Live Review + Gallery | Searows @ KOKO, London

Searows | Amos Heart

KOKO, London

10th April 2026

Photography by Izzy Reeve

Izzy Reeve

I’m a London-based music photographer and occasional writer and I love documenting gigs and people enjoying them. Having just moved back to London from Scotland, where I first started shooting concerts, I’m looking forward to exploring what the scene down south has to offer with CLUNK! From new acts to festivals, I love what clunk champions and I can’t wait to get started.

Searows played to stunned silence at London’s KOKO to celebrate new album ‘Death In The Business Of Whaling’

Searows’ sophomore album ‘Death In the Business of Whaling’ rounded off its U.K. tour in London’s KOKO on Friday. Immersing the audience in the slowcore sound that has been adopted on the new record, Searows leans into a heavier accompaniment to his existential musings, and his live shows are all the more emotional for it.

Searows, the project of Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter Alec Duckart, had the audience in the palm of his hand in London. Following his one-off headline at Hoxton Hall in October last year, I was looking forward to hearing the album in person having had it on repeat since its release.

Fellow Portland-based artist Amos Heart opened up the evening, performing a solo set with only his guitar, pedal board and a mouth trumpet. Heart captured the room with his indie, folk-rock storytelling, transporting the crowd to the Pacific Northwest of America. With humble charm and captivating vocals, Heart set the spellbound atmosphere that carried through the evening.

Returning to the stage with Duckart were Remi Aguilella on drums, Soph Nathan on guitar and Marlowe Ostara on bass, adding dreamy depth to the murky world Searows conjures. The new record deals with more abstract themes, taking a more open-ended, bystander approach rather than personal storytelling, leaning into folkloric, seafaring imagery.

They began with the first three songs of ‘Death In the Business of Whaling’ (‘Belly of the Whale’, ‘Kill What You Eat’ and ‘Photograph of a Cyclone’) to then rip through album highlight ‘Dearly Missed,’ where Duckart let loose, culminating in a belt that rose goosebumps. It seemed the band were revelling in the rockier sound, even standing back to back to tear through guitar solos.

Sticking with this heavier approach, Duckart introduced fan favourite ‘End Of The World’ as a song he has “really not liked playing” in the past, but has always felt like he should play. Not one to let his fans down, Searows reimagined the song’s morose folkiness into harsher, crunchy, electric guitar-driven melancholy.

This evolution feels like a natural progression, with Duckart’s vulnerable reflections echoed back by spine-tingling instrumentation and harmony to create even more tension. Sandwiched between ‘End Of The World’ and ‘Keep The Rain’, Searows delivered a cover of Lorde’s ‘David’, having only played it once before.

Covering the entirety of the new album and a few older tracks, the setlist featured ‘Martingale’, ‘In Violet’, ‘Roadkill’,‘Hunter’, ‘Junie’ with ‘House Song’ and ‘Geese’ rounding off the encore. Heading into a solo rendition of ‘Dirt’, Duckart said the room was “so silent, nobody could be here.” It seems characteristic of a Searows show that the crowd will watch in stunned silence, pulled in by haunting music that wears its emotions on its sleeve. Continuing his album run, Searows’ headline tour continues across North America later this month.