Kaki King at ULU, London

While my impressions are still fresh, here's what I thought of Kaki King's concert at ULU tonight:

Kaki King had, by far, the best stage banter of any performer I've ever seen. And I like to think that means something, because although I'm a ripe 20 going on 21, I've been to a fair amount of shows. Touring with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters in Australia, the awkwardness of playing at Japanese jazz clubs, and eating meat and getting drunk in Istanbul were among some of the laugh-out-loud anecdotes.

The last time I saw Kaki, she was touring with a keyboardist and drummer, which nicely complimented her material from her latest album at the time, ...Until We Felt Red. But this time around, I was a little glad she had only brought her guitars and her friend Dave Brannigan on synthesizer, because I felt the new album, Dreaming of Revenge lacked the bare bones guitar work of her previous albums. That's not to say there's not a lot of fancy guitar-playing; as always with Kaki King, there is. You just need to listen harder for it and with the stripped down version, it was immediately apparent. Listening to the album again, I almost have trouble recognizing the album versions of the songs even though I know she played a lot of songs from Dreaming From Revenge.

Some songs from the set (in no particular order):
1. Life Being What It Is
2. Yellowcake
3. Doing the Wrong Thing
4. Jessica
5. Lovestoned (Justin Timberlake cover)
6. Tomorrow (Morrissey cover)
7. Everlong (Foo fighters cover... not quite a cover but part of a story)
8. Montreal
9. Close Your Eyes and You'll Burst Into Flames
10. Happy As A Dead Pig In The Sun (a crowd member requested it and although she couldn't remember it, she gave it a good shot)
11. Night After Sidewalk
12. Playing With Pink Noise
13. Ingots (I could be imagining she played this)
14. a song she wrote in Japan that sounded like a score for anime, according to Kaki

I don't know. The set was really long and had the ULU allowed her to continue, no doubt she would have encored with "Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers." Oh well. I'm glad she ended with "Jessica," just because someone requested it and she was going to do it.

It was a great show. If you get a chance to see Kaki King live, do itttt. Good times are to be had.

This live recording of "Life Being What It Is" captures Kaki pretty well. "Fuck, I practiced this too." Her voice might be something to get used to, but it's sincere and not arrogant and overall pleasant. Enjoy.