Kaiser Chiefs Live Report!

April 19th, 2007

It’s hard for people in Canada/US to understand some of the hype around UK bands, but I’m not kidding when I say that back ‘home’ Kaiser Chiefs are pretty much gods. Their shows sell out at a ridiculous rate and as evidenced in the MOD interview (on MuchAXS soon!), there are colossal posters of them plastered all over the city. They are superstars. Which is why I was a bit surprised to see a less than full Kool Haus at last night’s show! Having said that though, the ‘pit’ was HUGE and people were extremely rowdy.

Singer Ricky Wilson is an incredible frontman - he definitely brought his game, engaging the crowd at every opportunity and demanding (literally ORDERING) that we carry the songs for him. And then carry HIM.

During Take My Temperature he sailed across the fingertips and hands palms of the sweaty masses for half the song, singing all the while till he made it back towards the stage. Incredible! During Na Na Na Na Na and Every Day I Love You Less And Less we basically gave him a break from singing and carried the choruses for him while he caught his breath. Then during the pre-encore finale of Retirement, there was a crescendo of stop/start that got everyone into a serious frenzy. And let’s not forget the near RIOT during I Predict A Riot - easily predicted by everyone in the audience, I think.

The encore of We Are The Angry Mob consisted of a three or four minute chant (that seemed endless) of the second half of the lyrics -

We are the angry mob
We read the papers every day
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we’re also easily swayed

…over and over again!

Check out these pics of Ricky at various shows to see the kind of performance you can expect from him at a live event. He is ridiculous - the amount of air that the guy gets is unreal. Like, how do you even jump that high!?!?

* Also, please note winklepickers in the last three pics.

T In The Park 2006: