Review: Kodaline at Riverside Theatre
Kodaline at Riverside Theatre
w/ Isobel Knight
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Like every final chorus, a song must inevitably drift out—and that’s the current state of play for Irish rock band Kodaline. Made up of frontman Steve Garrigan, drummer Vincent May, guitarist Mark Prendergast, and bass guitarist Jason Boland, the quartet formed over two decades ago, way back in 2005, when MySpace still existed and so did the band’s original moniker: 21 Demands.
Forget 21 questions—demands, or rather, requests, were certainly what their Perth fans had upon filling up Riverside Theatre at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre for the first stop on the Australian leg of the Kodaline Farewell Tour on Tuesday, September 1. From there, the band will travel to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane before they hooroo—that’s slang for goodbye, obviously.
So what did the first demand—sorry, request—look like? It took the form of their opener, soul-folk artist Isobel Knight, accompanied by her violinist. Knight carried the charm of a seasoned performer, armed with a quip before every song and a willingness to spiral into tangents—including one about biology. Yes, that one: the factoid your ex probably tagged you in about cells regenerating every seven years. Scientifically proven or just hearsay? Your Google search might know; Knight certainly wasn’t telling.
She rounded things out with a call-and-response harmonic round that pulled the audience in nicely. Certain instruments just enthrall you—the crack of a snare, the pluck of ivory keys—but the violin was the standout here, layering over Knight’s vocals until the set built into a climactic race of surging energy. That said, while her lyrics cut with the sort of precision you’d recognise in a hearty Kodaline song, some of it got a touch too unwieldy for a first-time listen—the kind of material better spent deciphering on Spotify than trying to parse in a room of competing noise.
Wherever You Are? Well, you’re probably reading this on your couch or hiding your phone under your desk at work to fangirl—or fanboy, we don’t judge—while you’re supposed to be on the clock. But it was the first song from Kodaline to christen the stage for this farewell. Off their One Day at a Time album, Garrigan did what every good frontman should: shout out the specific city he’s standing in—Perth, in this case—while the audience sat hypnotised by the simple thrill of finally being in the room with their favourite artist.
What was less thrilling, however, was what the lighting technician got up to. Put simply, theatres operate on a completely different lighting regime to arenas, and for stretches of the night it felt like being trapped inside a badly edited music video where every other second hit you with a blinding white-screen cut.
From there, the set swept through Brand New Day and Ready before landing on Brother—the kind of song that made you envelop your seat neighbour, or whoever you dragged along, in a wordless hug without Garrigan doing the typical adoring crowd callout. Then, of course, it wasn’t long before the first juggernaut of the evening arrived. Off their debut album—In a Perfect World—High Hopes. With around three hundred million Spotify streams to its name and a starring role in soundtracking Lily Collins and Sam Claflin’s Love, Rosie—back when she wasn’t busy being Emily in Paris—you just knew a moment like this should be special. It lived up to every expectation and, as the kids would say, 10/10, no notes.
By now everyone was riding happy endorphins, already plotting which clips were about to creep onto their Instagram stories—and the stragglers had settled in comfortably too. Remember, this was mostly an Irish-slash-Australian crowd, so things were bound to get rowdy. While the spotlight narrowed to Garrigan alone, the band slipping offstage, one female audience member decided to get daring, letting out witty remarks about the songs being written about her. Garrigan, handling it with the easy deflection of someone who’s survived countless bar-gig hecklers on the way up, joked back before eventually easing into The One—a song he wrote for his wife. That bled into one of the newer cuts, Without You, off their upcoming and appropriately titled album We Were Only Young, due out October 1. Instead of doing the typical vows, Garrigan apparently decided to tell his wife how committed he was to her through singer-speak: just write her a song.
Kodaline quite literally moved on with Moving On, and by the time Love Like This hit, the entire room had collectively figured out they were allowed to stand. Sure, Riverside Theatre had tiered seating, but considering the relatively intimate size of the venue, it felt like one gigantic pit—and the band fed off every watt of that energy. Was one more hand-clap signal on the demands list? Probably not.
Then the fire-signal of all fire-signals was lit: the lie of there being one more song. Of course, it never was just one. Everything Works Out in the End—the first track to manifest upon the band’s return to the stage—wrapped the room in what all good concerts really are: a gateway, a little pocket of escapism held together by mutual adoration. Garrigan thanked the newcomers in the crowd, then said goodbye to them in the same breath—their first Kodaline show doubling as their last.
It probably doesn’t take much guessing to figure out what the final song was, that last ode to Perth: All I Want. Speaking back to demands, Kodaline fans probably wanted a little more time—a redo, a rewind, one more chance to hear that song live instead of just through their earbuds. But doesn’t that mean Kodaline did their job? They made their music matter.
RACHEL FINUCANE
Photos by Linda Dunjey
