Kaiser Chiefs/Maxïmo Park

I've long held the theory, mainly generated from my experiences watching live gigs in small venues, that it's nearly impossible to hear what a live band is supposed to sound like if you haven't spent some time listening to their studio recordings- and I held this belief simultaneously, without contradiction, with the opinion that live performance is the most powerful way to experience music.

I think of it in this way: Let's say you're standing in a noisy, crowded room and your friend is talking to you. You focus on your friend and the rest of the noise is filtered out by your brain, and you only hear what your friend is saying. But if you actively listen to the noise of the entire room, it's one of the oddest and most claustrophobic noises that can be heard. Now, live gigs are very noisy, and despite the best efforts of sound engineers, most of that noise is not precisely what the band wants you to hear. But you can filter out what they don't want you to hear, provided you know what you're supposed to be listening to. I've had numerous experiences where I've listened to a live band for the first time and heard nothing but chaos, but after listening to their songs in a closed environment, they've been vastly improved in subsequent live listenings, because I can filter out all that stuff that I know is not meant to be there. If you follow me.

Which is why I was somewhat suprised that I enjoyed Kaiser Chiefs so much, having heard so little of their music (although, oddly, I knew four of their songs- I must have absorbed these through some kind of cultural osmosis because I don't have their album and have never actively listened to any of their music). I think this was because they didn't just rely on the music alone to ensure everyone was having a good time- they actually made a show, they were really focused on entertaining you, whatever it took. For example:

• They started with a short film about London, which everyone loved. It showed grainy, 60's-era footage of London, while a voice-over intoned things like: "London, where the Queen and her government make the decisions that control your lives. Don't worry, Londoners, you don't need to make decisions for yourselves, your lives are in good hands. Meanwhile, the Kaiser Chiefs stand outside Buckingham Palace playing their hit song 'I Predict a Riot'."
• Then they opened with "Money for Nothing", you know the huge build-up of 'I Want My MTVeeeee' intro, which drove everyone crazy. I thought this was pretty indicative of their desire to make sure the crowd was having a good time- I mean sure, they could have opened with one of their own songs, but they knew nothing could make a crowd more amped up than Dire Straights. That's right.
• At one point the lead borrowed a leaf from the book of the world's greatest showman and got a girl out of the audience to ballroom dance with her for the slow romantic song.
• Most awesome of all, the lead singer snuck around to the back of the audience and then crowd surfed (whilst singing) all the way to the front of the audience. I thought this was pretty ballsy of him, given that the people at the back of an audience don't always like the band playing, and aren't always amenable to crowd surfers.

The overall tone of the band was that they were headlining their first tour and were obviously off their chops about playing to such a large audience, they were clearly loving every minute of it and having a ball, which was really infectious. The crowd was nuts, we were flying all over the place. Great stuff.

Maxïmo Park were pretty reliable, but didn't spring out at me as being incredibly awesome*. I guess I just have to wonder about bands who wear ties up onstage. You're leaping around, it's hot as hell under the lights, a tie must be a nightmare. What kind of impression is so important that you'd put up with being so damned uncomfortable in order to convey it? I guess that you're the sort of band that would put up with discomfort in order to convey an impression. But what impression are you trying to convey? That you're the sort of band that would be all hot and sweaty in order to deliver a specific impression. But what kind of impression......oh, I could do this all night.