Best Additional Coverage

Did you know that, when we went to see the Kaiser Chiefs, Greg rocked so hard that he barfed?


I wasn't going to post this picture until I saw that Greg was using it as his facebook profile picture.

Best Brit-Poppin', Take Two

Friday night, Chicago. I catch my second Kaiser Chiefs concert in eight days.

The Venue: The Vic Theatre, where I saw my first concert (Cyclone Temple/New Bomb Turks/Mighty Mighty Bosstones) some thirteen or fourteen years ago (suddenly I can't remember if I was a junior or a senior.) Also, I hadn't been to the Vic since '95. Not much had changed.


The Company: Karlyn, my brother Greg, and Sarah (I'm deciding that she gets an 'h'). I don't know what happened to Greg's eyes here.


The First Opening Band: The Little Ones from Los Angeles. Honestly, not bad. I bet their records are good. Although I thought I had never heard of the Little Ones, I recogneized the last song they played ("Lovers Who Uncover") and later discoverd it in my iTunes library. I cannot explain this.


The Second Opening Band: The Walkmen. Kind of a score as far as opening bands go, as the Walkmen could probably headline a show at the Vic. My concertmates found them boring, I found them to be fine, enjoyable even (when they played songs I knew). However, once I saw the Walkmen at Webster Hall and they played 3 encores and it was not my favorite show. I much prefer an opening-slot sized set by these guys.


And then it was time for the Kaiser Chiefs, who were great fun, as usual. And since the Vic is much smaller than the Roseland and since we got there a lot earlier than last week, my pictures are a lot more middle-of-the-action than last time.






Peanut.


Look how hard Greg was rocking out! He looks like a hooligan!




Oh no, where's Ricky headed now?


Oh, just out to stand on the crowd, that's all.



So, yes. Another grand Kaiser Chiefs performance.

Best Brit-Poppin'

Wednesday night Michelle and I went to the Kaiser Chiefs show at the Roseland Ballroom. I hadn't seen the Chiefs since the Summer of 2005 and hadn't been to the Roseland since the Winter of 2004. Funny how time passes.

Well, say what you will about their latest record, the Chiefs put on another one of their great shows. They've just got it down.

We were close to the stage, but not close enough for the pictures to be excellent.




The most Kaiser Chiefs moment of the evening: Ricky waded across the crowd to the VIP area and sang from there whilst his band kept busy on the other stage. You see, he would be the small bit of white there around the middle and then there's the real stage over there on the left.


Michelle had never seen such a thing!


More rock n roll:



More audience:


Spoiler Alert: I'm seeing the Kaiser Chiefs again next week when I'm in Chicago!

Links:

First time I saw the Kaiser Chiefs
Second time I saw the Kaiser Chiefs (at Lollapalooza. This is a fun post, you should check it out if you never have and recheck it out if its been a while)

Best Guest Blackmarket Record Review or "Yours Truly, Angry Greg"

The new Kaiser Chiefs record, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" has leaked onto the internet (I mean, it's out in England now) so I sent a copy to my brother Greg for a review (as he hasn't written for Steady Mobbin' for a while now).

What he had to say isn't super pretty:

Kaiser Chiefs. They are a brilliant band or at least they where in 2005. Their newest album Yours Truly, Angry Mob is due soon. I had all kind of hopes for this album and I realise that might have been a bad idea. I heard that they where planning to try to achieve a new sound for this album and this excited me greatly, I personally love it when bands are able to change their sound. Unfortunately in this attempt, much of what made the Chiefs great is gone and replaced it with a much more boring, uncreative mess. They lost lots of that riot rock feel that made Employment great. Almost every song just sounds…bad. I hate to say it. But it’s true. I could listen to Employment strait through smiling the whole time and it would be next to impossible for me not to rock out to some of those songs. But listening to Angry Mob I find my self constantly changing the song in disgust. Why do these song suck so much? First off the lyrics are allot less humorous, dry and lack creativity. The music is…well not riot rock. I realize they where trying to do something different but that doesn’t mean creating an album that’s sound is totally new and is full of crap. The riot rock sound is what made the Kaiser Chiefs stand out; it’s what made them cool. I could rock out to Employment to the point of breaking a glass shower door…but this album lacks that rock out factor. But the album is not total trash. In fact there are several songs I love. Those song The Kaiser Chiefs are able to successfully combine their riot rock sound with their new style. This new style is has allot more like keys and more focus on the vocals. It is allot less chaotic. It’s more of a controlled riot then an all over the place a punch in the face kind of sound. These few but great songs are ‘My Kind of Guy’, ‘Retirement’, ‘Thank You Very Much’ and ‘Ruby.’ Hopefully Yours Truly, Angry Mob will grow on me as time passes but as of right now…well yeah I don’t like it much and I am up to 3 times listening to it from start to finish. But I amstill super excited to see them live soon because they put on a crazy fun show and it is defiantly worth experiencing.

But this is what I think: Employment really wasn't such a great record. But Kaiser Chiefs shows have always been good to me. I listened to "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" while cleaning my apartment and it seemed a decent enough soundtrack for chores. I imagine their shows are still fun, we'll see.

Remember when Greg and I went to Lollapalooza in 2005 and saw the Chiefs there? That was Greg's first concert ever.