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The Kooks / Larrikin Love Tonight the Corn Exchange is absolutely packed, such is the buzz surrounding Britain's top new band The Kooks, the air is filled with expectation, and everyone seems to want to be here tonight (which those bastard touts are taking advantage of, with tickets outside going for £70, that's right, seventy pounds!), lets just hope its worth it then. As you walk into the main hall you can tell that it's going to be a cracker, because you are greeted with the genius of Larrikin Love. Larrikin Love are one of those bands that only come around once every 10 or 20 years, they are fresh and exciting, and their set never lapses as they keep up the energy. Opening with the excellent 'Six Queens', which is a set highlight, Larrikin Love prove that they are something to stand up and notice, and continue all the way through their set to give The Kooks a run for their money. Larrikin Love bound around the stage with so much energy which clearly feeds off onto the audience, and you cant help but wonder how special this performance would have been if they were as well known as The Kooks, creating a much bigger sing-along atmosphere. After a mammoth 40-minute wait for the band come on, when they do hit the stage it obvious that this has been worth the wait. The sheer volume of the crowd when the band casually stroll on is immense, and Luke can only just be heard above the crowd as he begins the haunting 'Seaside', the volume soon goes up though when the band join in and tear into a fantastic 'See The World', which is when they really come into their element, a tour-de-force of indie pop.
The only real time the set suffers is when the new songs are aired, there's nothing wrong with the new songs, it's just that the old ones are so well-loved that any other song seems to lose all atmosphere, but The Kooks are playing a smart game here, and after both new songs come the bands two biggest hits, 'Naïve' (where the singer really shouldn't have bothered singing at all, such is the volume of the crowd) and 'She Moves In Her Own Way'. "This is our last song, but if you cheer loud enough we might come on and do a couple more..", Fair enough, and with that, the crowd go suitably ape-shit and get their promise as they come back out and perform excellent performances of 'Jackie Big Tits' (which Luke tackles on his own) and 'You Don't Love Me'. Was it worth £70? Absolutely. Joe 90 |
