The Kooks at the Echo

I was still buzzing from the prior night’s performance at the Troubadour when I pulled up to The Echo for another round of The Kooks and The Morning Benders. The line to buy tickets at the door of the Echo was stretching down the street and I was thankful for getting a ticket during the on sale. A riot almost broke out at the box office as the doorman at the Echo had people switch sides at the last minute.

The Morning Benders




The Morning Benders were greeted to a warm round of applause as many of faces probably seemed familiar to the boys from the Bay Area. The Echo still instigated their weird policy of not letting people outside buy tickets until after The Morning Bender completed most of their set. The Morning Benders played a solid set that included bouncy versions of “Crosseyed”, “Damnit Anna” and “I Was Wrong”. “Loose Change” had a splendid shuffling beat by Julian Harmon (Drums) while Dp (Bass) added the walking bass line for support. Chris Chu (Vocals/Guitars) got the crowd involved in a mini sing along for “Grain of Salt” with the crowd singing “Yeah! Yeah! Ya!”. The Morning Benders recently announced they will have a cd release party in Los Angeles on May 8th at a yet to be announced location. I will post the info in my upcoming show review section in the future for more details.

The Kooks





The Kooks hit the stage sometime after 11:00 to a now ridiculously packed Echo. “See The World” incited a mini mosh pit in front of the stage as Luke Pritchard (Vocals/Guitars) seemed to have an extra bounce in his step as he thrashed away on his guitar. “Eddie’s Gun” had Paul Garred (Drums) smashing away on his cymbals as Dan Logan (Bass) seemed right at home playing in the pocket. “Always Where” has an instant sing along chorus that I was singing along to only after hearing the song the night before. The Kooks know how to write songs and place the hooks in all the right places. “Time Awaits” has an uptown delta blues feel to the song pasted with another sing along chorus. I hate to say it but the new songs make their older material look childish and I really like their first album. Hugh Harris (Guitars) was mixing up his guitar tones with an MXR phaser 100 and had two Hot Cake overdrive pedals with his Hiwatt combo amps. “Do You Wanna” is another new slam dunk song that starts deceptively slow but ends in a fiery finish with Hugh going crazy with an octave bent solo. Luke came back for his solo acoustic encore of “Seaside” and “Jackie’s Big Tits”. It seemed like a blur but after an hour and twenty minutes, the Kooks finished their set and went back to England to gear up for their massive tour of England.