Friday, 13 October 2006
Excitement grips the outer walls of Koko tonight as we queue for entry to one of the most hyped tours of 2006. Formed less than a year ago, it was clear early on that Klaxons had something special – deceptively complex, fun and exciting songs I’ve listened to countless times without feeling any sense of boredom.
As Koko starts to fill up, Datarock put in a mighty effort to get an already up-for-it crowd moving. ‘Fa Fa Fa’ and ‘I Used to Dance with my Daddy’ are favourites that get the ubiquitous glowsticks fuzzy like Ready Break.
The venue is awash with bright colours and happy moods as Shitdisco take to the stage. Like Klaxons, their songs are full of danceable hooks and builds. ‘I Know Kung Fu’ is the highlight, everyone around me making like Bruce Lee.
Pushing our way to the front, the crowd erupts as Klaxons appear, all cute t-shirts and grey hoodies. Jamie barks “Your name’s not down you’re not coming in!” and suddenly everyone’s dancing and punching the air. It’s the simple joy of unselfconsciously embracing music that affects you. It seems strange hearing them address the crowd as ‘London’, like just another town on a tour, now that they’ve left London to play around the UK, Europe and New York, with more US and Australian dates to come in the next few months. It demonstrates how far word has spread of their greatness, in the last couple of months particularly. This has of course been propelled by the ‘new rave’ tag, but Klaxons have the songs to surpass this. Obvious favourites (because we all know them and because they’re excellent) are ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’, ‘Atlantis to Interzone’, Four Horsemen of 2012’, ‘Totem’ and ‘Magick’.
All too soon it’s over and we’re left absorbing the Simian Mobile Disco ‘Magick’ remix before making our way out, collecting handfuls of Day-Glo stickers as we go.
It feels like ages till the album drops in January. Hopefully they won’t have died of exhaustion and adoration before it arrives… (4/5)
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