Wow, it’s been just over three years since the last time I saw the Kooks perform live in concert. So I was pretty darn excited to see the British wunderkids at the intimate setting of the Bowery Ballroom.

Just before 10pm, the guys swaggered onto the stage, and the young ladies (let’s call them “Kookies”) in the front of course went mad — screaming and outstretching their arms before a single note was played. When I looked over at Luke Pritchard, I was pleased to see his burning love of V-neck shirts had not been forgotten after all these years — there he was in all his acute angle-loving glory, sporting a red V-neck shirt (seriously, this man has never met a V-neck he couldn’t love), skinny jeans, and boots (obvs.).

The Kooks hit the stage and the crowd went bezerkies.

I don’t know what it is, but there is something so magical about seeing The Kooks live. Without fail, I always have a great time and leave the venue with a smile on my face — and this time was no exception. I started off the show perched in the balcony, but (as anyone who has ever been to a concert with me) about 4 or 5 songs in I could barely contain myself — so I headed down to the floor to be with the “real” fans, and shake my groove thaannng.

The set was a mix of old favorites, like “Naive,” “Seaside” (encore), “Shine On,” and new songs off their forthcoming album, Junk of the Heart, like Lou Reed “Satellite of Love”-esque piano-based B-side “The Saboteur” and the extremely catchy “How D’Ya Like That“.

Pretty lights.

The new songs sound absolutely fantastic — they are a bit more romantic sounding, with a touch of new-wave influence, heavily synth and keyboard based tunes. A nice progression for The Kooks — a softer, more sensitive side, but definitely not faltering on some infectious hooks.

Luke Pritchard‘s got them moves like Jagger.

Something I also find amazing about this band is how polished and professional they are each and every single time I see them. When they come out, they just nail it every time — every Kooks concert is like a “greatest hits” jam because nearly every song they play is extremely catchy. It’s only a testament to their talent as songwriters, consistently churning out winning track after track.

After getting a sneak peek listen at the new songs during this show I CANNOT wait until their new album comes out in September. The boys are back, and better than ever! <3 <3 <3

I know this photo isn’t very good, but this is what I imagine Luke Pritchard looks like in all of those fangirl’s dreams.

Yes, I know, Hugh Harris (aka – “Hugh Kooks”) looks like he’s auditioning for a Flock of Seagulls tribute band, but you gotta love him.

When Luke Pritchard smiles, the whole world (or in this case, Bowery Ballroom) smiles too.

“Yessssssssssssssssssssss!” New drummer Chris Prendergast was pumped!

Thank you, thank you very much.

Girl wills The Kooks back to the stage via lit lighter.

This girl got up on some dude’s shoulders and clearly wanted to make love to Luke Pritchard.

“Heeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Catch you later dudes and dudettes!”

With the death of LCD Soundsystem and the re-emergence of The Strokes, of late I’ve been reconnecting/running into a lot of folks from what I like to call “the good ol’ days” — people who I met through going to shows, and being in that whole scene, during the early 2000s. For those of you who are younger, you’re not going to understand this, so let me say this very plainly — when you get old, you don’t go out to parties/concerts as much, so you don’t see people randomly all that often.

In any case, I’ve noticed that a lot of these old time friends have all been mentioning to me that they love that I still have my blog, which strikes me as extremely funny. Because telling me that it’s soooo amazing that I still do my blog is basically the internet equivalent of congratulating me on walking down a flight of stairs or being able to chew solid foods (I can still do both of those things — kinda). So yeah, you definitely realize you’ve been in the game for a long time when several folks start giving you props for doing something you don’t even really consciously think about. Don’t get me wrong, I love every person who tells me that, but it’s definitely a bellweather of my continued descent into the abyss of Old.

So as some feeble attempt to somehow rid myself of that mothball-y, musky “old people smell” I’m sure I reek of at this point, I gathered up all my strength to hobble over to the Bowery Ballroom alongside fellow old timer, Melody Nelson, to check out the hot new UK rock goddess import, Anna Calvi.

Maybe The Rapture was a couple days late?

Sitting downstairs until Anna Calvi’s 11PM set time, we reminisced about how during CMJ 2002 I fell asleep on the very black leather couch upon which we were perched, waiting for the late late show by The Walkmen. As I looked around at the crowd, it was a weird mix of lithe Lissy Trullie-type hipsters, bridge and tunnel-y people, and slightly older people of obviously discerning taste. (All the trendy kids must’ve been at the Friendly Fires show at Webster Hall.) The highest ranking celeb of the night was Mr. David Byrne, who was there with daughter Malu Abeni and some of her friends.

When the time came to head upstairs, for some reason it was impossibly hot and sweaty, despite the fact that the venue was not fully packed. But as soon as the lights went down, and the fog machine kicked in, all was forgotten and I was transported into the glamorous, dramatic, and enchanting world of Anna Calvi.

Those who know me well can attest to the fact that I’ve always insisted that bands put at least some effort into their stage appearance. I’ve never demanded that people be beautiful or slim, but I truly believe having some sense of showmanship is part of the package that makes a compelling artist. (See the White Stripes, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Hives.)

She has a perma-scowl when she is singing. She’s getting her grrrr on.

You could pretty much say Ms. Calvi had me at her Robert Palmer guitar girl slicked-back hair, smoky ’80s eye makeup, and ruby red lips, and elegant black jumpsuit with rope belt detailing, but it was her piercing, spooky vocals, and blistering guitar work that truly won me over. I liken her as the British answer to St. Vincent. Both women are incredibly stylish as well as extremely capable when it comes to commanding an audience.

Ms. Calvi’s sound reflects a number of different influences. She’s often compared to PJ Harvey, due to the dark and looming elements of some of her songs, but she also incorporates the vibrant flair of flamenco-style music, but there are hints of a sunnier, croonier side, with a bit of Wall of Sound inspiration thrown in.

Towards the end of her set, Chris of Music Snobbery, must’ve saw me staring at her 4-inch heels, because he leaned over and informed me that Ms. Calvi is quite petite — somewhere in the 5-foot range.

Expect to be hearing a lot more about Anna Calvi in the coming months — she’s back in NYC for a gig at Le Poisson Rouge on July 27th.

Video of her cover of “Jezebel” made famous by Edith Piaf:

MORE: URB.com

I’ve recently taken on the task of going through and tagging all my old photos, and it’s pretty hysterical the things I end up finding.

I’ve probably told the story about a very surreal Romeo and Juliet moment that all of Bowery Ballroom witnessed in August 2002, during an impossibly hard to get into “secret” show that Coldplay was playing at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom, about a billion times.

The setting was a packed Bowery Ballroom. Both Gallagher brothers were in the audience (Oasis was playing a few gigs at Roseland that week). The audience was PUMPED. And then towards the end of the set Chris Martin sang “In My Place.” The room was pitch black, except for one lone spotlight on Chris, who seemed to be singing to the folks in the balcony.

Then someone standing next to me motioned to the balcony, where future wife Gwyneth Paltrow was sitting, and we all realized that by some happenstance she was ALSO illuminated by the light — so basically the only two people in the entire venue that had lights on them were Chris and Gwyneth. It was a little awwwkkwaaarrrddd… it seemed like Chris was singing directly to her.

Well little did I remember, apparently I had snapped a photo while all this was happening. Here’s a never before seen picture of Gwyneth Paltrow swaying her hands to sound of Chris Martin singing circa 2002:

Why I never posted this photo I have NO IDEA, but I’m so glad I found it. It also calls into question the fact that on Wikipedia it says Gwynie met Chris in October of 2002, when she was at the show in August 2002. Who knows, maybe she didn’t actually get to meet him that night…but we all know what happened!

So long-time White Stripes fans who attended the 4-night stand at the Bowery Ballroom in 2002 may remember sketchy peeps in white lab coats running around the building, filming something. As it was revealed later, it was footage being shot for a documentary entitled “Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children” shot/directed/edited by one George Roca.

A still of Meg and Jack from “Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children”

The film only saw one public screening, at the 2004 Seattle Film Festival–despite the fact that the White Stripes did not give their approval to screen or distribute the film. A June 23, 2004 post on the White Stripes’ official site, the band made it known that they were extremely unhappy with the film, and that they had a signed contract from Roca that gave the band all rights to the footage.

According to an MTV News interview with Roca, after the band saw a rough cut of the footage, they extended positive words about the documentary–but only a short time later, the band released a live concert music video for “Black Math,” (below) which mirrored the style of the footage Roca had shown them, and the band cut off all communication.

“Black Math” (live) music video in black, white, and red.

I kinda forgot about the documentary, only hearing about it in passing–almost as it if never existed, gathering a myth of its own. I heard about a friend of a friend who had seen it, maybe, and said it was pretty cool, etc.

But it seems as though a few months ago someone had managed to get a copy of the documentary and upload some clips of it to the internet, and only recently did I become aware of it.

The footage is almost impossible to watch–it’s highly stylized…with blurry, high-contrast black, white, and red (natch) images filling up the screen, and the sound quality is abysmal. The interviews are hard to hear, captured in the middle of a myriad of backstage chatter–you can vaguely make out things like Jack talking about his –er– admiration for starlets like Kirsten Dunst and Cameron Diaz, and one moment where Meg accuses the director of trying to steal Jack’s soul. Strokes Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. appear for a few brief moments in the clips, chatting and taking pictures with Meg and Jack.

Were you there? Identify yourself!

Probably the most joy I got out of trying to watch it was trying to spy myself in the concert footage. Even though it’s pretty cool to see footage of the White Stripes “back when.” the clips are pretty mundane, and I cannot stress enough how HORRIBLE the sound quality is–(seriously, a documentary about a musical group as great as the Stripes deserves better sound than this!) I can see why the Stripes put a kibosh to the film’s release.

For fans who are not deterred by the aforementioned technical hurdles of the clips, I’m sure you’ll be crafty enough to find the footage–it’s not that hard. I’m going to refrain from linking to them directly for obvious reasons, and I ask you to refrain from posting the links to the video in the comments as well.

Here are pictures I took at 3 of the 4 shows (couldn’t go to the Sunday show… had school work! Sold my PAIR OF TICKETS to some random person on the Ryan Adams message boards for FACE VALUE–ah, the pre-Craigslist days. Hilarious). Go ahead, try to figure out if I’m any of those blurry people in the footage, I sure couldn’t! April 5, April 6, April 8

Thanks for the heads–you know who you are.

As we descend further and further into old-lady-hood, we’ve discovered we’d rather watch “Miss Match,” Cody Banks, “Endurance 2,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” and the Kylie “Fever” DVD during our weekend downtime rather than partaking in the CMJ festivities by seeing The Cooper Temple Clause at Irving Plaza, trying to hit on hot boys at the Etnies party, or doing some ’80s dance moves to Grace Jones at the Paper, A|X shindig. (We do the ’80s dance moves at home anyway.)

So you can imagine everyone’s shock and horror when we dared to venture outdoors to catch British Sea Power on Thursday night as part of the Rough Trade showcase at Bowery Ballroom. True, we did leave before the set was done to (unsuccessfully) catch The Thrills at Mercury Lounge, but we were outside… so the rumors are untrue. WE ARE NOT DEAD!

So the Coldplay show… Gallaghers aside, it was amazing. I keep singing “The Scientist” over and over in my head (ok- that and the Nelly song, because IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE, SO TAKE OFF ALL YOUR CLOTHES).

Chris made 3 wardrobe changes… he was wearing the Chairman Mao jacket, then the Make Trade Free black tee, then he came out in the white long-sleeved polo. His hair looked hot. Chris was on fire, baby. I was hardly watching anything else but Mr. Chris Martin.

Jonny played the harmonica during “Don’t Panic,” yay!

We all held the vomit when they decided to do a Romeo and Juliet thing for Chris and Gwyneth during.. uh… what song was that? It was just so so fantastic. Wish you could have been there.

TO ANYONE WHO WRITES ME THIS WEEK, SORRY FOR THE LACK OF COMMUNICATION (AND THE VON BONDIES REFERENCE) BUT THE WEEK OF CONCERT DEATH CONTINUES TOMORROW… THE STROKES AND THE WHITE STRIPES… I CAN’T TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW… PRAY I DON’T DIE AND I’LL RESPOND SOONER OR LATER. BUT SEND THE MAIL! I LOVE IT. I READ IT, BUT DON’T HAVE TIME TO WRITE BACK. AS VINCE WOULD SAY, IT’S MEGA-SHOWASIS WEEKASIS!

PREVIEW: COLDPLAY @ BOWERY BALLROOM