The Kooks, One Night Only, Blood Red Shoes, Pete & The Pirates - Astoria, London - Monday 25th February 2008

Another of the excellent NME Awards Shows in London, and another of those that puts pretty big bands into venues much smaller than they would usually play. This time it was The Kooks at the Astoria, a venue they haven't struggled to sell out for almost 2 years now. As well as the big name headliner, this gig also boasted one of those support bills that make NME Awards gigs so good - a chance to see some of the best new bands around.

The first of those bands were Pete and the Pirates, who hail from Reading, and are having nice things written about them at the moment. I really liked their set - although quite short (as expected for an opening act), it contained lots of good, catchy indie pop songs. Most of them were nice and concise too, meaning lots of short but perfectly formed tunes. Recent single Mr Understanding, and a couple of others, really stood out - but the set overall was really enjoyable, and the first great discovery of the evening.

After a short changeover, the venue lights went down, and the PA started playing Bombtrack, the old Rage Against The Machine song, very loudly. Usually when this happens, you expect the band to walk on after the first riffs, but Blood Red Shoes played the whole song before coming on stage. A nice blast from the past, and the "in your face" nature of the song proved to be a fitting introduction to a memorable Blood Red Shoes set.

I had seen Blood Red Shoes before, so kind of knew what to expect, but I was really impressed with them again. For 2 people, they make an incredible amount and quality of noise, and have some decent songs to go with that. Both guitarist (the girl) and drummer (the boy) are amazing musicians, and they make an entralling sight when you see them in full flow. I think that Blood Red Shoes are very underrated, which is a real shame, as their quality as musicians and songwriters means that they deserve to be much more successful. They seem to have got somewhere in their career since I last saw them, hopefully they will continue going onwards and upwards. Their set ended with a frenetic version of I Wish I Was Someone Better, before guitarist Laura-Mary took her guitar off, and threw it onto the floor. Exciting stuff.

The main support band were One Night Only, who are certainly working very hard at the moment, as they seem to be popping up on lots of support bills, as well as having 2 long tours of their own in the diary for the spring. They sounded like posh boys, and the singer had the required skinny jeans, hooded top and a tie - which all seemed a bit identikit. Generally, though, they looked like the Kooks, which of course went down really well with all the teenagers at the front, who probably couldn't see that it was a bit of a deliberate copy.

One Night Only's set was good in parts - one song called You And Me really stuck out as being decent - but largely it was quite forgettable. I remember thinking that a few of the songs were ruined a bit by excessive keyboard use, but that may be just my guitar indie prejudices! Nothing they were doing seemed at all original - they did all of the obvious moves on stage, but it all seemed a bit contrived. Like Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, who I saw on Friday, I would be surprised if they get all that far before people start to work out that they seem like an indie band that a big record label has manufactured in the mould of The Kooks and Razorlight.

And so to The Kooks. They came on stage to screams from the girls in the audience (they always attract a very girly crowd), and ploughed straight into See The World, Eddie's Gun, and the excellent new single Always Where I Need To Be. Generally, they sounded excellent, they really rocked, and the guitars sounded brilliantly dirty and trashy throughout the gig. The show really reminded me how much better The Kooks are live, compared with their rather safe, radio friendly sound on record (being a bit like Razorlight in that respect).

There were a good few new songs played during the set, which sounded quite blues influenced at times - but were a great sneak preview of what should be an excellent second album. The new songs were well received, but of course it was the older stuff that sent the crowd, who were well up for it anyway, completely mad. As the set wore on, Naive had everybody singing along, and the venue became very hot indeed. An encore including a brilliant version of Jackie Big Tits, a new song, and Sofa Song, which saw Luke Pritchard in the crowd, and the show was over. A brilliant set from The Kooks, whose new album should see them become truly huge this year.