THE FRONT ROW

Back in 2019, The Front Row caught The K’s at Hit The North Festival in Newcastle. A tight bar crowd barely scraping thirty heads. Sweaty walls. Warm pints. The kind of night that made your shoes stick to the floor and your head ring the next day. But from the minute Jamie Boyle and the lads struck the first chord, there was that fizz in the air – the something’s happening here kind. We wrote then: this band are going places. Six years on, they’re not just there – they’ve blown past it, selling out a 2,300-strong O2 Academy in Leeds like it was a local pub gig.

So how did we get here? Not via flashy TikToks or an algorithm-friendly soft launch. The K’s have done it the old-school way: tour vans, £20 hotels, support slots, and sheer bloody persistence. In a time where everyone’s chasing virality, The K’s have built something far more powerful: actual fans. Real people. Real energy. Real noise. And last night proved that better than any stats sheet ever could.

Bringing their Pretty on the Internet Tour in Leeds, this wasn’t just another date on the calendar. This was a culmination of six years of relentless grafting, shouting into voids, and hearing the roar back.

“We Are The K’s” – and Leeds Knew It.

The night opened with Gravestone, teased with a dramatic Icarus intro that had the room immediately at fever pitch. It’s a bold opener – not one of the biggest hitters from the first record, not the lead single from the second – but that’s The K’s all over. They back themselves. And rightly so. Icarus followed up properly and launched us into a full-throttle run through a set that barely gave anyone a second to breathe.

What stood out immediately was just how loved these songs are. Chancer, Heart on My Sleeve, and Hoping Maybe were belted back with such volume you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a greatest hits tour – and in many ways, it was. While the new album Pretty On the Internet, lands next month, this was really a final lap of honour for their debut. And what a lap it was.

Helen, Oh I, the latest cut from the upcoming record, already feels like a setlist mainstay – a defiant anthem sung by 2,000 voices like it had been in their lives for years. It’s fast becoming that track. The one people come to shows for. The “that’s my favourite” on post-gig Instagram captions.

But then… no Breakdown in My Bedroom? A surprise, given its punch as a lead single and its emotional weight. Maybe it’s a strategic choice. Maybe they’re saving it. Maybe they just didn’t fancy it. Either way, it didn’t feel like a loss – which is saying something. That’s how stacked this set is.

More Than a Setlist – A Community.

In every break between songs, a chant echoed across the Academy: “Dacton! Dacton! Dacton!”

Now, if you’re new here – Dacton & Wanderella is a cult fan favourite from the debut’s deluxe edition, a track that rarely gets a live airing. But the people wanted it. And not just a few die-hards down the front. We’re talking full venue, football terrace energy. The K’s have always felt like a band of the people – and this was their people asking for something rare, something special.

As the set surged to its climax with Sarajevo, teased beautifully with the Dirty Earlestown intro, it felt like that would be it. That we’d had our lot. But of course, the chants resumed. And the band returned. And with the kind of smile that says “you lot are the best crowd on the tour so far,” Jamie launched into Dacton & Wanderella. The place erupted. It was the catharsis moment. The “you had to be there” bit people will brag about on Monday.

Despite being the Pretty on the Internet Tour, only two songs from the incoming album made the cut. So this, really, was a send-off to I Wonder If The World Knows. And what a send-off. Almost the entire album was played, and it landed like a modern indie classic. Lights Go Down, Glass Towns, and No Place Like Home were all met with arms aloft and chorus chants, like hymns in the Church of The K’s.

It was hard not to be moved watching Just For Today – its raw, reflective energy pinning the room still for four perfect minutes. And then Picture, Hometown, and Black and Blue reminded everyone that while The K’s are often grouped in with the lad-rock, pub-gig scene, there’s real songwriting depth here. That’s always been the difference. That’s what’s kept the buzz real.

What The K’s have done is extraordinary. In an industry that so often prioritises trends over talent, here’s a band who simply refused to do anything other than write good tunes and play them everywhere. While other bands were obsessing over follower counts, these lads were putting in the hours. You don’t just arrive at a sold-out O2 Academy Leeds. You earn it. And by god, they have.

Every note last night was a testament to that journey – from tiny bars to main stages, from sticky carpets to light shows and raucous encores. And what’s more – they look like they’re still having the time of their lives. There’s no ego here. No detachment. Jamie, Ryan, Dex, and Nat aren’t rockstars, they’re just four mates who built something that now thousands of people want to be part of. That’s magic.

If Pretty on the Internet is the next chapter, it’s a promising one – but Leeds felt like a love letter to what’s come before. And what’s come before is one of the most organic, authentic rises in British guitar music of the last decade.

We said it in 2019. We’re saying it again now – The K’s are going places. And the best part is, they’re taking every single one of us with them.