The Kooks @ Festival Hall(04/01/12)

Fri 13th Jan, 2012 in Gig Reviews

As early as The Kooks’ set opener, Is It Me, it was clear that the crowd at Festival Hall were to be treated to the Luke Pritchard Show. Not that anyone was complaining; as Pritchard took a step onto the platform at the front of the stage the majority of women in the audience screamed, knowing that Pritchard was a foot closer to them.

Pritchard removed his jacket for the second number, Always Where I Need To Be, the first of many up-tempo pop songs the band has become famous for, which are both fun and made for singing and dancing. Pritchard, sans guitar, was more energetic than I had expected; throughout Always he was ghosted by a presumably unfit roadie whose job was to make sure that Pritchard didn’t trip himself up with his own microphone lead.

“We’re the Kooks, alright!” were the first words from Pritchard. It’s hard to say where his singing voice begins and his conversational voice ends, either way he sounded drunk or he’s just more English than I thought. By this point in the gig a few things had become clear; the audience would go mental whenever he stepped onto the platform, to literally elevate himself above the band, and every sentence from him would be difficult to understand and would end with either the words “Alright!” or “Ay!” – I don’t mean to slag the guy off, though; He is a great front-man.

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Sofa Song was followed by Down To The Market. Pritchard took a moment to talk to the crowd, mentioning something about being back in Melbourne and ending the sentence with the word “Alright!” (ironically, the song ended with the line, “Life’s just far too short for miscommunication”).

The band’s energy remained consistent throughout the set, and for the majority of the gig the song selection was spot-on. After the double of She Moves In Her Own Way (prefaced by Pritchard with the phrase “Ay!”) and Sway, I was struggling to think of what they might have left for their encore.

“The boys are going off for beer, we’re gonna singalong, alright!” Pritchard declared before stepping onto the platform at the front of the stage, with an acoustic guitar, and performing a solo rendition of Seaside. The crowd sang along to every word, as most of them had the entire evening.

The band reappeared after Seaside for an unplugged-esque version of Tick Of Time, with drummer Paul Garred operating a floor tom (and possibly some bongos) and guitarist Hugh Harris (dressed in a pink suit) occupying the piano. A reworking of See The Sun began at a slower tempo, before catching up with the Konk version by the second verse.

Ooh La and Shine On were embraced by the audience before being eclipsed by an extended version Do You Wanna, which was the most chaotic reworking of the evening, veering further from the band’s pop-friendly formula more than any other. It seems appropriate that it was the last track the band performed before leaving the stage – given that Pritchard had been working so hard for the crowd’s approval – that it should end with the repetition of the lyric “Do you wanna make love to me?” It’s probably safe to say that most of the crowd did (I didn’t, but still).

Pritchard returned with band in tow a minute or two later. He sat at the piano and the band performed Saboteur, a track which came as a free download for fans who subscribed to the band’s newsletter. It was the first song of the night that the majority of punters were ignorant to – presumably because they have not subscribed to the band’s newsletter.

Junk Of The Heart, the eponymous single from the band’s latest album, met a warmer reception, although I think many punters recognized that it was standing in the way of what was to follow. Pritchard thanked the audience (“Alright!”) before Harris began the opening notes of Naive. The crowd sang along with whatever energy they had left, threatening to drown out the vocals.

As the song ended, so did the set. The band left stage, I left the venue; like their songs, the night was a lot of fun.