Tag: Delaware

The Killers, Cold War Kids 6/21/15

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(i) lineup

(1a) Cold War Kids
(2b) The Killers

(1a) (Cold War Kid’s) setlist

  1. All This Could Be Yours
  2. Miracle Mile
  3. One Song at a Time
  4. We Used to Vacation
  5. Audience
  6. First
  7. Louder Than Ever
  8. Hot Coals
  9. Hang Me Up to Dry
  10. Minimum Day
  11. I’ve Seen Enough
  12. Drive Desperate
  13. Hospital Beds
  14. Something Is Not Right With Me

(1b) highlights

  • seeing Cold War Kids in a festival setting for the first time
  • realizing that the token Cold War Kids’ intimacy and jam session-vibe live isn’t lost on a massive stage; their passion and fun was completely still there
  • the setlist killed and the crowd was totally into it

(1c) lowlights

  • apparently their piano broke before the last song? the band was down about it, but admitting full ignorance here, I totally did not notice

(1d) overall thoughts

When you’re standing in the sun all day, waiting at the main stage for the headliner to come on, you’re willing to sit through some garbage acts. Luckily, thank god, I didn’t have to deal too much with that because my Cold War Kids played a mid-day set and totally killed it. Their newer material from the album Hold My Home really resonated with the audience and I was happy they had such a good-sized crowd. Their passion and live fervor didn’t get lost in the open field and on the big stage; in fact, it gave them more room to move around and let the songs breathe a bit. So many mid-level bands phone in festival performances when they aren’t at the top of the bill, but Cold War Kids don’t deal with that mess. They showed up, performed super well, and definitely made more fans that day.

Bottom line: Seeing Cold War Kids is always a complete joy, and seeing them for an hour in the middle of a Delaware field on the hottest and longest day of the year was no different.

(I’m in this pic!)

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Photo by: Ilya S. Savenok

(2a) (The Killers’) setlist

    1. Mr. Brightside
    2. Spaceman
    3. The Way It Was
    4. Smile Like You Mean It
    5. Bling (Confession of a King)
    6. Human
    7. Somebody Told Me
    8. Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
    9. The Bucket (Kings of Leon cover)
    10. For Reasons Unknown
    11. From Here On Out
    12. A Dustland Fairytale
    13. Use Somebody (Kings of Leon cover)
    14. Read My Mind
    15. Runaways
    16. All These Things That I’ve Done

Encore:

  1. This Is Your Life
  2. When You Were Young

(2b) highlights

  • “This Is Your Life” is always such a beautiful song and wonderful experience live – Brandon gets the crowd to wave their hands before the last bridge and it’s so freaking beautiful every time
  • seeing The Killers front row at huge festivals with gigantic crowds is always a memorable experience; it’s so great seeing how far they’ve come from their little Vegas roots

(2c) lowlights

  • Kings of Leon’s set was cancelled the day before at Firefly because of the weather; The Killers thought it would be cool to cover a few of their songs so people could still see them; I liked Kings of Leon’s first two albums but haven’t liked anything they’ve done in awhile; I paid to see The Killers, not Kings of Leon, but whatever
  • the band came on late, why why why are they always so damn late
  • I was so tired and it was so hot and the weekend was so long, I kinda lost it at different parts of the set

(2d) overall thoughts

I’ve seen The Killers headline many festivals many times and even though this wasn’t one of my favorite experiences, I know I can’t complain because it was really solid performance. Most of my complaints have little to do with the band and mostly to do with the circumstances (namely, the weather was awful and the Firefly promoters were pretty damn disorganized all weekend, which sucked for a lot of us). So, I’ll just say this: being front row at a festival where your favorite band is headlining and closing out the weekend playing an awesome set is kind of a dream. The Killers were showmen, added so much to the experience, and I got to hang out with all my friends seeing great live music all weekend. What more could anyone ask for?

Bottom Line: Being a part of 30,000 people waving their hands in the air during “This Is Your Life” is probably one of the best feelings ever, and also Kings of Leon are passed their prime so let’s stop giving them a spotlight please thanks.

Note: I took photos of both Cold War Kids and The Killers but my phone malfunctioned at the end of 2015 and for some reason, all the photos from this weekend were lost except this one below.

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The Kooks 6/18/15

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(a) setlist

    1. Around Town
    2. Bad Habit
    3. Ooh La
    4. Down
    5. It Was London
    6. She Moves in Her Own Way
    7. Westside
    8. Always Where I Need to Be
    9. The Saboteur
    10. Sway
    11. Sweet Emotion
    12. Forgive & Forget
    13. See Me Now
    14. Junk of the Heart (Happy)
    15. Naive

(b) highlights

  • seeing the Kooks for the first time!
  • solid setlist and really good crowd
  • being one of the smart people and wearing rainboots to avoid the tons of gallons of mud that basically no one anticipated at Firefly
  • watching the show from a nice patch of grass and blanket

(c) lowlights

  • was totally covered in more mosquito bites than actual skin

(d) overall thoughts

This was the first day of the Firefly Festival – the Thursday before all the major action starts taking place – so everyone was still happy and alive. I loved The Kooks when they first came out, but I had never seen them, so this was a pretty cool opportunity.

I always loved The Kooks – clearly I was and still am fond of the mid-2000’s British indie alternative – and especially loved their 2005 album Inside In/Inside Out. I liked quite a bit of their later work, but hadn’t really pursued a lot of it. So, I was pretty shocked by the crowd’s reaction at this show. Almost everyone was super into every song – newer and older. In my mind, the band were still hanging out in the 2000’s, but I guess the joke was on me because The Kooks have secretly been rising under the radar. It was so refreshing to see so many people involved in the performance – and not just for the big hits and classics like “Naive,” “Ooh La,” and “She Moves In Her Own Way” but practically every song. How cool is that.

Bottom Line: The Kooks have apparently gotten huge over the years and that is such a cool thing to experience as a long-time fan. Wish them nothing but the best – their live show certainly is worth it.

Photos by: Claudia Heidelberger