Music review: Kaiser Chiefs, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Although Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson’s foray into televised light entertainment as a judge on The Voice came to an end back in 2016, the time he spent onscreen has recast him in a new light. As the black-and-white harlequin style of his double-denim outfit suggested here, he remains something other than a straight-up rock singer; a studied presence whose stagecraft borders on the actorly.

Frontman Ricky Wilson is more than just a rock singer. PIC: Myles Wright/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock

Kaiser Chiefs, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ***

It’s fair to say his crowd adore him all the more for it. Despite Wilson’s side hustle on the telly, the Leeds-formed Kaisers have remained loyal both to one another and to their audience, with Duck – their seventh studio album in 15 years – emerging last summer and striding into the UK top three.

The stage set here was a recreation of the painting of a simple shack on the record’s cover, and Wilson performed Kinda Girl You Are while sitting on a set of patio furniture and messing around with a fishing rod. The band also retired there for their pre-encore break in plain view of the crowd, the clubby electro intro of recent single Record Collection thundering around them.

For Parachute, meanwhile, Wilson strode through the crowd indulging fan selfies, and performed while clinging to a lamppost (also an artefact from the album cover) next to the sound desk. From the breezy Northern Holiday to Don’t Just Stand There Do Something’s We Will Rock You pulse, the new songs are spirited attempts to freshen the Kaisers’ canon, yet the desire for a nostalgia hit appeared strong in the hall.

Poppy but impassioned big hits including Ruby, Never Miss a Beat, I Predict a Riot and Oh My God were inevitably the most well-received by a thronging crowd, although in The Angry Mob these lightest and most enthusiastic of entertainers may have inadvertently stumbled upon one of the most politically prescient hits of their era.

DAVID POLLOCK