Lola Kirke at Oslo Hackney

Lola Kirke

Chloe Kimes

Oslo Hackney, 27 November 2025

I finally got to see the fabulous Lola Kirke, backed by a fantastic twangy band, and it really was a fun night full of songs from her new album Trailblazer, lots of laughs, some line-dancing and even readings from her new book, Wild West Village. But the big surprise of the night was her support act, Chloe Kimes, who was equally fun and talented!

I've been meaning to see Lola Kirke for a while now, certainly since her last album, Lady For Sale, came out on Third Man Records (one of the coolest seals of approval I'd say) but never seemed to catch her for one reason or another. Her latest album, Trailblazer (this time not on Third Man) won my heart over even more so I made sure I had tickets to this show, at the nicely intimate Oslo in Hackney for my last show of the year and I'm so glad I did. 

I arrived early as usual and got a plum spot among the usual old fellas at the front. Fortunately though there were a lot of women this time too but they were happier it seemed among the crowd where they could dance, which is actually pretty nice, and they also appeared super excited to see Kirke, so it was clear she has a dedicated following.

This enthusiasm was also evident when support act Chloe Kimes walked on stage, looking super glam in an open white fringed Western shirt and high waisted orange trousers, crowned by her glorious mess of curls and a huge welcoming smile. It turns out that not only is Kimes a Nashville singer-songwriter in her own right she is also acting as tour manager for Kirke, so we see her rushing around all night and manning the merch table before and after her set, but really she is a fantastic performer in her own right, definitely deserving to take her place on the stage and I must say I enjoyed her set as much as Kirke's!

Accompanying Kimes tonight was fiddle player, Oliver Bates Craven, who Kimes says is only in town because he's playing in Sierra Ferrell's band in London next week (supporting Mumford & Sons at their arena shows) but as they are friends he came down to play with her tonight. This is something he didn't do at Kimes' other shows on this UK tour so we really were lucky, as he really made her songs even more special and the energy and chemistry between the two added so much to her show.

I hadn't heard Kimes' music before so I wasn't familiar with the songs but plenty of people here tonight were and there were even people singing along to a couple of songs, particularly one called He Still Listens To The Radio, a jaunty old-timey country number, which is her latest single it seems. Kimes definitely occupies a similar space to Sierra Ferrell, so it makes sense she has "borrowed" her fiddle player tonight. There's something truly happy and upbeat about her music and her performance is so full of energy and joy, whether it's a tribute to her favourite beer (Coors Light) or her ode to living (Afraid To Die). 

There are a few more emotional moments, like the yearning in the song Thunder, but mostly it's fun stuff like the witty country of Still Going With You or the foot-tapping Uh Huh. Kimes herself seems to be having a ball on stage, swinging her guitar and beaming the whole time she's on stage, while she and Craven banter back and forth, it's wild to think he's not part of her act full time (lucky Sierra Ferrell though!). 

The crowd adored her and I absolutely loved her too, her energy was so infectious and her songs were catchy, smart and fun. I really thought she was one of the best support acts I've seen this year and Kirke is certainly lucky to have her on the tour, as a manager and performer!

Kimes helped bring plenty of good feeling to the crowd, so there was a lot of anticipation for Kirke in the small sold-out crowd.  I mean, Kirke is not only a singer/songwriter but an actress too. I initially knew her for her starring role in the TV show Mozart In The Jungle, which was I addicted to, but she's been in lots of movies too including the recent hit horror Sinners. On top of this, her dad was in the classic rock band Bad Company (recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame) and both her sisters are also in the business. In short, Kirke is a genuine star and when she emerges from backstage, wearing a long black chiffon number with white cowboy boots, she literally glows. 

She does that thing where the rest of the band take their places (she has a drummer, bassist, and a guitarist/pedal steel player), start playing and then she appears with her guitar and starts singing, which can be cheesy but somehow it seems absolutely perfect and thrilling when Kirke does it. 

She begins with the title track of her new album Trailblazer, and immediately she feels so natural and charismatic on stage, smiling as she sings and gently swinging her guitar. It is a treat to hear her with the full band as apparently she only had her pedal steel player, CJ Hillman, on other dates, but even though they had only run through the songs about three hours earlier, she tells us, they sound fantastic together.

The show was, not surprisingly, a showcase for the new record and the first three songs, the aforementioned Trailblazer, Easy On Me and 241s, are not only pure country storytelling full of twang, but for a moment I wonder if she is just going to play the album straight through as they follow the song order on the record. It's only by the fifth track that she veers off course a little, with the jaunty Hey Neighbor, which is a newer track that appears as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of the album. She tells us it was written about moving to Nashville, where she lived now for a couple of years and I guess is a welcoming cry to her fellow musicians there (she also tells us she was born in here in London and moved to New York when she was four years old, so it's kind of novel to have a genuine country star being originally a Londoner!). 

She then goes way back to her first album Heart Head West for a complete country reworking of the song Monster. Her first record was a little more dreamy and slightly more indie than her recent work (definitely some Lana Del Rey vibes) so it's interesting to hear the song given a full twang reinvention. I like the original version a lot so it was great to hear it given a new life as a country song. 

After this Kirke invited Kimes up on stage and I assumed it was for a duet but instead Kirke with a huge grin on her face asked if we were up for some line dancing. I, dear reader, was not up for dancing of any kind, but Kirke explained that Kimes was there to show us the simple moves, which, as line dancing does, involved mainly sliding from one foot to the another and clapping and then moving back and clapping again. I have never line-danced and I attempted it, I really did, but even these simple instructions were beyond me, so other than clapping, I gave up. I especially felt like a wally as I was right at the front, so if I did take part, it probably would have looked like I was leading the whole thing, so I simply turned and watched as most of the crowd gamely line-danced as the band played the honky tonking song He Says Y'all and Kimes continued to do the moves on stage. I must say the crowd were pretty good at continuing the dance and doing the moves, I was suitably impressed and so was Kirke, but as an indie rock chick at heart, crowd participation, particularly of the dancing kind, is never going to be me. It definitely was a bit of cheesy fun though and I was surprised at how good so many were at it.

Since Kimes was already on stage (now wearing a new black top), Kirke gave her her guitar and they did finally do the duet I was waiting for: a cover of the Paula Cole tune Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, which, while not a favourite, did sound great with these two country ladies giving it a bit more twang than the original. 

So far I had been a tiny bit disappointed at how few songs from Lady For Sale there were in the set, but thankfully we were finally treated to maybe the best song from it, Pink Sky, and it still sounded hopeful and rousing, with its big catchy chorus. For me it was one of the highlights of the night.

The rest of the band then went off stage, aside from Hillman on his pedal steel, and Kirke gave us a rather lovely acoustic medley of Not Used, from her very first EP, a snippet of Better Than Any Drug (sadly the last glimpse of Lady For Sale we got in the set tonight) and a version of the traditional folk song, Will Ye Go Lassie Go, which actually had lots of the audience singing along (maybe there were a lot of Celts in the crowd!) and was really lovely, I must say.

Earlier this year Kirke published her first book, Wild West Village, and it was easy to spot a copy on stage next to her mike stand, so it was evident there was going to be a reading from it at some point during the night and she did not disappoint. She picked out a page about herself and her sisters arguing and it was funny and poignant and got lots of laughs.  

She then sings a song that she tells us that was about a roadtrip she took to Graceland with one of her sisters, which meant a lot to her: Mississippi, My Sister, Elvis & Me, which of course is funny and catchy and has everyone smiling and bouncing along.

She then reads an excerpt about her glamorous mother, Lorraine, who obviously was married to a rock star, but was also something of a British socialite being the daughter of a billionaire businessman. She sounds like an amazing character, and explains why her three daughters are equally fierce. The following song, Marlboro Lights & Madonna ("but when I think of my mama, I think of Marlboro Lights and Madonna") perfectly paints a vivid picture of this interesting woman that had such a loving influence on her children.

The final excerpt from her book is about her dad, Simon Kirke, the drummer and co-founder of both Bad Company and Free, who it seems was very much an absent dad, probably due to the nature of being in a touring band all the time. The next song, Zeppelin III is a poignant song about having a dad who is always on the road, but who still managed to introduce her to music ("he showed me Zeppelin III, he showed me how to drive, he showed me how to make someone laugh until they cry, I guess he tried his best and I have to believe, he would have showed me love, but all he knew was how to leave").

To balance the sadness in that song, she tells us the next song is dedicated to London because we "are too damn sexy" which of course leads into the track 2 Damn Sexy, which has a Tom Petty-esque rhythm and guitar strum to it and sounds especially fun, defiant and energetic tonight.

She ends the main set on the final song on Trailblazer (of course), Bury Me In NYC, which goes to show despite being born here and now living in Nashville, she's a New York City girl at heart.

With everyone cheering and clapping, it isn't long before she returns for the encore, which she tells us she thinks we are cool enough to know the words to and sing along to: her cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs classic Maps, which she recently released as a duet with Willow Avalon (sadly no Willow here tonight though!) which the audience does indeed sing along to, well the "wait, they don't love you like I love you" lines anyway.

They are also lots of people singing along to the final song, All My Exes Live In L.A., which is definitely a fun and rousing way to end the night, and ending like she started, she leaves the stage as the band are still playing, making the perfect star exit.

Kirke wasn't so starry to avoid the crowd at the end though, as she had told us she would be at the merch desk. She hadn't actually arrived when I went to purchase my goodies (I went a bit crazy and got both Kimes' album and Kirke's book and album), but a smiling Kimes sold me the goods instead and seemed pleased I bought her album (I wish I had told her that I loved her set and got her to sign my vinyl but I was juggling paying for it all). Just as I turned to go to the exit though Kirke had suddenly appeared and I managed to get her to sign her book for me, and she was super nice, so it was a rather lovely end to a really fun night, full of good feeling and smiles. It's definitely made me an even bigger fan, that's for sure!