despite the crowd asking for more. Good Kid played ‘Second Rate Town’, an acoustic rendition of their song ‘First Rate Town’ with only Nick and David Wood playing the acoustic guitar on stage, this would make for an incredibly intimate song, with phone flashlights waving in the crowd and the heartfelt vocals of both band members merging the chance of pace was sudden but successful. As the other band members came back on stage to play ‘Pox’ they would be stopped by Nick and David. They had a surprise, and to the disarray of some and the excitement of others, ‘Pox’ would be replaced by an unreleased acoustic song. They explained that this song was about spending time with your loved ones while you still can, a sort of “memento mori”. You could feel the emotions in the venue as the acoustic guitar rang and the two sang “I’d like to stay with you a little more, If I could give it just a little more, I’d like to spend another day with you”
As the band reunited, drinks were handed to the crowd by Jacob as the venue was so hot. The pace picked up again and despite the heat people were dancing like never before to ‘Osmosis’ ending with Michael and Jacob having a guitar off in front of the crowd during the final solo. ‘Premier Inn’ would end with a trumpet solo by Nick, surrounded by the two guitarists. Jacob would go mosh in the crowd again with his guitar during ‘Aloe Lite’ and with each song the crowd was getting more and more energetic, dancing and jumping around with the band’s guitarist. Next was a song pretty fitting with the country they were in, as ‘Down With the King’ played, and you can bet the crowd channeled their inner revolutionary French hearts to chant “Down! With! The! King! Down with the king!” As loud as they could.
The pace would slow down for the last time for their acoustic song ‘Madeleine’, as Nick and Jacob made their way to the middle of the crowd and the phone flashlights shone towards them. This would make the song even more emotional. The romantic song ended as the lights turned off and the band walked offstage.
Encores are named like they are based on a French word, so you would guess that French crowds would chant “Encore! Encore!” But not at all! While waiting for Good Kid to come back on stage people screamed “une autre!” (Another one!) and “popolopopopopo”
As the band announced they came back with only three final songs, the crowd knew it was the time to give it their all. First to the indie rock cover of ‘From the Start’ by Laufey. As the chorus ended, Nick sneakily stole some confetti from the crowd and threw them with the crowd while singing “What’s a girl to do?”. The song was followed by ‘Mimi’s Delivery Service’ and finally ‘Summer’ ending the show with the two fastest paced songs, and the one the show was themed after. As the crowd screamed “This can’t be the end” and the guitar break came, the pinnacle of the concert hit. Two crowd-surfers surged to the front of the stage during the guitar solo. This final song summarised what a Good Kid show is like: energetic, fast paced and most importantly joyful and chaotic.
Written by: Leny Munier
Photographed by: Leny Munier
Edited by: Sabine de Graaf
