The Kooks start strong but stumble before the finish in Milwaukee

The Kooks at Turner Hall Ballroom (Milwaukee, WI)

My first The Kooks show has been 20 years in the making. I distinctly recall falling in love with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out. To me, that material still holds up today; and thankfully those songs played heavily into Tuesday’s setlist at Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee. The first three songs of the night — “Sofa Song,” “Ooh La” and “She Moves in Her Own Way” — were pulled from that album from two decades ago.

In all, of the 20 songs played in Milwaukee Tuesday, nine were from Inside In/Inside Out; and despite releasing an album of new tracks just one month ago, the setlist included only three of those. That was fine by me; and from what I could tell the rest of the crowd felt similarly.

The new material was met with a warm and polite reception, but it was clear everyone wanted the classics. Which is what The Kooks delivered in spades.

Frontman Luke Pritchard, wearing tight leather(pleather?) pants and a white striped T, was animated dancing about the stage and preening like the legend from whom the band derives its name — the late David Bowie. Bandmate and lead guitarist Hugh Harris was more stoic and stylish in a black suit with a red button-up shirt beneath his bleached blond curls. 

Pritchard and Harris are the mainstays and creative drive of the band. They were aptly backed by bassist Jonathan Harvey and drummer Alexis Nunez. Harvey has been touring with the band since 2021 and performs on Never/Know. Nunez joined the band in 2012 and has performed on each album since 2014’s Listen. That familiarity shown through on performances of “Bad Habit” and “Sweet Emotion” — two tracks from that 2014 release. Those two were performed with such vigor that they may have been better reserved for the encore. As it was, “See the World” and “Naive” were solid in the curtain call, if not overly inspiring.

Overall, the band came out strong. As I mentioned earlier, the set was heavily loaded on the front end with fan favorites. This was an odd choice to me, as I would have saved the best for last. As it was, Pritchard and company peaked 13 songs in with an extended jam of 2008’s “Do You Wanna?” Pritchard followed that high with solo acoustic performances of “Seaside” and “Jackie Big Tits” — the later the result of a fan request (this was built into the setlist as “*Fan Favourite Solo Acoustic*). Both were expertly done, and the simple intimacy of Pritchard’s delivery was in fresh contrast to the sonic resonance of the preceding jam session.

When the band returned to close out the set, however, the vivacity didn’t seem to return with them. The title track from the new Never/Know didn’t carry the same liveliness that was present up and through the acoustic songs, and even the older, more beloved songs like “Matchbox” and “Junk of the Heart” felt more like soundcheck rehearsals than climatic closers.

With that said, The Kooks may want to consider pairing down the set to maintain the frenzied pace with which they came out of the gate — a more quality over quantity sprint approach; or pace themselves better by rearranging the track order — moving more of the killer content to the final stretch to better engage their audience from the starting blocks to the finish line.

The U.S. portion of the tour continues with lovelytheband opening through June 21 with stops in Denver, Salt Lake City, L.A., Oakland, Portland and Seattle. Then they return to Europe with dates from July 6 to Oct. 11. You can learn more at thekooks.com or follow the band on Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube at @thekooksmusic and Facebook at TheKooksOfficial.

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you captured any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see. 

Edit this setlist | More The Kooks setlists