While visiting the parents in Connecticut last month, I was fortunate to have the trip line up with with a great show going on at Toads Place down in New Haven. The Kooks were playing with Joywave and Young Rising Sons. I had received a taste of the Kooks at Shaky Knees in May, and was excited to see a full set.
Toads Place is a small venue, and not too many attendees of the sold out show had arrived yet when Young Rising Sons took the stage at 8pm. The group is from New Jersey and reminds me most of an American Authors. They have lots of energy, and lead singer Andy Tongren displays an impressive voice. Those vocal abilities are best displayed on main single 'High,' which you may have heard on various commercials.
The young group though has promise for a future. They're heading on co-headlining tour with The Only Music Blog favorites Hunter Hunted this summer. One word of advice for Tongren though - I think he's trying to be a bit too cool bringing a bottle of Jack with him on stage and having it in hand while he sings. They seem too poppy to do that.
The second band was Joywave, who I've previously seen touring with Grouplove. The Rochester, New York based group just released their debut album and performed a handful of songs from it. Lead singer Daniel Armbruster was definitely the most entertaining part of this group. He doesn't quite look like the typical lead singer of a rock band, but he can get a room going.
Armbruster entered the stage proclaiming that their first tune performed was ' the greatest song ever written.' He asked everyone in the crowd to jump, and joked multiple times that if they didn't obey, it would only force him to play certain songs two or three times until he saw what he wanted.
Their music is very catchy. Current single 'Now' is receiving some solid radio play right now. I recommend 'Somebody New,' which I believe is the strongest song from the group. The band is still best known for their first single, 'Tongues,' which is a bit more on the techno side. Overall though, both opening bands were solid and filled the gap nicely for the Kooks.
The Kooks are fronted by Luke Pritchard and hail from East Sussex. I found it very surprising they were playing a venue as small as Toads Place. This is a group that's headlined festivals in Europe. For some reason, their sound hasn't translated to similar popularity in the US. Never the less though, they still know how to out on a great show.
The Kooks are on a summer tour in support of their 4th album, entitled Listen. I was late to discovering this album, but it is excellent. The group performed 9 tunes from Listen on the evening, which I was very pleased about. This included opener 'Around Town' to start the show. This got the crowd going from the beginning.
Pritchard really got the crowd into it by playing three of their biggest hits consecutively in the middle of the set. 'Always Where I Need to Be,' 'She Moves in Her Own Way,' and 'Junk of the Heart' all seemed to rattle the old building with some great audience participation.
I believe the best song in the Kooks catalogue is the lead single of Listen - 'Bad Habit.' The audience and backing band members belted out the driving background rhythm, while Pritchard danced and smoothly sang the verses. This is just one example of how dance friendly the album is. No one in the crowd could seem to stand still.
The final song of the night was 'Naive,' giving way to a long ovation for an encore, which I believe turned out to be the best part of the night. Luke first sat at the piano to play of slower tune in 'See Me Now.' This is a very raw number, written and sung by Pritchard to his father. After this emotional ballad, the Kooks turned it up one more time for 'Forgive and Forget' to finish. It was an appropriate closer to a great show!
One of the most surprising and probably best shows of the summer here. Just add the Kooks to the already lengthy list of great bands coming over from England. I'll definitely be on the lookout for them again.
Concert Rating: 3.5 Stars
SETLIST:
1. Around Town
2. Ooh La
3. Eddies Gun
4. It Was London
5. Always Where I Need to Be
6. She Moves in Her on Way
7. Junk of the Heart
8. Dreams
9. Seaside
10. Bad Habit
11. Westside
12. Down
13. Sway
14. The Sabatoeur
15. Sweet Emotion
16. Sofa Song
17. Naive
Encore:
18. See Me Now
19. Forgive & Forget
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