The Kooks @ Bowery Ballroom, 10/24

The Kooks followed the same touring pattern of recent British successes and buzz band extraordinares, the Arctic Monkeys and Editors, by making two stops in their first tour of the States - in LA and NYC. And it makes sense because it guarantees a healthy number of ex-pats in the audience that know the music (and know it very well, I might add) and it gives the band a chance to generate some additional hype from their live shows to readers beyond America's two biggest cities. As Pitchfork mentioned yesterday, these guys have already opened for the Stones and gone triple platinum in the UK. Seeing them live was my chance to see if a) they're legit and b) if they have a chance to make it in the States. My conclusion after an extremely entertaining 45-minute set is a) yes and b) probably not. The band is very confident on stage, they show none of the awkwardness that I've seen from multiple Arctic Monkeys performances, which is fairly remarkable given their age. Lead singer Luke Pritchard reminds me a lot of a younger, more talented, Tom Meighan (Kasabian) - confident to the point of cockiness. He put on a show for the crowd, from start to finish. It's not just an act, though, they're a talented group of musicians and they've absolutely perfected their craft. They came out, ran through about a dozen songs in 45 minutes, the crowd bouncing along to every beat and shouting the lyrics to every song, then left without an encore. And that's just what I needed to see to prove the hype to be necessary. So will they make it here it in the States? The odds certainly aren't in their favor. As a young band, they suffer from an identity crisis that lends itself to many different genres (ska, brit pop, punk, etc.). Until they find their niche, it's probably not enough to attract much of an American audience but I've seen and heard enough that I believe these kids may just have a decent future beyond their debut album.