Paul Benham (gig: 05/05/06) The Kooks were out tonight with a packed out Academy waiting with baited breath to see the hottest band of the moment, as this Brighton four piece have made a great name for themselves in the short time.
They started with Seaside, which went down particularly well due to the current heat wave in Manchester, before exploding into life with See The World, which turned this fan into a shape-throwing nutter.
Their performance exuded confidence with Luke Pritchard illustrating to the crowd that he loves nothing more than putting on a show. Their sound dares to be different and succeeds with a bang. They’re a band who follows in the footsteps of bands like Supergrass with their ska-punk, melodic sound combined with lyrics that combine young love with riotous shenanigans.
They even offered up some new tracks which showed off a different sound yet still remaining of a fantastic quality. You get a sense that there is a grittier offering to come from the Kooks, but this record is all about hooking the listener with simple, catchy songs performed with a youthful passion and exuberance.
They begin their encore exclaiming “you don’t love me the way that I love you”, which couldn’t be further from the truth. They have totally blown us all away with the crowd acting as backing singers for the majority of the set. A kooking great night’s entertainment!
