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With every new album comes a new touring cycle. There’s few bands that truly please those wonderful, wonderful earholes of mine on both record and on stage, and The Kooks are one of them.
With their third release, Junk Of The Heart, The Kooks managed to maintain their super-catchy pop-rock edge, while pushing the boundaries just enough to maintain interest. Having last caught them on the tail end of their debut Australian tour in a cramped and memorable show at The Zoo, seeing a packed out room at The Tivoli is just as exhilarating.
Supporting act Toucan light up the stage at a relatively early start, laying down some jungle-esque disco-indie beats. The largely twenty-something crowd nod their heads and offer enthusiastic applause for the current Triple J Unearthed rotation of “Brave New World”. “Africa” is also a highlight of the unfortunately brief set; but therein lies the rub of supporting slots. Keep an attentive eye (and ear) out for this Sydney-based duo.
With frontman Luke Pritchard opting to kick the night off on a rather subdued note of “Is It Me”, The Kooks have an odd, unexpectedly unannounced presence until the latter half of the song whereupon both the band and audience start bouncing up and down. A shortened coda of the song is played, leading into “Always Where I Need To Be” from 2008’s Konk. Surprisingly, this where the bulk of material played over the course of the evening comes from (something Larry Heath discussed with guitarist Hugh Harris earlier) and with an even split between Inside In Inside Out and Junk Of The Heart, it’s something that makes The Kooks seem like a band experienced beyond their years.
“Sofa Song” also makes an early and welcome appearance, and an energetic one-two-three punch combo of “Mr Nice Guy”, “Ooh La” and “Shine On” towards the end of the set shows a band in tight and extremely fine form; The Kooks simply don’t seem to tire. There’s a cursory walk off before the predictable yet enjoyable ‘encore’; single “The Saboteur” leads into current radio spinner “Junk Of The Heart (Happy)” which has the biggest singalong of 2012 yet. The band end on 2006’s inescapable “Naïve”, making this 21 year old feel... well, old. The Kooks may have taken relatively small steps in shaping their music and sound, but the display they put on tonight really shows an understanding and appreciation of musical knowledge and showmanship of a band twice their age.
Long live The Kooks.
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