RCRD LBL

THE MORNING BENDERS AND THE KOOKS @ Terminal 5, NYC

Last night, the streets of midtown were packed with skinny-jeaned hipster kids and short-skirted young doves all breezing into the spaceship-like venue, Terminal 5 for the sold out Kooks/Morning Benders show.

Yo - if you don't know the Morning Benders yet, check out our RCRD LBL interview with the young chaps HERE for a taste of their 'tude. Last night, they played one of their first full-blown NYC sets - and served as a nice prelude to The Kooks. While visibly nervous the first few songs, they warmed up towards the end of the set and encouraged the crowd to join in on a chorus or two towards the end.

But it was the Kooks the crowd was after and it was The Kooks the crowd got - riveting, young, and carefree. It helped that the crowd was as young as the lead singer Luke Pritchard (the dude's just 23) - so while the Kooks played well into 11pm- the crowd stayed put- and stayed energized. While an acoustic encore is usually a deathwish for a weekday set, a sea of phones and cameras lit up the concert hall throughout Luke Pritchard's mellow jams. In fact, the bottom level remained quite a ferocious dance party until the end of the encore - an impressive achievement for Tuesday night.

Check out the proof below.

The Morning Benders' Chris Chu

Morning Benders' Joe Ferrell

* Note the "Britney Spears" stickers on their guitars? Is she running for prez and we don't know it?

Berkley CA represent.

Chu on this.

Crowd awaiting the Kooks. Is that a drum stick in her hand?

Luke Pritchard rocking out....in a gold headband.

Only rock ingenues can pull that kind of shit off.

And then there was light.

Gotta love riffing competitions.

The girls in the front row.

Nothing like a hard day's work

DOWNLOAD: The Kooks - Brooklyn

The Kooks @ Myspace

The Kooks' Website

DOWNLOAD: The Morning Benders - Crosseyed

The Morning Benders @ Myspace

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