REVIEW: Kaiser Chiefs – Live at Kirkstall Abbey (10th September 2011)

Once more I find myself on a Saturday amongst the familiar smell of spilt drink and grass, this time over at Kirkstall Abbey to see another band to tick off my live list, the Kaiser Chiefs.

After a pleasant journey over by train from Bradford then a bus journey over to the site (helpfully on a bus with ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ labelled as the destination and a relatively long walk through the beautiful park, it was through security and into the compound, which saw the abbey to the left, the stage ahead and a variety of eating out places to the right that all proudly declared to not produce fast food, but fresh food fast. We’ll see about that later.

I decided to get into the buzz of the place pretty early on and purchased a special event t-shirt for the, I suppose, reasonable price of eighteen pounds whilst also getting my barings about the place. The large bar was at the back of the venue, the food to the right and a few other extra touches such as a stand selling cigarettes – how desperate must you be for your cravings to have to buy cigarettes at a six hour gig? – and a cash machine, though I didn’t want to venture over to see how much they’d charge for this service.

I got to the site about a quarter past six so had missed the first act. As much as I wanted to get my money’s worth for the £32.50 tickets – in fact £65 as I’d bought too but no one else could come with me – I didn’t fancy standing around in another field for six hours again, so opted to come a little later.

Stage wise it was large with good clear sound that really showed itself off when the Kaisers would come on stage. The only thing really missing were some video screens showing off the action on the stage, as I imagine people further back than me wouldn’t have been able to see much. If Bingley Music Live can afford them at £35 for the weekend, surely this gig could for £35 a day for two days?

Second support ‘Pete and the Pirates’, who I managed to hear all the set of, were very good and poppy, if not at all pirate-y, and the banter with the crowd was good, even if the lead singer was very well spoken and sounded too posh to be in a rock band.

During this set I decided to head to the bar and, like going to Wimbledon, the service was eventually quick, but the queuing to get in was long, and at £4 a pint there would be no opportunity to get drunk at this gig either. At least I could distract myself by looking at the member of bar staff who had once had those large ear-studs in but had clearly chosen to remove them, and now had massive holes in his lobes that drifted about in the breeze. Hmm.

Back to hear more from the support, my mind drifted onto Twitter to catch up with some friends, many of whom were spending their Saturday in watching either the new series of Strictly Come Dancing or Doctor Who. With the drummer from the band appearing on the dancing show, a McFly was about the only type of food the comprehensive food stalls weren’t selling, and Doctor Who was clearly inspired by the queues at the bar with the title of ‘The Girl Who Waited’. The food was also apparently not inspired by the lyrics of the Kaisers’ own ‘Time Honoured Tradition’ song, as most of it involved chips in some form or other.

Though the weather had held out last weekend, it was getting to be a little drizzly and for ten minutes poured down, punctuated hilariously by the Pirates, led by Pete, giving an impromptu version of ‘Singing In The Rain’ which the crowd started singing back. Though the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant, I wasn’t complaining. The additional water was filling up my pint at a cheaper rate than the bar could provide and, as a tight-fisted Yorkshireman, it was either suffer in the rain with a £4 pint or give in and buy a stupid looking plastic poncho for £3. I decided I’d rather be wet and tipsy than looking like an idiot.

Also, whilst writing the notes for this review, ‘adds’ and ‘beer’ require the same key presses so it must be fate. Though I was, of course, drinking cider, but we’ll gloss over that.

The rain passed quickly enough and the band came off stage, so it was a twenty minute wait for the next support ‘The Neat’. I thought about the security at the gigs and, like at the Bingley event last weekend, people had managed to get in with substances not entirely legal as the smell of weed drifted around the place.

The third support were also good on stage. More arty and casual than the poppy pirates, they had a good line of songs, even if track ‘House With No Mirrors’ consisted of the title repeated over and over again to infinity. Overall they were an enjoyable band to chill to as the sun went down and Kirkstall Abbey was plunged into darkness, especially on their song ‘Stay With Me’, a beautiful composition. They concluded on a top track as well that got the crowd going, which I shall call ‘gerdy’ in lieu of knowing the actual title, due to that word being repeated at the end at different speeds. As the planes flew over the Abbey from the local airport the band could be summed up as entertaining the crowd with their sing-along favourites.

It wasn’t long before it was almost time for the Kaisers – finally, you say, having read so far on this review and we haven’t even got to the headliners yet – but first we had to endure a comedian coming onto warm the crowd. Well, when I say endure they were actually relatively witty, batting back some heckles from the crowd, and some funny observations about the nature of the venue with people buying noodles and hats. They even, as they listed songs to expect, reacted to a sound check of ‘two’ with ‘yes, even ‘two’’. Aside from being a little sweary for my liking, they warmed up well. I recognised the voice but without the video screens it was impossible to say who it was, only knowing when he back-announced himself as Chris Moyles. Then I hit myself for laughing at some of the jokes of the annoying radio DJ. That said, though, it was a good warm-up with some genuine chuckles but I did wonder how much he was getting paid for his three-minute appearance.

And now it was time for the main act. Starting with an impressive recorded intro and light show, with smoke, lights and laser-effects, the band came on to loud applause to launch into ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’, a big favourite that got the crowd going, and setting the bench mark for a band that were very tight throughout the evening. It was the sign of a band’s skill that the tracks recreated the feel of the recorded tracks really well, down to the individual synth bits which were clear and crisp, but with the energy that only comes from a live performance.

Personal favourite ‘Never Miss A Beat’ came next and was excellent live, with ‘Little Shocks’ from their new album next. Though the couple next to me scoffed that they ‘didn’t like this one’, it was slightly speeded up live and was great, even if not as powerful as their early party singles.

‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ followed and showcased once more the delicious mix of lighting effects hitting key points in the songs perfectly, with the energy of front man Ricky Wilson, who did some great stage antics including throwing the mic and mic stand amazingly high and catching it and often running across the stage at great speed.

The best thing about the gig was how the backing vocals were recreated. It’s a bugbear of mine that live the vocals of other band members mic-ed up are never as loud so when songs have lines or repeats down by other members they’re very quiet or get lost in the mix completely; a key example being like ‘Our Velocity’ by ‘Maximo Park’ at Bingley Music Live where the secondary vocals at the end could be heard but were very quiet. Here, though, there were none of these problems with second vocals as clear as anything and really added to the songs being played.

‘Problem Solved’, a downloadable track from the new album but not actually appearing on the CD release, was next and to me was an admission that the catchy tune should have appeared on the main release. Not many in the crowd knew it but as my favourite of their new pool of tracks, I was really glad it was included.

More great tracks followed with ‘Modern Way’ and ‘Good Days, Bad Days’, with a curtain drop and some more impressive lighting effects for new single ‘Man On Mars’. Though not a great track, and a questionable inclusion for single status in my opinion, it was nicely delivered live by Nick on drums and was a pleasant change. The nicest part was how the lights lit up the old ruined abbey in shades of red and blue.

After a quieter track that the crowd weren’t so familiar with, the two-punch of ‘Ruby’ and ‘The Angry Mob’ got everyone going and driven by the usual energy expected from the band and Ricky Wilson. The extended ending of ‘The Angry Mob’ which saw the crowd clapping and chanting along to a minimal backing track and the return to full song punctuated with a massive ticker-tape explosion was a sight to see.

With more tracks following that kept the crowd going, newish track ‘Kinda Girl You Are’ was a particular highlight of the set for me as an energetic track in the style of their old material, but it was the track before of ‘I Predict A Riot’ that burst the venue into life, and was a fantastic interpretation of it.

What happened next was a surprise to the crowd. Disappearing off stage for a while, Ricky re-appeared in a window of the abbey for the next link, before continuing to scale the walls of the building to deliver old b-side ‘Take My Temperature’, in a move that must have had the health and safety people sweating.

Ricky continued back onto the stage to show off more energy, reflected in the sweat down his t-shirt, running between both sides of the stage, to inspire a Mexican wave. Then it was off stage whilst we waited for an encore. I felt sorry for the couple to my left who went at this point, not expecting them to do much of an encore.

But, they came back on to do three songs, starting with a welcome but by-numbers version of ‘Child of the Jago’ from ‘The Future Is Medieval’ but ramping it up with a rockier, more satisfying version of ‘Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)’ and a lengthened version of ‘Oh My God’ which saw a massive amount of crowd interaction as Ricky got the audience to sing the chorus in a variety of ways, challenging different areas and, as the band returned to finish off, an explosion of fireworks, which wrapped up a fantastic evening of entertainment.

Though the trip back wasn’t exactly smooth due to the buses not being able to come pick people up for another forty minutes, it was at least a good time to reflect on the evening’s entertainment.

It was the first time I’d seen the Kaisers live and they didn’t disappoint, delivering an energetic stage performance with flawless versions of their songs. In fact there was little to criticise. If I was being very harsh I would say I’d like to have heard some more tracks such as ‘Heat Dies Down’ and ‘Half The Truth’ rather than a few of the newer tracks, and maybe a set of only eighty minutes was a little on the short side, but overall the show was very entertaining, the lighting complimented the songs excellently and throw in the ticker tape, fireworks, the stage antics of Ricky, all the favourite songs and some great crowd interaction, and it was difficult to think of something better to do on a Saturday night.

Setlist:
Everyday I Love You Less and Less
Never Miss A Beat
Little Shocks
Everything Is Average Nowadays
Problem Solved
Modern Way
Good Days, Bad Days
Man On Mars
Ruby
The Angry Mob
Na Na Na Na Na
Starts With Nothing
I Predict A Riot
Kinda Girl You Are
Take My Temperature

- Encore -
Child of the Jago
Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)
Oh My God