Mezzanine
San Francisco, CA
10 December 2008
The Cold War Kids have got some crazy contagious, rambunctious energy. They are raspy, ragged, and yet somehow (amazingly), simultaneously polished.
These kids darted around the stage all night like singly-focused BART commuters, skillfully navigating their way through unforgiving mass transit crowds.
It was really quite a spectacle.
Similar in many ways to the roots-oriented music of The Walkmen, The Cold War Kids play a soulful, tight brand of sophisticated southern rock. Above this clean/dirty guitar, lead singer Nathan Willett wails passionately, channeling Stevie Wonder and Lenny Kravitz, and you stare up at his scrubbed white cheeks and crisp collared shirt and try to do the math.
But hey, it’s the results that count, and these results were more than we could have asked for. “Something Is Not Right With Me”, in particular, was downright electrifying. Willett’s voice ripped through the air, the band’s constant movement pulsed straight through into the rollicking crowd and all was right with the world.