Kaiser Chiefs with Hockey

On Tuesday, November 11 (Veteran’s Day) we saw the Kaiser Chiefs perform at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood.  The Kaiser Chiefs are from Leeds, England and we first heard them on the radio station Indie 103.1 about four years ago.  They’ve released albums in 2005, 2007, and, most recently on October 28, 2008.  This show was billed as “Indie 103.1 Presents the Kaiser Chiefs.”  Getting to the venue took less time than expected.  We left Azusa at around 6:10 pm, took the 10 west to the 101 north and exited at Hollywood Boulevard.  There wasn’t very much traffic probably because it was a holiday.  We parked in the lot on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard between El Centro Avenue and Argyle Avenue where we had to pay an $8 flat rate.  After parking, we queued up near the corner of El Centro and Hollywood.  It was 6:55 pm, five minutes before the doors were scheduled to open.

By the time we had queued up, a venue employee was already going down the queue scanning tickets with a hand scanner.  Another employee asked if anyone planned to drink alcohol.  She checked the ID’s of and gave wristbands to those who answered “yes.”  We later found out that there were actually two queues: one longer one for us who had tickets and a shorter one for the Will Call or guest list.  There was no queue to buy tickets because, as we heard an employee say, the show was sold out.  This was quite a change from when we saw Swervedriver at the Music Box back on late May.  Perhaps this meant they would open the balcony this time.  At 7 pm the queue started moving, right on schedule.  They told us to empty our pockets and we went through the usual “pat down” security.

After we entered the venue, my wife went to get some merch while I went to find us seats on the balcony that we hoped would be open.  I went up one flight of stairs, tried a door but it was locked.  A venue employee told me to go up the second flight of stairs to the side.  He said the balcony was first-come-first-serve and that we couldn’t hold seats.  When I reached the top of the balcony, only the front row was full.  I got a couple of seats in the second row from the front on the left side of the middle section.  They were next to a defective seat.  One of the seats I got was also a bit defective.  The cushion caused me to lean to the left.  Eventually, I rolled up my jacket and put it on the left to even it out, though it was cold in the venue.

The crowd consisted of Caucasians our age or younger.   I didn’t see any young enough to be teenagers.  There were some people who looked older than us and it was about even between men and women.  Behind us in the queue was a group of women who sounded like they were speaking Russian.  I also heard someone in the will call/ guest list queue speak with an English accent.  The venue looked pretty much the same as when we saw Swervedriver.  Rather than the venue logo, they shined the Indie 103.1 logo on the red curtain over the stage.  The balcony had red fold-down seats that fit in with the general blue-red-gold color scheme of the venue’s interior.  On the backs of the seats were “Logo hooks” for hanging purses and things, a great idea.  The walls up there also had the red and gold swirling waves painted on them.  We also noticed that they shined lights on the upper walls to the sides of the stage that looked like musical notes, treble clefs and measures.  This time there weren’t any DJ’s on the platform to the left of the stage.  But they still had canned music such as “I Can’t Even Be Bothered” by the Charlatans, the original version of Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down” and “Up the Junction” by Squeeze.

After my wife finished getting merch and sat down in a seat I saved I went back to the ground floor to use the restroom.  When I returned I looked at the console of electrical switches at the top of the balcony and saw a printed schedule.  It said:    Doors Open        7:00
                    Hockey            8:15-9:00
                    Kaiser Chiefs        9:30-11:00
By 8:10 the balcony was over half full and at 8:20 the lights timed and the curtain rose.  The background was black and across it was the words “Kaiser Chiefs” in large letters.  But onstage was the opening act, the band Hockey.  They consisted of a drummer in a football T-shirt (the Rams possibly), guitarist, vocalist who didn’t play an instrument other than help play drums for parts of some songs, and bassist.  The bass drum had the letters “HKY” on it.  In addition to Hockey’s equipment, there was an elevated covered drum kit behind them along with other covered equipment presumably for the Kaiser Chiefs.  The first song they played was very rhythmic and fast and all their other songs would be like this.  When they finished the first song the vocalist said, “We’re called Hockey.”  He spoke with what sounded like an accent but later proved to be just a way of speaking.  The next two songs were also loud, rhythmic, fast, and very vocal.  The vocalist sang fast and at times it sounded like he was rapping and, other times, screaming.  One of the first three songs was called “Work” and included the line “Work Work Work, too much work for me.”  It was like the story of my life.

Before the next song the bassist said in a clear American accent, “We’re from Portland, Oregon here for this one show.”  The vocalist then explained that the next song was called Matthew McConaughey and was about the movie industry.  The chorus had them sing “Matthew McConaug”, pause, and then shout “Hey.”  The music seemed to include some electronic sounds from a keyboard, though no keyboardist was visible.  The next song, “I Want To Be Black”, had lots of rapping from the vocalist that seemed to tell a story.  Before singing, they mentioned that it was a new song.  Hockey had used just the colored spotlights for visual effects.  Included in their set was a catchy song called “Song Away.”  With their strong bass sounds their music could be classified as funk.  Overall, they’re probably the best opening band we’ve seen this year.  Before the last song the vocalist and the bassist seemed to be talking at the same time unsure who was supposed to speak.  One of them mentioned that they would be back for a show at the Troubadour in December.  Their last song got louder and faster as it went along.  The vocalist and the bassist moved around the stage.  They finished, thanked us and the Kaiser Chiefs, and the curtain fell at 8:55 pm.

By 9:30 the balcony was almost full and we could see that the floor in front of the stage was very crowded, much more crowded than when we saw Swervedriver.  At 9:30 the balcony lights dimmed and the curtain rose.  The stage was empty except for the drum kit and equipment that had previously been covered.  Canned guitar music played as the Kaiser Chiefs came out to their places.  The vocalist, Ricky Wilson, quickly raised his arms to excite the crowd and they went straight into their first number “Spanish Metal”.  The band consisted of the vocalist, Ricky, guitarist Andrew “Whitey” White, bassist Simon Rix, and drummer Nick Hodgson who also sang background vocals.  Ricky would move about the stage while singing and pick up tambourines during the guitar solos.  During the next song, “Everything is Average Nowadays”, he walked into the crowd and was held up by either them or security.

Before the third song, Ricky explained that they were one man down.  Their keyboard player, Peanut, had an appendectomy in Brazil earlier in the tour.  Ricky introduced Roger, “Peanut’s Roady”, who would be filling in for him on keyboard.  Roger looked older than the others in the band.  One of the other band members mentioned that even though Peanut couldn’t make it, his hat did and he indicated a black felt hat on top of a speaker near the keyboard.  They played the very fast song “Everyday I Love You Less and Less” using blue and purple spotlights during the verses and fast blinking white lights during the chorus.  At the end Ricky threw the microphone stand high in the air.  After it came down it had to be replaced.  They played the equally fast “Heat Dies Down.”  Whitey had switched to a different guitar and the song had prominent guitar riffs.  They then played the more vocal “Can’t Say What I Mean” and used blue and red spotlights.  They appropriately used red spotlights for the next song, “Ruby”, a single off their second album.  Ricking was jumping up and down and got the whole crowd on the floor jumping.  He picked up a mambo bell for the next song “Modern Way” that was also fast and had a strong rhythm.

The next song, “Thank You Very Much” began with a loud guitar and flashing lights.  They slowed just a bit for the one after that, “Time-Honored Tradition”, at least for the verses that Ricky also sang in a lower register.  They sped up when he sang “Oh-oh, oh-oh . . .” and he again picked up a mambo bell for the guitar solo.  Before the next song Ricky mentioned that Peanut was the one who got the audience clapping and since he wasn’t here we’d have to clap on our own.  We clapped as they played “Good Days, Bad Days” with Roger’s keyboard also providing rhythm.  They then did the very fast song “Na Na Na Na Naa” with Ricky and Nick singing the chorus (also the title) at their highest registers of the concert.  Fast-blinking spotlights accompanied the song.  It ended with Nick’s loud drumming that carried into the next song “I Predict a Riot”, a hit single from their first album.  They did the first verse without drums and then added them for the rest.  By the end of the song the crowd was clapping loudly.  Nick and Whitey kept playing loud and fast into the next song.

We didn’t recognize the next song as being from any of their three albums.  It involved a lot of shouting.  About halfway through, Ricky motioned for the crowd to clear some space down the middle.  He then got down from the stage and it looked like he walked through the crowd on the floor to the back of it.  He had his microphone on a long cord and continued to sing.  When he returned to the stage he was sitting on someone’s shoulders and after climbing back onstage they finished the song.  He then said, “Thank you for having us, L.A.” and they played “The Angry Mob” that’s a bit slower than the others but still very loud.  It gets even slower when Ricky sings, “Tonight you will sleep softly in your bed.”  The last part of the song is a repeated chorus of a line that starts with “We are the angry mob . . .” that they chanted more times than on the recording, chanted a cappella, and turned the microphone to the audience to hear us chant.  They ended at 10:30 and walked off stage but the curtain did not fall.

There was solid cheering and intermittent stomping for several minutes, though I noticed a few people had left the balcony.  We were able to move one seat closer to the middle and the band returned at 10:35.  Ricky described how they just appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno when John McCain was also a guest.  “He didn’t win” Ricky said and most of the audience cheered.  “You’re so political” he replied sarcastically.  They then performed “Never Miss a Beat” the first single off their new album, a loud, fast song that featured Roger on keyboard.  For their final song they did the slightly slower but louder “Oh My God.”  It was another song that ended in a repeated chant, only this time it was “Oh my God, I can’t believe it, I’ve never been this far away from home.”  They shouted it loud and again turned the microphone to the audience.  At the very end Nick played the drums loud and fast.  They finished and all stood up.  Ricky motioned for Roger to come out from behind the keyboard to loud applause.  They all bowed and left the stage and the curtain fell at 10:45.

Leaving the parking lot, we had to negotiate many other cars leaving and pedestrians leaving the Pantages Theater where the musical Wicked was also getting out.  We drove north on Argyle Ave. and got on the 101 south from there.  There was even less traffic on the way back, definitely not a case of “Oh my God I can’t believe it, I’ve never been this far away from home.”  Rather, we “never missed a beat” with this concert: commute and seating both worked out.  No reason to “predict a riot” or expect “The Angry Mob.”  As of now, this is our last planned concert of the year, something that has become a “Time-Honored Tradition.”  What’s left is just the holidays and “work work work” but then, next year’s just a “song away.”