Luca had another spare ticket to see yet another Italian artist, although warned me that he wouldn’t be like any of the artists that we’d seen recently. Looking up Franco Battiato, it’s no wonder since he’s a 63 year old singer who’s been wowing Italians for several generations and continues to publish albums without any visible end in sight.

Held at Koko on Tuesday night (the night it snowed across the country), I stood in line with, what seemed like, only Italians around me. Even the ticketing people spoke Italian rather than English! Inside it was quite the mix of different ages yet the common thing that bound them together was their appreciation for Battiato’s music as made evident from how many songs everyone seemed to sing along to.

I find it hard, even now, after listening to him perform how to describe his music. It’s surprisingly contemporary mixing together elements from many different styles with his vocals. He sang alongside a fairly large band with a number of string instruments, a pianist, and a few guitarists (two of whom were extremely attractive dread-locked ladies) and had a phenomenal amount of energy for such an elderly performer.

Despite not knowing any of his songs, and only understanding the one or two songs he sang in English, Battiato impressed me by simply putting on a great performance. I can’t say that I’m going to listen to his songs anytime soon, but it was a enjoyable night experiencing something I wouldn’t go out of my way to do myself. All the Italians present seemed to enjoy it and it clearly obvious he enjoyed performing for them, so what more do you need?

To celebrate the launch of their latest album, the Kaiser Chiefs played at The Forum on Monday night and I managed to get a couple of tickets. It was cold and wet outside, so I was thankful that we had standing tickets for downstairs that made heading out after work completely worth it. We managed to get fairly close to the front, bordering on the edge of all the more energetic people who jumped around most of the night, or pushed their way in for at least some of it. Other than a couple of, rather excessively drunk and, agressive people, the audience was rather quite friendly. Compared to the last concert I went to, the average height of the Brits made me need to weave in and out between the flowing gap between shoulders.

We caught the end of the first support act, The Hair and didn’t really hear enough to be able to give them any fair review. The second support act however was much more memorable with four really young looking kids called Late of the Pier. Energetic doesn’t even begin to describe them, each member playing several instruments throughout their set and the lead signer managing to knock over a couple of pieces of their kit on stage, to the point we would have bets what piece would be next to go. They still impressed me with their passionate performance, crazy antics with some decent beats and riffs to boot. I think that we even signed up to their mailing list.

The set changes came quickly and it wasn’t too long before the Kaiser Chiefs came on stage. With dazzling lights and tonnes of energy, they played a mix of all the songs from their previous album with a handful of ones from their recently released one.

In terms of entertainment value, it’s obvious the band cares about their audience having a good time, to the point where the lead singer ran through the crowd a couple of times, making sure everyone seemed to have a good night, and the lead signer encouraging the small number of crowd surfing antics with his own deeds.

I can’t remember how long they playted but they continued to impress all night, even getting the audience involved singing Happy Birthday to one of the band members. I don’t think I’ve been to a gig where the band have had such consistently high energy for all night and it really shows in their excellent performance.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

I’m glad that Australian performer, Xavier Rudd, was the first gig that I’ve been to since returning to the UK. I became a big fan of his when I first witnessed his amazing one man band antics at Splendour in the Grass. You just have to have some respect for a guy that manages to strum a guitar or sitar, whilst alternating between several didgeridoos, beating a set of drums with his feet and occasionally sweeping his hand over a bunch of chimes and do so in a way that makes some stunning sounds. It’s obvious that over the years, Rudd’s music has evolved and developed. Time Out described his style now as much darker and edgier, whilst I would argue that he’s a lot more heavily influenced by heavier rock than the blues and roots style I’d describe his first acclaimed album as.

Although not being a very tall chap, Rudd still managed a respectable presence on stage on Thursday at Kentish Town’s The Forum, with only a few arm waves enough to calm or energise the audience depending on his whims. With this tour being centred around his new album, it became evident that he played a lot of his newer music as the audience only sang along to maybe two songs all up. I was right down the front and it was evident everyone still appreciated the passion and the amount of his own energy he put into the performance. Obviously being composed of many other Australian people, the crowd was easy going, all around friendly and polite despite how hot it got down the front.

It was a great way to break up the week, and indulge in some great easy going music in a nice and airy venue.

TheKua.Com Rating: 7 out of 10