Concert Review: The Kooks

I remember the first song I heard by The Kooks was 'Ooh La' in 2009. I'm not sure where or how I heard it, but i'm glad I did. Since that first listen, The Kooks and the infectious guitar riffs and choruses that feature in every single one of their songs, have had me bopping and singing along.

Last night, I saw The Kooks play live at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, and they were pretty darn awesome live if I do say so myself. The opening act were pretty snoozeworthy (I literally closed my eyes and had a little nap during their set). It was the first time I had seen The Kooks play live, and they are one of those bands that sound exactly the same live as they do on their CD (I guess I should be saying mp3's, since basically no one buys or listens to good ol' hard copy CD's anymore). It was pretty great to know that they aren't one of those 1000% over-autotuned bands/artists (*not naming names, but said overtuned artists like cough Selena Gomez cough!*)

Luke, the lead singer was just so energetic and reminded me of a combination of Mick Jagger and Road Runner from the Looney Tunes when he danced. He literally pranced and worked the front of the stage like a true frontman should. Let's just say that he was shakin' his (hipster) moneymaker and his mass of hair/fro? like crazy throughout the show. Hugh the guitarist was also amazing, he literally just shredded the shit out of the songs.

Basically the concert was kind of like a performance of The Kooks greatest hits album (if they had one). They played their most beloved songs like She Moves In Her Own Way, Shine On, Seaside etc. My personal favourites were Always Where I Need To Be (which had literally everyone standing up and just dancing and screaming/singing along in my case), and Naive (I legit bought tickets so I could witness this beauty performed live since it's a song that I will always love). They also played a couple of popular songs from their third album Junk of The Heart, but I was left disappointed when they didn't play some of the best tracks from that record (aka. Eskimo Kiss, Rosie, How'd You Like That). Also, I was pretty p'd off since they only ended up playing for like an hour and fifteen minutes...but it's pretty much impossible to feel sad when you're watching The Kooks because their music is so catchy that you can't help but dance and feel happy.

My photos are pretty horrific unfortunately, since I was sitting pretty far away from the stage (basically at the back) and using an iPhone (taking my DSLR along was not an option yesterday unfortunately since I went to the concert straight from uni), but nevertheless here are a couple of shots: