The Kooks are fronted by Luke Pritchard and hail from East Sussex. I found it very surprising they were playing a venue as small as Toads Place. This is a group that’s headlined festivals in Europe. For some reason, their sound hasn’t translated to similar popularity in the US. Never the less though, they still know how to out on a great show.

The Kooks are on a summer tour in support of their 4th album, entitled Listen. I was late to discovering this album, but it is excellent. The group performed 9 tunes from Listen on the evening, which I was very pleased about. This included opener ‘Around Town’ to start the show. This got the crowd going from the beginning.

Pritchard really got the crowd into it by playing three of their biggest hits consecutively in the middle of the set. ‘Always Where I Need to Be,’ ‘She Moves in Her Own Way,’ and ‘Junk of the Heart’ all seemed to rattle the old building with some great audience participation.

I believe the best song in the Kooks catalogue is the lead single of Listen – ‘Bad Habit.’ The audience and backing band members belted out the driving background rhythm, while Pritchard danced and smoothly sang the verses. This is just one example of how dance friendly the album is. No one in the crowd could seem to stand still.

The final song of the night was ‘Naive,’ giving way to a long ovation for an encore, which I believe turned out to be the best part of the night. Luke first sat at the piano to play of slower tune in ‘See Me Now.’ This is a very raw number, written and sung by Pritchard to his father. After this emotional ballad, the Kooks turned it up one more time for ‘Forgive and Forget’ to finish. It was an appropriate closer to a great show!

One of the most surprising and probably best shows of the summer here. Just add the Kooks to the already lengthy list of great bands coming over from England. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for them again.

Concert Rating: 3.5 Stars

Read more

Report as inappropriate