Cold War Kids

Last night I saw the Cold War Kids at The Enmore. They had Delta Spirit as a support act.

Delta Spirit started well. It was interesting enough, with the first song played in 3/4 time, and really interesting percussion. But then they just kept playing. And it got less and less interesting. At the point that they told us we were the best audience they'd had in Australia, you could barely hear them over the chit chat. And then they played another 5 songs! They played for an hour. Way too long.

So finally CWK came on about 10:10pm. I really love the music, and I was pleasantly surprised by his voice live, as I had seen live footage that didn't do him much justice. It was a fun show, and they clearly enjoy their music.

Now come the buts. They played in the dark. They were lit only from behind and above, and the latter only rarely. If I bother to go see a band, I like to actually see them. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

Then they played Hospital Beds. This was disappointing in two respects - for one, it wasn't 11pm yet, and that was clearly a next to last song. And secondly, he really can't sing that live. They came back and played two songs after, but it was only just after 11pm when they finished. Compared with Angus and Julia Stone at $35, the $62 this one cost did not look like good value. I like their music, but I won't be heading out to see them live again.