The Kooks at First Avenue, Minneapolis (04 Oct 2014)

Brighton band, The Kooks are currently in the US touring in support of their fourth studio album Listen, out now on Virgin/EMI Records, stopping by First Avenue in Minneapolis, last night. Turnout for the event was really good, as the venue was packed in early for this three band bill.

Priory

Opening up the show was Portland's Priory. Normally a duo (Brandon Rush and Kyle Sears), but when they play live, it's a full four piece band. Their very brief set included some tracks off their Warner Bros' EP Weekend, including the title track… which Rush's microphone did not work for that last section of that song. With most show, technical difficulties are generally a low point, but not this show! Instead, the band quickly restarted that last chorus, this time in full energetic frenzy mode that got the audience dancing and cheering loudly.

Priory ended their set with their latest song, "Big Love", which only recently (Sept 19th) premiered on MTV.

Halsey

Next up was Ashley Frangipane, the New Jersey girl who performs under her stagename Halsey. As I previously mentioned, she's signed to Astralwerks and have a debut EP Room 93 set for release on October 28th.

I've seen a lot of bands in my time, and I have to say, keep an eye out for this one. For someone who claimed this was her very first tour…. she is completely comfortable on stage, she can work the crowd, and she knows how to use her sexuality.

Halsey

Her set consisted of all the songs from Room 93, and making up the rest of the set was a cover of The Killer's "When You Were Young". That song was actually recently covered by Finish Ticket, so there's plenty of love for that song.

Then the main event… the lights dimmed and an intro music of Jacqueline Taïeb's "7 Heures du Matin" was played over the loud speakers. I only know this because the only non-French lyrics were Taïeb's swipe of The Who's "My Generation", incorporating that famous line "talkin' about my g-g-g-generation" in her song.*

The Kooks

When The Kooks took the stage, it brought back memories of seeing them in Chicago in 2007. The band was new and fresh then, and although they've grown up a little, they're still full of youthful energy and fun on stage.

It's also worth noting that this is the first tour to feature new drummer Alexis Nunez, who previously drummed for London's Golden Silvers.

Since this was the Listen tour, they played some new tracks, including "Around Town", "It Was London", "Bad Habit", "Down", "Dreams
Westside", "Forgive & Forget", and "See Me Now". With the latter song, "See Me Now", singer Luke Pritchard confessed that the song was deeply personal to him, and that they've only recently played it live.

Listening to the new songs, they sounded great. Although the fans, including myself, were not familiar with the new material, it sounded like they were classic Kooks songs. Of course, the old songs were instant dance hits with the fans, including "Eddie's Gun" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" (which Pritchard had to remark, "Oh, you remembered that one!")

In the middle of the set, the band left the stage, with only Pritchard remaining to play some acoustic songs, "Seaside" and "Dreams". It was a nice break, before the music return to the upbeat pop music that we know from The Kooks.

The Kooks are currently touring in support Listen. Go see them, and have a listen.

* Also, I don't know if it is the Kooks that made us listen to their "Fall Tour Playlist", but whoever was DJing last night was playing some great stuff… including Stereo Total, a German/French band that I've been into for a long time but remained relatively unknown in America.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com)
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