Kaiser Chiefs at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton. February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Arena tours are all well and good but on the odd occasion, to take a step away from the big swirling spaces and resonating echoes that the big halls can provide with serial relish, and to come to a venue steeped in musical history in the Midlands and remains captivatingly one of the best for atmosphere and crowd enjoyment, the Kaiser Chiefs hit the Wolverhampton Civic Hall with so much ammunition, so much energy, that the only surprise was the building and the audience were left intact at the end.

Tornados have left less devastation in their wake, the pounding of the heart, pulsating, lively, alive; hit every single beat, every single stride of Ricky Wilson’s vivacious vocals and hammer of VJ’s cymbals. Palpations on this scale are enough to send the brain whirring and the body throbbing with excitement and watching the animated audience was to confirm that your own senses were not betraying you, this was enthusiasm played out with passion, the sparkling vibrancy of a band at full throttle and just one brake, tantalisingly just out of reach.

Gigs come and go, they can be as transient as the wish made by a fairy caught in the downwind of an elephant’s stomach complaint, or with each song placed in the right order, they can be as memorable as the first time someone kissed you and whispered in your ear that you were the greatest thing to happen to them.

Listening to tracks such as Everyday I Love You Less And Less, Everything Is Average Nowadays, Ruffians On Parade, the brilliant Angry Mob with Ricky Wilson making his way round the rim of the balcony of the Civic Hall, half wonderfully terrifying some crowd members as they perhaps couldn’t believe their luck, half thrilling others who arguably could, and in a sublime battle of to and fro captured the ugliness of rabble rule and mass furious rage without foundation as he stared down the eyes of his band mates giving everything up for the cause; the superb Heat Dies Down, I Predict A Riot and Misery Company all being greeted as if the Government had announced that there was to be a cull on Iain Duncan Smith and the money saved ploughed into the N.H.S. this was off the scale enjoyment.  

The gig was that good, that exciting to see that perhaps for the first time on the tour the inclusion of the homage to The Who’s Pinball Wizard was justified and the glory of two different decades merging, coalescing, under one banner with the same love and intensity was finally realised.

To witness the Kaiser Chiefs at the Wolverhampton Civic was to put their concert in the very highest echelons of artists who have performed in the iconic Midland’s venue over the decades. Incredible, outstanding and very, very special, the Kaiser Chiefs just instinctively know how to make a crowd sweat.

Ian D. Hall