The Kooks @ Terminal 5, NYC
Live Reviews | Jun 12th, 2008
Opening Bands: The Morning Benders
Date: June 10th, 2008
Band Links: link
I’ve been a fan of the Kooks since their 2006 debut album “Inside In/Inside Out.” As soon as I heard “She Moves In Her Own Way,” I was hooked. I just love their indie campfire rock sound. I never saw them live before so once they added another show at Terminal 5, I decided to check them out. Both shows were sold out fairly quickly and that’s probably because their new album “Konk” has been doing well over in America. It’s been getting a lot of radio & video play, or so I hear.
When I arrived at the venue, the line was down the street. So I parked at the expensive garage across the street from the venue and waited on line. I wish there was a line for only the guest list but the line moved quickly. The venue let the doors open up sooner than they were supposed to so that was good that fans didn’t have to wait out in the heat. Then it was time for the waiting game for the bands to come on stage. I thought Nat Jenkins was going to open up the show at 8pm but that didn’t happen. Not sure what happened with him. The Morning Benders came on instead and that was around 8:20pm. They are an indie pop rock band from Berkeley California. I didn’t know anything about the band beforehand but after seeing their performance, I think I might check out their CDs. Their newest CD “Talking Through Tin Cans” off +1 Records just came out on May 6th.
Since I never heard of the band before, I don’t know what songs they played. Most of the songs sounded good though, but sometimes it was hard to hear the singer talk & sing. I don’t think it’s the singer’s fault, but Terminal 5’s fault instead. One of the biggest complaints with the venue besides the vantage points is the sound. For some reason, the sound doesn’t bounce off the walls the right way at that place. It makes it sound like people are playing in a cave. The sound sounded fine at the DeVotchKa show but at the Kooks show it was really noticeable. The Morning Benders were a young band but I can definitely seem them getting better & more popular. The crowd seemed to enjoy their set and so did I.
The Kooks took the stage at 9:30pm and played a lot of tracks from both their albums. I would say it was good balance between albums. There weren’t that many songs they left out. They opened with “Always Where I Need To Be” and got the place rocking. As I was taking photos, I noticed singer Luke Pritchard’s stage presence. He just seemed to have that rocker style; constantly moving around the stage, doing those rocker poses, and singing to the crowd. I tried to capture that the best I could in my photos. I was happy with the way my photos came out because the lighting was really good. I wish I had a decent wide angle lens because there was potential for a great wide angle shot of the band’s silhouette.
The band played all the songs I wanted to hear that night like “She Moves In Her Own Way,” “Eddie’s Gun,” “Shine On,” and “Stormy Weather.” I really like “Stormy Weather’s” introduction & bassline. I think it might be my favorite song off the new album because of the bass. “Do You Wanna” was played as well and that’s a fun song. I was jokingly dancing right in my girlfriend’s face for that one. The last 2 songs of the set were “See The World” and “You Don’t Love Me.” Those songs sounded awesome live. After that, Luke came back to play two songs by himself and they were “Seaside” and “Jackie Big Tits.” The last song for me was “Stormy Weather” and it sounded excellent. I left after that song but I believe they played “Sofa Song” last. I could be wrong though.
For the most part, the band sounded spot on from their albums. Luke’s vocals seemed to be whinier or cracklily (if that’s even a word) live. At times his voice was breaking and I couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not. You don’t hear it that way as much on the albums. There was a funny moment for one song (forget which) where Luke skipped a verse and messed up the beginning of the song. He laughed it off and so did the crowd. I like when singers mess up here and there, it’s amusing to me for some reason. I guess it shows me that deep down they are human too and screw up a little. But regardless of all of that, Luke and the rest of the band put on one hell of a performance. I recommend seeing the Kooks if you’re a fan.
Bottom Line: Great show!
Favorite Songs: She Moves In Her Own Way, See The World, Match Box, Na
