The Kooks!

Wednesday night, schmednesday night. It was payday! So I went down to the Santa Ana Observatory to see The Kooks. This was actually my third time seeing them, which I find a little bizarre. I do love them, truly, and they are great indie rock music who always put on a good show, but it just seems like there are other bands I am more obsessive about that maybe I haven't seen at all. I don't know how I've racked up three times with them. I guess it's cause they always seem to come to town, play at good venues, have reasonable ticket prices and always have great music for shows.

ANYWAY... it was my first time at the Observatory, and what a peculiar little place that was. There are apparently two rooms/stages, so everywhere you went you were asked which show you were there for and corralled to one area or another. The other must have been some crazy heavymetal band, cause there was a questionable crowd on the other side. Inside, it was all standing general admission, which is great, but it also had stadium levels and a stair entrance through it all that bottlenecked and was a constant source of frustration for everyone trying to get down to the front and also to leave.

I was verrrrrrrry impressed by the opening act, a girl who goes by Halsey. She's from New York and sings about "a boy in Bed Stuy" so I can only imagine the name "Halsey" is a Brooklyn reference as well. But, she was great. She was some sort of mix of Sky Ferreira's moodiness, Ellie Goulding's voice and beat and Lana Del Rey's poeticness. I was pretty sold, and definitely a fan. Her album hasn't come out yet, so I could only find her song Ghost online. She was all hyped up on her first show in California and took pictures. I'm somewhere in that crowd...

Aaaaand The Kooks - amazing as always! They have such great music for live shows. Upbeat, rocky, feel-good and fun! The lead Luke Pritchard is a great entertainer, and he just reminds me of some little punk twerp kid. He's gangly with his little curly punk hair and wears skinny jeans and is always all dancey and energetic, and he's just so fun to watch. He just seems like some British kid who probably knocks bicycles over or something. I don't know why that's so endearing, but somehow it is.

They played a lot of songs from their new album Listen, which is great, because they are one of very few bands that I can actually look forward to new and unknown songs, because they all promise to be catchy and awesome. By the chorus you're already hooked, such as this gem It Was London.

I am definitely struggling at work today, but it's a small price to pay.