Caught in the Carousel

You could tell by all the high-pitched screams and bras thrown on stage, that the Kooks could do no wrong at their Oct 25th show at the Warfield in San Francisco. In fact, they probably could have just stood there, not doing anything, and it would have produced the same result. However, The Kooks proved themselves worthy of their admiring fans.

The Kooks

The evening started off with the southern rock styling of The Whigs, whose rushing guitars and powerful vocals entertained the crowd while they waited for the main show.

But it was clear from the moment The Kooks stepped on stage, who the audience came to see. They started off with the infectious "Always Where I Need To Be," from their latest album, which set the crowd off.

The Kooks

Lead singer, Luke Prichard relished his role as rock god and seemed to expect nothing less than adoration from his fans. He preened and posed for the cameras, even pausing so they could get that perfect shot. He knew every rock pose in the book, and it looked as if he spent a lot of time practicing them in the mirror. Not that any of that mattered to his fans, who only screamed louder with every song. Songs such "Do You Wanna" only furthered this image, with its chorus of "Do you wanna make love to me?"

The bubblegum pop of "Matchbox" had the crowd bouncing along, as did songs such as the almost unbearably catchy "Naïve" and "Oo La." The setlist was heavy on tracks off their first album, and they mostly stayed away from their critically-demolished second album Konk. However, the upbeat "Mr. Maker" was met with much enthusiastic screeching.

The Kooks

For an encore, Prichard thrilled the crowd by coming out on stage by himself with an acoustic guitar and playing the simple, yet pretty "Seaside" and the oddly-titled "Jackie Big Tits," among others. The rest of the band returned and they ended the show on a high note with the harder edged "Stormy Weather."

While a cynic might call it contrived, the Kooks gave their fans exactly what they wanted and that same cynic left the show unable to get "Naïve" out of her head.

—Jessica Simons

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