Review: The Kooks, Toucan @ the Tivoli
After a plethora of appearances around Australia at Southbound and Falls Festivals, the Kooks found some time to pop into our lowly little town and grace us with their hyper British sweetheart sounds. Selling out an anticipating Tivoli, I was excited to see what the four-piece had to produce for us after releasing yet another sensational pop record, Junk Of The Heart last year.
Kicking the evening off was Sydney-siders Toucan, who brought a sweet indie-pop feel to warm the hearts and ears of the early birds. Such a perfect way to kick off an evening of sweet pop-rock to warm the soul.
All too soon (as it was an all-ages early gig), the Kooks bounced their way onto the stage. With such amazing energy and charisma vocalist Luke Pritchard charmed and bounded about the stage in a frenzied rage. Moving about the raised catwalk around the front of the stage, the adorable curly-haired heartthrob made sure to reach out to every member of the audience – a connection that is rarely seen at such a level in a larger venue.
The set list was absolutely what every Kooks fan would want it to be. Mixing in a healthy dose of the newest offering from the band, Junk Of The Heart, as well as many favourites from their previous albums, Konk and Inside In The Inside Out, the audience lapped up every song one after the other. The overpowering sounds of the crowd singing along to the acoustic Seaside (released over 5 years ago now on Inside In) shows just how much love and adoration the crowd has for this sweet British outfit.
Also included in the mix was Ooh La, She Moves In Her Own Way, Shine On, Do You Wanna?, Sway, and an encore finishing off with Junk Of The Heart (Happy) and another crowd favourite, Naïve.
Should there be any criticism to really give to these pop professionals, it would be the severe lack of conversing and banter between songs. The set was entirely professional, and even with the warming face of Pritchard running about the stage, there were moments it seemed clinical and detached. Nearing the end of the Australian tour, I’m hopeful it was more a lack of sleep than interest.