Critic's choice: Top 5 weekend gigs
By David Smyth, Evening Standard 02.03.07
Serious business: Kaiser Chiefs are no longer the office jokers
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Kaiser Chiefs head to the Shepherd's Bush Empire, The Fratellis play four nights in Brixton and Gruff Rhys kicks off the South Bank's sixth annual season of experimental music...
Kaiser Chiefs
Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12
Once the office jokers of the indie scene, now set to headline the O2Wireless festival, Kaiser Chiefs want to be taken seriously since this week's release of their second album. Yours Truly, Angry Mob has fewer lyrical gags, but catchiness is still its chief quality, so the thousands who loved hollering along to I Predict a Riot won't be alienated just yet. (0870 771 2000)Tonight-Sun 4 Mar, 7pm.
The Fratellis
Brixton Academy, SW9
Classic dark horses, Scottish trio The Fratellis have shifted barrel-loads of their debut album, Costello Music, without anyone really noticing, and scooped a Brit from under the noses of more obvious candidates James Morrison and Lily Allen last month. Their Supergrass-go-glam sound is hardly challenging, but it has certainly hit the spot for the 20,000 people who will attend these four shows. (0870 771 2000). Tonight-Mon 5 Mar, 7.30pm.
Ether: Gruff Rhys
Queen Elizabeth Hall, SE1
The South Bank's sixth annual season of experimental music kicks things off gently with a set by Super Furry Animals singer Rhys, who has just released his second solo album of blissful psychedelic folk. He mostly sings in English rather than Welsh these days, but that won't make his lyrics any more comprehensible. (08703 800 400). Tonight , 7.30pm.
Robyn
Metro, W1
A former teeny starlet in her native Sweden, who scored an international hit with Show Me Love in 1998, Robin Carlsson has now started her own record label and undergone a hip electropop makeover. Her new sound is likely to be a far more profitable progression from mainstream pop stardom than shaving your head and smashing up a car with an umbrella. (020 7437 0964). Tonight, 7.30pm.
Four 4 Wiz
Academy Islington, N1
Early Nineties grebo band Mega City Four rarely troubled the charts, but singer Darren "Wiz" Brown was a much-loved member of the scene, hence this tribute gig, hastily arranged after he died from a blood clot on the brain in December. The charity show features appearances from members of Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Therapy? and the Senseless Things. Wear big shorts. (020 7288 4400). Sun 4 Mar, 7pm
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