The Kooks
Wow! What a great atmosphere this evening in the LCR
Wow! What a great atmosphere this evening in the LCR as the audience eagerly awaits The Kooks entering the stage. Friday night gigs always have a very special atmosphere about them and this evening is no different as tonight the venue is indeed extremely lively. The place is absolutely buzzing.
The impressive set is enhanced by an equally impressive visual display of mocked up television sets that are placed around the stage at various points and play out the bands performance as it unfolds. At times the songs are accompanied by related visuals including scenes and images from the 2011 London riots (‘It Was London’). They have certainly opened up the LCR stage tonight, making the most of their temporary surroundings in the process.
Four albums in and the band are at their absolute creative peak. The new album ‘Listen’ is without doubt their most adventurous and finest album to date. The set opens up with the single ‘Around Town’ and sees lead singer Luke Pritchard looking, as always, resplendent. His hip swinging, snake hipped Jaggerisms make him an irresistible watch; he is a brilliant frontman, a right little mover. Alongside songs from their impressive back catalogue such as ‘Do You Wanna’, ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’,’ Sofa Song’, ‘Naïve’ and ‘Junk Of The Heart’, the new tracks from the current album also come over very well including, ‘Backstabber’, ‘Bad Habit’, ‘Down’, ‘Sweet Emotion’, ‘See Me Now’ and ‘Westside’.
Pritchard manages to shake off his band members for a couple of acoustic numbers mid set as the evening progresses, ‘Seaside’ followed by ‘Dreams’ has the audience in the palm of his hands as one big massive sing along ensues. He also has a black bra flung in his direction towards the end of the set. It’s a tough job being a rock star.
It really was a great gig while it lasted, but at one hour and fifteen minutes, there quite simply wasn’t enough of it.
