Kaiser Chiefs: Birmingham NIA
Nov 27 2007 By Andy Coleman, Birmingham Mail
AS boos echoed around the NIA I wondered whether Amy Winehouse was back in town.
I needn't have worried. This was a good natured crowd responding to frontman Ricky Wilson's comment that "some people at the back aren't singing" - and it was those people on the receiving end of the playful boos from their fellow fans.
Although why they weren't singing is a mystery. The band may have started with Everything Is Average Nowadays, from latest album Yours Truly, Angry Mob, but this was no average gig.
Freed of the constraints of a small stage, Wilson was like a hyperactive kid let loose in a theme park. He ran, he jumped, he climbed the lighting rig and eventually lay down exhausted!
But even the huge NIA stage wasn't big enough for him. He jumped into the crowd during the opening number and later ran through the audience to a makeshift stage at the centre of the arena floor.
And the band has so many anthemic numbers you can't help singing along. Seeing 13,000 people going crazy to I Predict A Riot and Na Na Na Na Naa is something to behold!
After nearly 90 minutes a sweat-soaked Wilson and his four colleagues left the stage.
The Kaiser Chiefs play the NIA again tonight. It's the place to be if you want to party.
