The Courteeners, Black Kids - Kings College, London - Wednesday 5th December 2007

I got a lift to a gig tonight (an elevator, not a seat in somebody's car), for a show at Kings College's 4th floor venue. The Courteeners were in town, for their biggest London headline show yet, and the venue was long since sold out. It seems that, although not many people have heard of them yet (most of the people I tell them about still look confused and say "who?"), those that have are an ever growing number, and are pretty hardcore - knowing all of the words to all of the songs for example. Last time it went absolutely mental, and this gig was 3 times the size - an exciting one, that's for sure.

Support band were Black Kids, a band from America who are over in the UK for 4 or 5 quickfire gigs in as many days (actually, they are doing 2 gigs on one day during their trip). I missed the beginning of their set, but managed to catch enough to form an opinion. They weren't bad at all, an interesting sound, and some decent songs - especially towards the end of the set, which brought them a decent cheer from the crowd as they departed.

The Courteeners came on stage just before 10pm, and kicked things off with Aftershow and Kimberley as normal - happily getting my 2 least favourite Courteeners songs out of the way first. After that it was just one fantastic song after another, with many of the crowd again singing all of the words back, much to singer Liam's bemusement at some points in the show. The band had just had a bit of a bad review in the Guardian, which Liam mentioned on a couple of occasions, and which attracted boos from the crowd.

As the 45 minute set went on, the songs got more and more lively, and the moshpit at the front of the crowd was going increasingly mad. After a crazy mosh for Fallowfield Hillbilly, I was wondering how much more mental things could go for Acrylic and What Took You So Long. The answer was "quite a bit more", with several people managing to join the band on stage during the set closer. What Took You So Long also featured the now customary (and brilliant) section of James's Tomorrow, as seen here. As expected from such a new and exciting band, there was no encore, so they left a venue full of people wanting more.

Another amazing set to add to a rapidly growing list of great shows by The Courteeners - they can't stay too much of a secret for long, surely? The comparisons with the Arctic Monkeys also keep on coming. The Courteeners won't be that big, because they don't have enough great songs - the Arctics had 2 dozen classics at this point in their career, and The Courteeners can't match that. But it is a good comparison, at least to give the uninitiated an idea of how exciting the Arctic Monkeys were at their early live shows. Well worth getting into, but it is probably going a bit far to say that The Courteeners are truly the new Arctic Monkeys.

Setlist: Aftershow / Kimberley / No You Didn't, No You Don't / Please Don't / If It Wasn't For Me / Bide Your Time / Cavorting / Not Nineteen Forever / Fallowfield Hillbilly / Acrylic / What Took You So Long.