Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, The Cribs - Brixton Academy, London - Tuesday 25th October 2005

So, the latest NME tour rolled into London, and a very good tour it was too. Apart from the obscene queue to get into Brixton - I think it was my first trip there since the 7/7 bombings, and there certainly seemed to be heavy searches going on. I think that, combined with a hardcore of fans looking to get in early, contributed to the queue that stretched around 2 sides of the venue!

The Cribs opened up, sounding very promising indeed - I'd heard a couple of their songs before, and there were several more that had me interested during their set. They sound great live, but how that will translate onto an album I'm not sure. Still, we should get more chances to see them in support slots in the near future - they could do very well.

I had been listening to the Maximo Park album sporadically, so knew a few of the songs in addition to the obvious 3 singles. Their set was played in front of a surprisingly empty venue, a lot of people seemed to head for the bar after a couple of songs from them. I really liked the set, it ticked all the right boxes in including all the best tracks from the album, which is well worth a listen. Luckily, I'm seeing them in Lille in a couple of weeks, and I'll now look for tickets for their solo December tour.

Kaiser Chiefs were very, very good indeed. They really do carry off all of the showman's tricks very well. Playing Money For Nothing to build the crowd up before they came on was a masterstroke, as was their very good video "documentary" of London. I Predict A Riot, and Modern Way were my (maybe obvious, but still very good) highlights of the gig.

At the end of the last song, Ricky did his vocal, then ran off stage. The band finished playing, and all went quiet. Somehow, Ricky had got to the mixing desk, in the middle of the venue and was standing on the corner, thus......

Cue a crowd surf back to the stage, and a cracking encore to send everybody home happy.