Kaiser Chiefs at Phoenix Concert Theatre

Photos by Sarah Rix.

Pulling into town for the final date on their North American tour promoting their fifth album, last year’s Education, Education, Education & War, England’s Kaiser Chiefs brought their faithful party to the Phoenix last night.

While their profile has diminished somewhat on this side of the pond, lead singer Ricky Wilson’s stint on The Voice UK has kept the band in the public eye.  Not so much here and I’m sure the devoted and aware but I didn’t even know the band had released the fifth album.

A tour-ending extravaganza it was not to be, sticking to a setlist accompanying them on this trek.  Most shockingly given the band’s five albums is how brief their set was.  On a Sunday before a holiday Monday, the Kaisers could have played a couple of hours and sent their punters home exhausted.  Instead, the gathered were sent outside in under an hour.

Kaiser Chiefs play a raucous, rowdy pub-rock, something they are veering away from judging by the new songs aired last night.  Instead the band focused on their debut Employment with less than a handful of tracks off their new album getting aired.  Not sure if pairing down the new album is a result of touring elsewhere but the most perplexing thing with the evening was the duration of the band on stage.

Opening with “The Angry Mob”, Wilson and his gang played to an enthusiastic and healthy crowd, not quite filling the venue.  Wilson has always been an energetic frontman and last night was no exception – he was probably the busiest guy in his room, unable to just stand there, on the stage.  He bounced as much as possible behind his mic when singing and then up on monitors, etc., when not.

I’m not familiar with anything off the new album, but the new tracks sounded more like 80s era Billy idol rather than the oi-pogo-inspiring rock of previous works.  Naturally the early tracks garnered the biggest response of the evening.

And what would have made the evening end with a bang rather than a shrug would have been a re-ordering of the back third of their setlist.  Playing anything after “I Predict A Riot” can be pretty useless if you don’t back it up and keep the momentum going.  And the Kaisers don’t have anything that eclipses “Riot”.  Not even a cover of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” could keep it going.  Although this was hardly an issue for those gathered, it was what made the gig a shrug rather than an exclaimed “I Was There!”