By Christopher David<\/p>\n
As a means of both promoting last year\u2019s greatest hits collection (The Best of…So Far<\/em>) and the upcoming Let\u2019s Go Sunshine<\/em> (out in August), Brit-poppers The Kooks landed in Chicago for a retrospective look at their five-album career at the Vic on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Over the course of five records and a couple of lineup changes, The Kooks have always been a band that blended genres. Equal parts \u201870s rock swagger, \u201890s Brit-rock in the vein of Oasis, and a bit of glam rock thrown in for good measure (think The Raspberries at their most balladeering), singer\/guitarist Luke Pritchard bounced between Jaggeresque interaction with the crowd on sexy rockers like \u201cDo You Wanna\u201d and \u201cAlways Where I Need to Be\u201d and more intimate warmth on a solo-piano version of \u201cSee Me Now,\u201d a song dedicated to his late father.<\/p>\n \u201cSway\u201d brought the crowd to a roof-raising high with its epic chorus (leading one to wonder how on earth The Kooks aren\u2019t bigger in the U.S.), and new tune \u201cNo Pressure\u201d offered a loose, swinging singalong of a chorus that called to mind Hunky Dory<\/em>-era Bowie at times. But the time Pritchard retuned to the stage with an acoustic guitar for the first encore of \u201cSeaside,\u201d the crowd was almost louder than he was, which spoke to the effortless nature by which The Kooks can command at room. On the heels of this tour, and after Let\u2019s Go Sunshine<\/em> comes out later this year, the rooms should be even bigger.<\/p>\n