Live Review: The Kooks

Australia is a hotbed of musical creative’s and the latest to make their mark is the enigmatic Sloan Peterson. 

The brainchild of Sydney singer-songwriter Joannah Jackson, the quartet wows the building crowd with '50s-influenced, guitar-centric pop ditties. Jackson’s voice is magic, with the fuzzy Our Love and most recent single New Direction absolute rockets. One to watch in 2019.

UK indie purveyors The Kooks continue to hold sway Down Under. Regular visitors to these shores over the years, the Brighton four-piece once again play to a packed crowd who make their excitement known with deafening applause and screams of “Kooks!” as the band stroll on stage.

Kicking things off with the one-two punch of the rocking Eddie’s Gun and blistering Always Where I Need To Be, it’s easy to see why The Kooks are still a big hit with fans in Australia. Combining playful pop melodies with catchy singalong choruses and frontman Luke Pritchard’s soothing tones, the quartet deliver tune after tune of enjoyable indie-pop gems.

She Moves In Her Own Way gets the surprisingly young crowd shimmying along with their phones held high while Sweet Emotion includes synths and Pritchard flying about the stage. Although the show is in support of last year’s Let’s Go Sunshine, only a handful of tracks from the album get a showing. Kids is an uplifting pop rocker but Fractured & Dazed and Chicken Bone are tedious indie filler. Thankfully, The Kooks are more concerned about pleasing the fans and keep the old songs coming thick and fast. Bad Habit incites a singalong while the '80s dance of Westside includes Pritchard teasing a cover of The Rolling Stones Sympathy For The Devil as he beings to “woo, woo” mid-song. 

Continually thanking the fans for coming and supporting the band throughout the night, Pritchard asks for any song requests before picking up the acoustic guitar. Urging everyone to sing along and get on their friends' shoulders, he performs a goose-bump-raising rendition of Seaside before being rejoined by his band for final song Junk Of The Heart (Happy). 

The lights go down as chants of “One more song” echo around the venue and punters stomp their feet. They return and everyone loses their shit. Pritchard dedicates No Pressure to lovers before Naïve - still the band’s biggest and most well-known song - brings the house down on an enjoyable evening of mid-'00s indie-rock.