The Kooks - Brixton Academy, London - Friday 2nd May 2008

After being really impressed by The Kooks last time I saw them, and having heard some of the promising tunes from their new album in more detail since then, I picked up a ticket for one of their 2 sold out nights at Brixton Academy. It was my first trip to Brixton for a while, and immediately on arriving in the area, I could tell that this was not exactly going to be a gig full of hardcore music fans, more a branch of The Kooks female under 16s fan club.

I missed the support band on purpose, after listening to their songs on MySpace, and discovering (not to my surprise) that they recently supported Mika, I decided to give them a miss, reasoning that the time would be better spent in the pub. It seemed quite cheap of The Kooks to sell out a big UK tour, then not to put on a decent support act, but there you go. So, the first music I heard of the night was when I walked into the main room, just as The Smiths' "Ask" kicked in. Not a bad start.

The Kooks came on stage just after 9.30, to a lot of screaming - and the first verse of their first tune, Always Where I Need To Be, was sung back by almost everybody in the crowd. Very quickly, I realised that this was more like being at a Boyzone show, judging by the audience, and the sheer amount of high pitched screaming going on. As beer flew over the top, people were squealing in horror as if it was the most ghastly thing they had ever experienced. The sound also seemed much quieter than the recent Astoria show, I may have been dreaming this, but I'm sure the guitars were turned right down.

As the gig wore on, things got better. The band were tight, and many of their songs are of course really quite good. Sway was a particular highlight, as was Eddie's Gun - and even the few duff new songs like Mr Maker and Do You Wanna seemed to sound OK. Then, 40 minutes in came the moment that almost made me embarrassed to be there. Naive started, people screamed, hands were in the air, cameras were out, and 4000 people seemed to screech the words back - it sounded almost excruciating. The last song of the main set, You Don't Love Me, was introduced, and as the final guitar solos played, and the guitars were left feeding back on stage, it seemed like a lot of the audience thought that this was rock and roll at its most edgy and dangerous. Which of course it was most certainly not.

The encore was more of the good and bad. Luke Pritchard emerged on his own to play Seaside and Jackie Big Tits, both of which were again met by screaming and general idiocy. Then the band came back, and played a fantastic version of Stormy Weather, where I'm sure the guitars had been turned up significantly from the main set - so they were as they probably should have been all along. The final song of the night was Sofa Song, which again sounded good if you ignored the screaming.

This was a really weird gig for me - I really quite like The Kooks, and thought that the band sounded excellent. But, the audience was awful, possibly the wettest crowd I have ever seen for a gig at Brixton, almost to the point where it really affected enjoyment. On the way out of the show, the PA was playing A Whiter Shade Of Pale (which sounded amazing when played that loud), and I heard at least 3 people say "what the hell is this crap" - which kind of summed lots of the crowd up. I have experienced crappy audiences like this at Kooks gigs before, so I think I will be sticking to seeing them in small venues only from now on, where at least some of the idiots won't be quick enough to get in.