Kaisers, Walkmen, Annuals

Jen and I went to see Kaiser Chiefs, The Walkmen and The Annuals at the 9:30 Club last night. While we were waiting in line to get in, we noticed that we were surrounded by Brits. The five people behind us had clearly come out to DC specifically to see this show. Given how huge Kaiser Chiefs are in the UK, it must be pretty sweet to see them in such a small setting.

The line was so long that by the time we got in, The Annuals only had a few songs left. This was sort of by design: we had listened to some MP3s of theirs and were not impressed. They sounded very twee. Live, though, they had a lot more intensity. There were two drummers, plus the lead singer had a small kit to bang on during some of their songs as well. So they sounded great, although I'm still not in a rush to get their albums.

The Walkmen were fucking tedious.

We had seen Kaiser Chiefs at the 9:30 back in 2005. It had been a spur of the moment decision: we had seen The Bravery the week before at our first 9:30 show, and we wanted to go back there ASAP. We didn't know much about the Kaisers apart from "I Predict a Riot" and "Oh My God," so we really didn't know what to expect. They turned out to be amazing. Ricky Wilson is an energetic and charismatic frontman, and the band is a tight, tight unit. Jen was hoping that they were going to still be as good as she remembered, and she wasn't disappointed.

At one point, Ricky noted that their new album was coming out next week, so he expected everyone to know all the words. Surprisingly, they did. It helped that so many Brits were in the audience, but the Americans could sing along just as well.

I'm really impressed with the intensity they bring to their shows. It's a testament to their performance that even songs that are flat and dull on the albums, such as "I Was Born to Be a Dancer," turn into crowd rave-ups live. (Whereas the flat and dull Walkmen songs sound flat and dull live.) I could go on, but you get the point: they're a great live band.