Project Description
THE KOOKS
@ Festival Hall
03/01/19
(Live Review)
Reviewer: Kelsey Hentschel
Photographer: Tim Doig
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A year to the day exactly, the English pop rock band The Kooks return to Festival Hall to put on an explosive show. Continuing to prove that even after 10 + years, they’ve still got it! The Melbourne Festival Hall comes in as their first headline show of 2019, amidst a string of sideshows to accompany their New Years show at Beyond The Valley Festival. Having played this exact venue last year, coincidentally also on the 3rd of January, I was keen to see how this show would compare to the previous.
We were greeted to an impressive lighting display before the band swiftly transitioned into their first songs of the night, ‘Eddie’s Gun’. Unsurprisingly, The Kooks always open with their fist single, and it seems unlikely to change anytime soon. The track ignites the same excited response and lively enthusiasm now as it did when it was released 14 years ago! In typical Kooks fashion, the boys powered through their next few hit tracks ‘Always Where I Need To Be’, ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ and the single from their fifth, and most recent studio album ‘All The Time’.
Frontman Luke Prichard is not often one to address the crowd for long, preferring to stick to what he’s good at: Playing his music. However we did receive a brief explanation behind the next track, ‘Four Leaf Clover’, a song also off the new album. Prichard goes on to say that he had been off social media, especially Instagram, for a bit and how it has been great for his mental health. He stated how this song is a bit of a “Fuck you to the anon haters!” to which the crowd responded with an agreeable roar.
After playing a few more tracks off the new album, Prichard took to the crowd again after performing the song ‘You Don’t Love Me’ taking about how the song was about unrequited love, and being pissed off. “And this next song is also about being pissed off. There’s a bit of a theme going on here *laughs*. This is a song off our new record if anyones listened to it. It’s called Kids.”
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Crowd favourite ‘Bad Habit’ came with a bang as Luke Prichard started off the song by flexing his vocals, and requesting the crowd join him in his chant. The upbeat anthem had everyone dancing and singing along. At this stage I wondered whether the band could keep up this high energy.
With little to no breaks in between songs, the band moved through their set in what felt like a heartbeat. The band briefly expressed their gratitude toward their Australian fans. Exclaiming how nights like this make the 24hr plane trip over from the UK absolutely worth it.
Luke took a second to silence the crowd and then ask “Any Requests?” which was met with a wall of voices shouting out their favourite songs. It was moments later Prichard rang out the first few notes on his acoustic guitar for what was clearly the iconic Kooks track ‘Seaside’. Silence befell the crowd as the sweet lyrics rang out clear as day. It sent chills through me on arguably one of the hottest days of the year.
The party rounded out at the encore with the bands hits ‘No Pressure’ & of course, the Kooks’ most iconic song ‘Naive’.
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