Had you fallen into a coma a couple of years ago, you could be forgiven for assuming you were still very much in it upon hearing the news that Kaiser Chiefs were rounding up an arena tour with an almost full house at The O2, following a number one album last year. And if you happen to be ex-drummer and chief songwriter Nick Hodgson, you could be forgiven for wishing that it was either two years ago, or that you are in some sort of state of unawareness.
Having jumped shift following their “choose our own tracklisting” fourth album, The Future Is Medieval (most seemed to choose no tracks whatsoever, with the band choosing to play nothing from it tonight), the songwriter-less Kaisers returned to the top, with an LP surprisingly packed with their noughties, indie-pop anarchy in an impressively presented way – that Razorlight-like, constant small-festival “all the singles” slot seemingly a distant nightmare.
No doubt assisted by frontman Ricky Wilson’s judging role on the BBC’s chair-swinging singing competition, his Saturday night TV slot role is clearly something he’s aware, switching fucks for flips and apologising when any slip through the filter. It doesn’t alter the fact that he’s a born band showman, however, as seen from his reference to the “Freddy Mercury rule book of wooing a crowd”. (Tell one side of the arena that the other side are louder, run across the stage and repeat…)
Education, Education, Education & War album opener ‘The Factory Gates’ opens the show too, preceded by a stage covered in smoke and gun shot sounds to tie in with the albums wartime theme, with earlier hits ‘Everyday I Love You Less And Less’, ‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ and even early album tracks (‘Na Na Na Na Naa’) keeping the fists pumping. But then again, it’s not the most difficult number to sing a long to.
Now resembling a younger Jarvis Cocker since shedding a few pounds, Wilson continues to burn them, sprinting across the stage to the rock opera-ish ‘The Angry Mob’ before making his way to a B-stage for Education’s… biggest anthem moment, ‘Cannons’. While the majority of the newer tracks segue seamlessly into the set list (particularly ‘My Life’), balled ‘Roses’ falls a little flat, with their first hint at a slower sound ‘Modern Way’ showing how they can do it.
“We’re headlining The O2,” Wilson reminds the crowd, “The plan must have gone right somewhere along the way,” and despite screen malfunctions, their plan (or gamble, perhaps) has rewarded them with an arena tour and chart-topping album. Sceptics may question the credibility of a member’s appearance on a TV talent show (they may have questioned it anyway) but the band, having headlined the John Peel tent at Glastonbury last year, are playing their own songs to ticket buyers in their thousands, so the opinion of a sceptic is no doubt of little interest.
‘Ruby’ and ‘I Predict A Riot’ sees the entire arena on their feet without anyone on stage demanding it, while the encore is a mixed bag of new single ‘Falling Awake’ (an electro-pop heavy number which, when all is considered, puts Kaiser Chiefs’ sound somewhere between early Blur and Duran Duran), new album non-single ‘Misery Company’ and debut release, ‘Oh My God.’ If the new tracks continue to be as impressive, Kaiser Chiefs could work their way up to even bigger venues in a couple of years, and while Ricky would never win The Voice as a contestant, if tonight proves anything, it’s that he’s one of the show’s biggest success stories.
Words:
Dan Bull
@danbull7609
Images:
© Robert Gershinson 2014
Dan Bull
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