KEO Live at Stylus: A Curious Case on an otherwise Meteoric Rise

I am easily pleased. The irony of that statement is that it almost exclusively comes out the mouths of individuals who can’t help but regularly take stock of their indulgences and constantly cultivate their proclivities to achieve peak cultural capital, just to ultimately remain unsatisfied all the same. But I wholly am easily pleased! (I swear!). Musically, gritty guitar reverb, a pounding bassline and a sweet melody are all it takes for me to rave and rant about  ‘the next big thing’ in The Gryphon’s Music Editors group chat (hello to whichever of you has the misfortune of editing this pessimistic piece!). However, this rule is not without its exceptions. Keo, SoundCloud’s premiere grunge export, rose through the overcrowded ranks of UK guitar bands in a breakout 2025, settling on many a ‘ones to watch’ list and even more hollering group chats, seemingly all bar, well, mine.  

Dramatic as that may sound, it is far from grounds for me to make a scathing indictment of the band’s talent, much less their character. Building a fan base and a sturdy foundation of noteworthy tracks in as little time as they have is a feat scarcely achievable in the overtly over-saturated market the four-piece find themselves in. Moreover, I can absolutely admit that there is an indescribable allure in frontman Finn Keogh’s voice, grinding against the snarling rhythm sections and textured riffs the rest of the band produces. That being said, something has always just fallen short with Keo for me, despite having seen them live on two separate occasions. A nanoscopic nagging nestled in the deepest depths of my ear, refusing to let me warm to the London grunge-inspired quartet.  

Fortunately, my easily pleased nature extends to my optimism! Keo’s relentless rise currently has them on a UK/European tour, with tickets in vehement demand, and I, in an effort to give the rising stars one almighty final shot at winning me over, pulled some strings and got myself into their Leeds leg at Stylus. As such, the scene was set. A sold-out venue, a feverish audience, a hotshot young rock band, and one dubious student journalist, hoping to be proved wrong and give in to the meteoric rise of Keo. 

Keo’s music toes the line between euphonious indie-rock, prideful post-punk and pure grunge, brashly packaging Nirvana and Pearl Jam influences in with modern-day Fontaines D.C. and The Smiths leaning melodic tendencies. The sonic result of this union is a powerhouse of guitar-driven cacophonies and shearing vocal cries, much akin to that of UK contemporaries Wunderhorse.  

This link raises my first curiosity of Keo’s situation. Keo, seemingly unheard of at the time, booked a solid string of support slots and signed to AWAL Records in 2025, despite a near non-existent catalogue of music being available to the general audience. From where I’m standing, alarm bells! Falling all-too-coincidentally in line with the emphatic insurgence of Wunderhorse’s stock over the last two years, these fresh-faced independents, with rosy cheeks brutally contrasted by their blank slate of work, were booking gigs that should’ve been way out of their scope. Their auspicious anthems clashed intensely with their suspicious start, yet here they were, emblazoned with the heady task of being the next big thing. 

This thrusting into the spotlight was met with a rampant fan response. Masses flocked to see them at a litany of festivals and support slots and received the band’s debut EP Siren (2025) with ardent praise. Returning to the present day, the five tracks that encompass Siren (2025) remain the only released songs on major streaming platforms by the band, and, as such, they made up the minority of the fifteen-song set. I’d be remiss if I didn’t praise the ferocity with which Keo attacked the performance of these released tracks, however. Rising to the unrelenting energy of the crowd, ‘Hands’ set the evening off at a soaring pace, whilst fan-favourites ‘I Lied, Amber’ and ‘Thorn’ were delivered with the vigour of a band ready to take the next step into indie stardom.  

The reception of these big-name tracks served both as a signal of Keo’s undeniable star-quality, but also as a mirror, held up to their most cavernous shortcoming at this early stage of their career; the lack of tangible material available. Unwilling to be caught empty-handed, Keo have evidently been honing their craft, offering up many of their unreleased prototypes on this current tour. ‘That’s me’ arrived with an Oasis-esque, boyish pomp, its boisterous energy and infectious riff reminiscent of the Gallagher brothers in their heyday (à la ‘Morning Glory’ or ‘Acquiesce’). Similarly, ‘Black Dress’ promises to be a fine addition to their catalogue once it emerges from unreleased purgatory. Unfortunately, though, despite the promising spark to these unreleased tracks, their unknown presence cast a dark shadow on the crowd, leaving them lost in purgatory, forced to succumb to vaguely mouthing the expected lyrics and sway haphazardly. 

Perhaps an abstract to the audience whilst we are here? The otherwise encouraging evening was a hotbed of infuriating, passive-aggressive, spiritually ‘manospheric’ cries of ‘Keo! Keo! Keo!’, much akin to that of a colony of cavemen, waving around their clubs and grunting profusely to signal their young of an encroaching pack of bears. So utterly scared-shitless of being caught vulnerable and open to new experience, the assembly’s dull yapping even continued amidst Keo’s performance of new material. There were songs played that I couldn’t dream of commenting on in this piece, as my memories of them are plagued by the senseless screeches of my fellow gig-goers. Devoid of chic, tact and a general sense of courtesy, the Cro-Magnon crowd was irrefutably the dullest jewel in an otherwise (close to) shimmering crown of a set. 

So where do Keo go from here? They plough on. Their promise is evident; however, it may be too much too soon. The unruly audience, whilst a hefty challenge for any band to appease, wasn’t captivated by their latest offerings, a response you can almost guarantee will change come the release of new material. I can attest that the foundation the quartet have built is firm and true, and that they will only get stronger with every outing as they cut their teeth on this tour, but can I say I am won over? Not with sincerity, but Keo have certainly piqued my interest. Talent, image, momentum, I can see it is there. As such, despite this lukewarm outing, the rising stars have creaked the door open for me, illuminating my optimism and giving me hope to one day revel in attendance of a Keo live set (ideally one with a more pleasant crowd experience).

Words By Daniel Brown