It seemed like no matter how many times The Morning Benders lead singer Chris Chu repeated the band’s name, someone behind me would ask who they were. The California band was a fitting choice to open up. The rocking little ditty “Damnit Anna” and “Waiting For a War” won the crowd over and got them ready for The Kooks. The band came off stage and we waited.

And waited. And waited.

After waiting for what seemed like forever (half hour) the red light that shone on drummer, Paul Garred brought the crowd back to life. The girls only got louder when singer, Luke Pritchard came out in his golden Caligula-esque headband. They started off strong with Pritchard showing off his rock ‘n roll swagger in “Always Where I Need To Be.” He jumped on top of speakers, got up close and person with the front row and slurred comments to the crowd that no one could understand. He even had girls making glowstick signs for him. Anyone else getting some eerie flashbacks of the Backstreet Boys?

Fortunately The Kooks are not a “boy band” but a rock band that played a good mix of both their albums to the crowd of young girls and burly men who like to jump(anyone else get their ankle stepped on?). Their hour and a half set seemed much quicker as they breezed through “She Moves in Her Own Way”, “Shine On” and “Sway”. Pritchard played a little acoustic encore of “Seaside” and a crowd favorite “Jackie Big Tits” before the band closed out the show. With the amount of people who packed into Terminal 5 it seems our little cover boys are really growing up.

- Shannon Carlin