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TORONTO -- The possible prediction of a riot was wrong, yet British pop band Kaiser Chiefs had a rowdy, boisterous lot in front of them Tuesday night at Toronto's sold-out Mod Club.
But enough about the band's lead singer Ricky Gervais, er, Ricky Wilson.
While his other four band mates were more than content to simply play their instruments like an inconspicuous well-oiled machine, Wilson hammed it up often while never missing a beat.
And it was that spark of showmanship which seemed to put the 16-song, 75-minute set well over the top.
Staging a brief North American trek before a more extensive run next year, and with the tightly packed horde eagerly awaiting them, Kaiser Chiefs opened with Spanish Metal, the spacey, Barrett-era Floydian opener from the band's latest album Off With Their Heads.
The song wasn't executed that well and it took a while for the group to finally come around. It was during Everything Is Average Nowadays where Wilson got his cheeky mojo working, walking deep into the audience and getting a fan to piggyback him to the stage.
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"I wanna see you jumping higher and singing louder," Wilson said before falling over onto a monitor during the tight, punchy Everyday I Love You Less And Less.
Kaiser Chiefs brand of pop rarely goes out of style but will never be mistaken for artsy, avant-garde rock. A recent YouTube clip (Kaiser Chiefs Kailen) of a young boy singing and dancing to their new single Never Miss A Beat sums up the concert experience of most male fans perfectly: dancing and singing throughout but are left staggering around and continually pulling their trousers up by show's end.
That song also was the show's first real highlight, leading into another loud sing-along during the equally effective Ruby.
After coaxing the crowd to perform the opening line of Happy Birthday to their sound man, Kaiser Chiefs offered up Modern Way from 2005's Employment before You Want History with its Franz Ferdinand-like dance-rock leanings reared its crowd-pleasing head.
If there was one song from the new album that was sorely missed, it might have been Like It Too Much, which probably would've fared far better than the slower, somewhat hokey Good Days Bad Days. But Can't Say What I Mean during the two-song encore more than made up for that minor flaw.
With the end slowly coming into view, Wilson, who had the band autograph a soccer jersey for a fan who tossed it to him earlier in the show, dazzled the crowd with I Predict A Riot. Here he ended up crowd-surfing, caught a tossed microphone and performed the rest of the tune while literally being handed around.
And as if that wasn't enough, the singer went a step further during the party-rocker Take My Temperature. Wilson sauntered along the bar ledge before helping himself to a tall stiff drink halfway though the song, then once again crowd-surfed back to the stage.
Closing out with Oh My God, Kaiser Chiefs left fans knowing that while it wasn't at Massey Hall, they delivered a killer show.
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5