Even on a Monday night, on April the 16th the corner around Oakland’s Fox Theater was teeming with people socializing before the concert of King Krule, alias of English musician Archy Marshall and his band. As his second time performing again in the Bay Area within the last 6 months, people had a lot to look forward to this time around. Whether found out from friends, forums, or fellow fans, the setlist was said to include many fan favorites off both of his albums, and a new song rumored to be called either “Badoom” or “IPhone X”.

Half an hour after the doors opened at 7pm, the venue was not as crowded as I had expected and I was able to wander between the mosh pit and the first railing level before deciding on a perfect spot. But by the time the enchanting Kelsey Lu opened at a little after 8pm, the audience was full from front to back, and all captivated by her rich soprano and bottomlessly deep cello; her emotion resonated throughout the entire hall. She sang about a revisitation from her deceased grandmother in a dream, and her experiences as a black woman in America among other personal stories, intertwining passion and melancholy with every next note.

With a short 30 minute interlude, the second his band strolled on stage, King Krule amped up the audience with heavy riffs on saxophone, guitar, and synth, that woke anyone up from the stupor of the wait. Brilliant blue and white strobe lights shone down on the stage, and occasionally even flashed towards the audience. They dove headfirst into the first song “Has it Hit?”. “Another disappointed soul / Well I tried, I tried to keep it in control” he sings immediately, then entering the chorus: “I know when I look into the sky / There is no meaning / Girl I’m the only one believing / And there’s nothing to believe in” Archy Marshall growls, setting his trademark tone – hopelessness, emotional desolation set against the backdrop of the vast universe.

Three songs in, the mosh pit was already pumping their fists and dancing to the chanting of “Dum Surfer”, the story of bad night out (to say the least). After the first several more upbeat songs, King Krule decided to calm the vibe and started the mood with “Cementality”, the stream of consciousness of a tortured soul, and the groovy “Biscuit Town”, a reflection on his hometown of Bermondsey, London. The audience never lost interest, and were still swaying to the beat of forlorn melodies.

For the rest of the concert, people were up on their feet and excited, especially for “Rock Bottom” and “Baby Blue”, both major fan favorites. The crowd cheers as soon as the opening notes of either are played, shouts of “Archy!” and entire sections of lyrics bounced around the theater. “Rock Bottom”, despite venting about the heights of sadness, and “Baby Blue”, despite mourning the loss of a relationship, rallied the audience together in happy anticipation for these favorite songs.

My personal favorite was “The Ooz”, his second album’s title track. The studio version is still great, but the meaning and raw emotion behind it truly hits you when it is being sung, almost screamed, less than 20 meters away from you. It ebbs and flows, with it’s introspective and poetic verses leading into desperate pleas to the universe and a single lover by a repeating guitar hook. “Is anybody out there?” he asks, to crowdful of fans. This could be his vibe in a nutshell, a fear that is existential and incredibly personal, and solitary. Feeling alone in amid a crowd.

If the set list order was a parallel to coming back from an emotional rock bottom, he comes back fighting and refusing to be kept down. Another personal favorite, “Emergency Blimp”, with its constant heavy drum line hypes the audience and gets the mosh bouncing again. It was immediately followed with the new song — “There’s a television speaking to me”, he begins, followed by a continuous stream of fast paced television imagery – commercials, shows, news, flashing before the eyes of perhaps a narrator stuck in a stupor. The song is packed with punches, down to the last seconds. And a song later, by the end of the intense “Half Man Half Shark”, I found myself shouting the lyrics along with others around me.

His closing song, “Easy Easy”, was truly something else. Suddenly noticing that I was singing entire verses with the strangers next to me was a wonderfully surreal experience that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The audience was clapping along, cheering on the crowdsurfing saxophonist, and dancing to the strumming of the guitar. As gritty the themes of many previous songs were, and still this one in a way, the concert ends with an optimistic note: “Cause if you going through hell / We just keep going.” The crowd chants that line along with him.

As soon as his band left the stage, a literal wave of applause and chants of “One more song! One more song!” and “Archy! Archy!” flowed through the theater like a wave. It’s impossible to write about the concert without also including the encore of “Out Getting Ribs”, one of Marshall’s first released when he was 15 years old. Back then, he released music under the name Zoo Kid (spell the first word backwards). It is, in a way, simpler than the other songs — the backbone is a steady guitar line and Marshall’s gritty voice. Yet, it carries more emotional baggage with it than angrier, more uptempo songs. The lyrics themselves are just as passionate and personal as ever, but now around 8 years later, can be sentimental on top of that. For Marshall and long time fans, it is nostalgic. It can be used as a point of comparison for how themselves have changed over time. With 8 more years of life experience since releasing the song, I wonder how it’s meaning has changed for Marshall.

Weeks later, the touching melodies, untamed Baritone Sax solos, and moody basses are still echoing throughout my mind. When people say “live in the moment”, every second of this show was a time that I hope I can always cherish and relive as if I was there again. It was so surreal to be able to see King Krule in the flesh, after listening to both albums for weeks on end. A recent Instagram post of his referred to the last show of the tour as one of the “the last ones in forever”, and referenced a third album in the works. Marshall releases track under many different aliases (The Return of the Pimp Shrimp, DJJD Sports, Edgar the Beatmaker), often for side projects and experiments. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how his music develops in the future, whether becoming more hip-hop, post punk, or jazz oriented, or even something completely unexpected. And hopefully I can catch another King Krule concert in the future.