Yours Truly, Not So Angry Mob

Kaiser Chiefs Rock Kool Haus
Toronto: April 18, 2007

"This will be pretty okay" I say to myself as my friend and I head into the Kaiser Chiefs gig at Kool Haus last night. A pompous "A little too light and over hyped for a post punk band" finishes the thought. But my "too cool for you" attitude vanished as soon as the Kaiser Chiefs hit the stage. For the entire set, I bounced up and down, shouting out the lyrics and even sang along to all the "Do do do do do do" stuff. This was perhaps the best live club gig I have seen in the last decade.

The Walkmen opened the show and were ... all right. Good even, I think. My friend liked them and he sometimes knows what he's talking about. I couldn't really hear the singer much and the sound was so washed out it was difficult to tell the difference between songs, unless you already knew them, which I didn't. But that singer is really intense. It has to hurt to scream and howl like that.

When Kaiser Chiefs hit the stage, the Toronto crowd actually got ... well ... genuinely excited (atypical for Toronto crowds). We are usually so laid back and subdued. Ricky Wilson grabbed the mic, hopped up on a monitor and yelled out "Do you wanna sing?" And I guess we really wanted to, because from the first beat of Na Na Na Na Naah through Ruby, Everyday I Love You Less and Less, I Predict a Riot and the rest of the set we never stopped singing.There was a minor pause before the encores but we all got right back into it with We Are The Angry Mob and Oh My God. These two tunes in particular stand out for as the highlights of the show.

What I like most about the show is that live Kaiser Chiefs manage to somehow sound like they do on disc, but with more energy and drive. It was like having a black and white TV all your life and then someone buys you an HDTV!

So there you have it. I had the best time and Ricky still had me singing all the way home. Definitely worth catching Kaiser Chiefs live.

* photos courtesy of ChartAttack.com

Hard To Beat Band Burns Up The Phoenix

Hard-Fi, the darlings of the UK indie rock scene, made their hugely anticipated return to Toronto last night at the Phoenix Concert Theatre. And in their hour and a half set, these kids proved they are not just hype.

Swaggering on to stage to the intro music of Supertramp's "School", it was clear from the start this night would be about breaking rules and resisting complacency. Frontman Richard Archer's opening "We're from Staines, west of London in the UK. A place we had to get the fuck out of!" echoed through the entire show in lyrics that paint a picture of restless youth growing up in the bland setting of suburban London.

Reminiscent of The Jam and The Clash, Hard-Fi have a lot of fun growling at a society that has become complacent and sterile. Songs like "Stars of CCTV", "Cash Machine", "HardTo Beat" and "Working for the Weekend" infuse upbeat Reggae, Ska and Motown themes and rhythms with hard-edged angry guitars. And like a young Joe Strummer, Archer staggers, jerks, and sways around the stage constantly goading the audience, challenging them to break from their societal confines and really have a good time.

Hard-Fi's show itself is like a triumphant response to the question "How do you alleviate boredom?" The answer being something like "Get off your lazy ass do something about it!" And that's exactly what Hard-Fi do.