On the last night of the Leeds-indie rock band’s UK arena tour, it was never going to be anything but a party...
“I said Nottingham, are you ready!” Ricky Wilson was not mincing words; he knew what he was doing, and the crowd were whipped up alongside him. Shortly after his very successful attempts at getting everyone jumping and singing, he reminded us all that “this is the final night of the tour”, and so announced that he would do his utmost in an attempt to lose his voice.
It must be said that the crowd's reaction was testament to not only the excitement and energy in his voice - a dramatic change from the most likely very tired Fratellis who were supporting - but also to his very serious efforts in losing his voice. By the end of the show, he had given his absolute all and left Nottingham feeling all sorts of positive.
Then again, any band with the discography on the same level as that of the Kaiser Chiefs should be able to give it a good go, and boy did they. Opening the floodgates with Born To Be A Dancer and going straight into Never Miss A Beat, it could be said that the latter of those songs perfectly summed up the whole evening, as the band didn’t put a foot wrong.
With a very impressive lighting display and stellar performances, it was only ever going to go very well. Some of the early favourites with the crowd included new single How 2 Dance and Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning), which went down an absolute treat.
But rather predictably it was the bands biggest songs that elicited the most notable reaction from the sea of onlookers. The eleventh song in the set, Every Day I Love You Less And Less caused a wave of bouncing and the biggest singalong of the night up to that point. This was immediately topped by the ubiquitous Ruby, which had a brilliant looking slot machine display behind the band.
Even once the song had finished, Ricky held a call-and-respond with the crowd for another chorus or so, before launching into yet another classic by the name of Hole In My Soul. After these feel-good vibes, the band mixed it up slightly with Misery Company before finishing the main set on an impeccable one-two hit of I Predict A Riot and The Angry Mob.
The crowd became awash with screaming faces and grins, with every one of the attendees joining in chorus to some of the most well-known songs of the British 2000s canon. With sheer delight painted across everybody’s faces, the band finished the main set to cacophonous applause.
The encore was kept brief, with only two songs rounding the set out to eighteen in total. The sound of People Know How To Love One Another and Oh My God rung around the heads of each and every crowd member, before the Motorpoint Arena’s very own angry mob dispersed into the night with a very well-spent evening just behind them.
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