Irish rap trio Kneecap have added an extra show to the London leg of their Fine Art tour after demand for tickets exceeded expectations. The additional show will take place on November 8 at the O2 Kentish Town Forum, and supplements one initially planned show on November 21. The band announced the new show in a post on Instagram alongside the caption: “London – We’ve added a Second night at the @o2forumktown due to demand from ye sxc hipsters”.
The band is currently on its Fine Art Tour in support of its debut album of the same name. The Fine Art LP has also impressed critics with attributes beyond its fun or whimsical qualities, with DIY Magazine calling the album “totally unique, totally committed and totally thrilling.”
“Here’s an evening of getting laid, getting out of your head, sniffing and selling gear, pegging it from the police. This isn’t hedonism for the sake of it, mind. Feeling voiceless, powerless, unseen, unheard and unwanted, Kneecap formed to represent their reality in music and deliver it in their native tongue; a language that many in Northern Ireland wanted extinguished,” wrote NME’s Andrew Trendell about the band’s debut LP.
The trio, which consists of DJ Próvaí and rappers Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, recently played two sets at Glastonbury, when they also hosted a preview of their biopic starring Michael Fassbender, which is now showing to audiences around the UK and Ireland. Former Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher subsequently praised the band’s festival set, saying he “couldn’t believe how fun it was.” The group is experiencing a rapid rise in its profile and have drawn attention for their outspoken promotion of the Irish language as well as Republican and Pro-Palestine causes, amplified by DJ Próvaí’s usual garb of an Irish-tricolour balaclava.
In addition to a rising profile in the hip-hop genre, Kneecap is promoting a fictionalised biopic telling the story of the band’s genesis in Belfast, also entitled Kneecap, which rapper Móglaí Bap says takes inspiration from Irvine Welsh’s seminal Glasgow film Trainspotting. “It’s kind of similar to our music,” Bap said in a recent interview at Glastonbury Festival, “people get energy off it, get the craic.”
“The film is hilarious, whip-smart, moving, brilliantly entertaining. When it lands, early next month, it will be a landmark moment for the Irish language, Irish cinema and Irish music,” the Irish Times said of the film.
Kneecap are currently playing a run of shows in English cities, with three upcoming performances in Leeds, before heading to the US to play Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Washington DC.
