Kaiser Chiefs Didn't Miss A Beat

It's always a treat when a great live act shifts from its usual stadium setting to a smaller, more intimate club. When I heard the Kaiser Chiefs were going to play The Mod Club — to a sold-out crowd, no less — I knew things were going to get a little crazy. (I'll let you make your own "predicting a riot" jokes.)

Starting off the night were East York, Ont. experimental/indie/ambient mish-mash sextet, Still Life Still. I only caught two songs, but that was enough to conclude they were a complete mess. They finished their half-hour set with a bang — literally — by throwing instruments around the stage. But they weren't fun instruments to toss around, like guitars or drums or anything of value. Instead, they threw random stuff like cymbals. I was later told by some concertgoers that that was sadly the highlight of Still Life Still's set.

Luckily, these kids had a firsthand opportunity to learn from the masters. Kaiser Chiefs won the Q Award for best live band last month, and it's really no surprise why. The Leeds quintet looked incredibly comfortable as they strode on stage, but all eyes quickly diverted to singer Ricky Wilson when he approached the mic.

The charismatic and energetic frontman wasn't impressed with the audience after set opener "Spanish Metal," which is also the first track on their latest effort, the recently released Off With Their Heads. The crowd seemed pretty excited, especially for a Toronto audience, but I'm sure Wilson is used to British audiences going totally apeshit for them.

To rev everyone up during the second song, Wilson jumped into the crowd and walked right to the back of the venue, where he proceeded to get up on some dude's shoulders and was carried back to the stage, singing the whole way. And that was only the beginning.

Wilson worked his ass off to get The Mod Club moving. He bounced around the stage, elicited crowd singalongs and frantic hand-clapping, made multiple stage dives and crowd-surfed his way around the venue.

But he topped it all towards the end of the set. When he was visibly out of beer, the frontman made a sad face, jumped down from the stage and made his way to the bar. He then jumped on top and walked about halfway down until he finally got behind it and helped himself to a generous shot of booze. He climbed back on top of the bar, swigged the drink back in one gulp and dove into the crowd, surfing his way back to the stage. It was impressive.

Wilson's hard work paid off. The audience, which was littered with British ex-pats, jumped and danced around voraciously, and would do so with even more intensity when Wilson asked for it. (But there were also those who were oblivious to the whole affair, like the two 40-year-old Kaiser Chiefs cougars who were "dancing" — or should I say struggling to stay on their feet all night — in front of me, pounding Mike's Hard Lemonades like it was their job. They added a whole other level of entertainment to the night.)

The Kaiser Chiefs played a pretty even mixture of material from their three albums, though hits like "Ruby," "I Predict A Riot," closer "The Angry Mob" and the final encore song, "Oh My God," generated the biggest responses. It was a bit surprising, though, how the audience went mad for songs from their sophomore album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, which I thought paled in comparison to their excellent Employment debut.

While they didn't get as large a response, the new songs from Off With Their Heads sounded great, especially "Half The Truth" and the danceable "Never Miss A Beat" and "You Want History." It'll be great to see the Chiefs again when people are a little more familiar with this album, because the latter track is definite hit material and begs to be danced to.

It was also great to hear drummer Nick Hodgson sing. His back-up and vocal interplay with Wilson on a few songs proved that the drummer and lead songwriter — who contributes whisper-quiet lead vocals on the boring Heads track, "Remember You're A Girl" — does, in fact, have a great voice.

It was impossible not to have a good time at this show. When the house lights finally came on, it almost seemed too soon. But while my adrenaline might've still been high, my sweaty clothes told me I'd danced enough for one night.

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