Kaiser Chiefs | Roseland Ballroom 4.12.07

It’s been a while, I know. Yeah – I missed you too. What do you mean “how much?” I said I missed you; isn’t that enough? I came back, didn’t I? Well…I don’t remember you making my phone ring either. I was busy! I have a life outside of this, you know! Why are you making such a big deal out of this?!?! We should be using this time, now that we have been reunited, to catch up – make the moments mean something. So stop acting like I owe you an explanation and let’s just make the time apart disappear. Why? Because we’re both here now. Okay? I’ll tell you what I have been doing lately…

I’ve been listening to a lot of music. I’ve been all over the place musically – I’ve been jamming to Plastic Little ever since they tore March’s Friction wide open to “Spring And By Summer Fall” by Blonde Redhead (that track is my current favorite), while still dancin’ with myself to Young Love (make sure you check out the acoustic version of “Find A New Way”), Cobra Starship, “Dirty Laundry” by Bitter:Sweet, Gym Class Heroes, and Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. Somewhere along the way, I found out that the Kaiser Chiefs were releasing a new album to follow up the fun pub smashing Employment. The new CD, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, is not a rehash of the infectious pub anthems that populate their debut. Instead, it is an all new infection – it is more of a rock album. It feels larger but retains those same hooligan rallying rhythms that make you want to rip the dance floor up. Then I found out that they were coming to NYC’s Roseland Ballroom. I guess you can figure that I was going to be there. After my first introduction to hooligan antics when I caught the Arctic Monkeys at Irving Plaza, I was intrigued. Plus, if nothing else…the music would kick ass.

The UK band doesn’t disappoint live. They sound as energized as they do blasting through my headphones. And blast they do. Opening with “Saturday Night” from Employment, the crowd was still a bit cold – no drunken antics to report. Things started warming up by their second song of the night, “Everyday I Love You Less and Less.” Despite the title, “Heat Dies Down,” we were just starting to get things cookin’. Ah yes, the hooligan contingent was starting to find its legs…right before the beer took the springs right out of them. There was plenty of unbalanced stumbling that some would argue as dance (using the loosest interpretation of the word possible). The Kaiser Chiefs kept the set pretty well balanced between the 2 albums. The crowd even got to pretend they were the 6th member of the band by singing along to “Heat Dies Down,” “Ruby,” “Born to Be a Dancer,” “Modern Way” (which, if you want a deliciously cool version with some Cuban flavor, track down the version the Kaiser Chiefs did with Buena Vista Social Club on the charity album Rhythms Del Mundo), and the bar breaking “I Predict A Riot.” My favorite song they played was “Try Your Best” off Yours Truly, but with an extension on the ending guitar riffs which I so wish was on the CD. I will admit that I was disappointed that neither of my favorite songs from either album didn’t make the set (“Time Honoured Tradition” and “Love is Not a Competition (But I’m Winning)”), but the encore renditions of “The Angry Mob” and “Oh My God” kept me satisfied. I guess seeing a tall, slender, sexy as **** lesbian lift her shirt all the way up to her chin for a fun photo taken by her friends right in front of me may have added a couple of points to the night’s overall score. Waiting in the cold of night was well worth the show…did I mention that the lesbian chick was hot to the point that it might make you outright drool in public? And for those dirty pervs out there (I raise my pint to you all), her bra was beige and the only flat body part was her stomach. *grins wickedly*

Yeah…so that is pretty much what I’ve been up to. Anything new going on with you? You know Sanjaya finally got kicked off Idol; I’m really going to miss watching his sister enthusiastically applaud for him on national television. I guess that’s what YouTube is for, right?