Live Review + Gallery | Antony Szmierek @ KOKO, London

Antony Szmierek | Getdown Services | KuleeAngee

KOKO, London

27th March 2025

Photography by Matt Wellham (@mattwellham)

Matt Wellham

After years of photographing and filming the London music scene, Matt’s now based in Sydney, Australia. A lover of the post-punk and alternative movement, he can usually be found in the grassroots venues, camera in one hand and a beer in the other.

With help from KuleeAngee and Getdown Services, Antony Szmierek brings his new album to London’s KOKO

Antony Szmierek is an artist who has captured the imagination of our generation. His poetic, authentic lyrics about the mundane everyday, smoothly combined with club beats, create a unique take on how spoken word can appeal to the masses. Think Loyle Carner and Real Lies had a baby, and that baby has a Mancunian accent.

As you walk into KOKO, the beauty of this 125-year-old theatre is etched into every angle. Walls are lavishly painted in red and gold, shimmering as a giant glitter ball hovers above, sending out shards of light into the crowd forming on all three levels. The stage was set in an interesting dynamic, backed by another level, allowing the performers to be surrounded by the crowd in a Boiler Room-style setup.

Our opening act for the night steps out onto the stage: KuleeAngee. Hailing all the way from Scotland and formed by Duncan Grant and Keshav Kanabar, this duo warmed the crowd with guitar-driven melodies combined with smooth house elements. Their harmonious tracks evoked plenty of Jungle vibes, with a healthy dose of Confidence Man’s debut record ‘Confident Music for Confident People‘. As they waved goodbye to the growing crowd, I noticed plenty of people adding them to their Spotify playlists.

Going from north of the border to the West Country, it was Getdown Services’ time to shine. These Bristolian boys are absolutely brilliant. Their take on post-punk isn’t only catchy, but also funny and incredibly relevant to those who stop and think how boring life can be.

During their set, they sang about crisps, their unapologetic views, and how Jamie Oliver’s fifteen-minute meals are pretty shit if you only have five minutes spare. The crowd laughed, gasped, and waved along in synchronisation on command, before the duo told everyone they looked like pricks for doing so. This all concluded in a live performance of my favourite song of 2024, ‘Dog Dribble’, which I’ve had on daily repeat since it was released last November.

Bringing us back to the heart of the UK, Szmierek stepped out to a huge burst of applause. The three floors heaved as the crowd surged forward and the band launched into ‘Service Station at the End of the Universe’. Quickly following with his hit ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Fallacy’, Szmierek dived around the stage with a massive smile on his face, exuding confidence and energy as he flowed from left to right. He soon worked his way into the photo pit before jumping on the barrier and giving the front row a cuddle, much to the delight of the onlookers.

With the upbeat energy of the tracks combined with the stage setup, the 1,500-capacity room was soon transformed into an intimate environment. The space allowed us to feel like we were one on one with Szmierek, as he delivered lyrics that evoked memories of growing up, first loves, early nights out and the grind of life.

Moving into ‘The Great Pyramid of Stockport’, a member of the crowd pulled out a flag that some may recognise from Szmierek’s Glastonbury set. It read: “The Great Pyramids: Egypt, Glasto, Stockport”. This song is Szmierek at his finest. The thumping club beat underlines poetry revolving around a town with a dream; a dream of a brighter future built of glass and steel, but one that ended in becoming an Indian restaurant post-council abandonment.

Szmierek leaned into the crowd, calling on them to keep dreaming with the lines, “If you believe it, it can exist. Imagine what the Pharaohs could have built with a four-day working week or a three-fingered Twix.” This inspiration to keep dreaming is a theme that runs throughout Szmierek’s music. Hearing uplifting and catchy dance tunes underneath his poignant, intelligent lyrics only furthered that belief.

Szmierek and his band continued to work their way through his recent record ‘Service Station at the End of the Universe‘ almost entirely, while weaving in tracks from ‘Poems To Dance To‘, as well as a belting cover of Robbie Williams ‘Feel‘.

Throughout, Szmierek weaves in and out of the crowd, and it’s a pleasure to watch just how charming and confident he is. He moves around effortlessly, speaking directly to members of the audience, coming back to them later in the set to check in on them. The atmosphere felt like we were all there to catch up with a long-lost friend at the local nightclub. At one point, Szmierek even starts a spoken word mosh pit, grinning from ear to ear as he swirls among a swarm of gleeful audience members.

As the night drew to a close, the band moved into into nostalgia-inducing tracks ‘Rafters‘ and ‘The Words to Auld Lang Syne‘. Szmierek speaks of past love and lost memories as he embraces the crowd that surrounds him.

Underneath the glitter ball that beamed bright overhead, KOKO’s audience were comforted by Szmierek’s words: “You’re here now, it doesn’t matter where you’re going after”. For those that stood in KOKO’s theatre dripped in red and gold, what they saw in this moment was a trailblazer in the spoken word scene, one that’s only just begun a journey that’s sure to take him beyond the service station at the end of the universe.

Read our interview with Antony Szmierek here.