Kicking Daisies Ridgefield Playhouse 9/23/11

Katie September 25, 2011 0 Comments

Friday night, Kicking Daisies played a hometown show of sorts at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, CT.  Shortly before the show started the band had posted on facebook that the show was officially SOLD OUT!

The first band opening up the night was a local band from Ridgefield, The Distractions.  They were made up of 3 young guys – all dressed up in a t-shirt and a tie.  After a couple of songs they called everyone up to the front and at one point tried to get people to come up on stage, but that was shot down pretty quickly by the staff.  I thought that their music was decent, but I wasn’t sure the singers voices were able to hold up throughout their entire set.  Maybe that will come in time.

The second band was Carly & Eliza, another local band.  They did 7 songs and mentioned that their soccer team was in attendance and in the front row.  While the director of the theater tried to get everyone to go back to their seats for the start of this set, everyone made their way back up to the front as soon as they could.  Their voices went really well together and I really enjoyed their set.  I tried to keep track of most of their songs – Fighting Fate, Wonderwall (Oasis Cover), Broken Glass, Never Felt So Free, Forever, Livestrong, Rollercoaster.  I may have gotten some of the titles wrong, but I think they mentioned most of them.

Next up was Kicking Daisies.  They are from my hometown and I first saw them opening up for Hanson in PA and was hooked.  While they may be young they are also super talented beyond their years and most of all – FUN!

You can tell that they are having a great time up on stage – running around and always smiling during all the songs. The beginning of their set was basically just them jamming for a few minutes while the crowd screamed for them.

It had been a while since I have gone to a show with such a young audience – and it was amusing to see parents taking out their small children before the show was over because it was past their bed time and they just couldn’t stay awake any more. (For that reason I was thinking it was odd to have 2 openers, but the teens obviously were able to hang in there the whole night) It was also funny to see all the extra cars in the parking lot when the show ended – all the parents picking up the kids they had dropped off for the night! (And fortunately when they saw that I needed to get out of my parking spot they were ready and willing to move for me)

The band hung around after the show to meet with fans, but considering there were a few hundred people waiting I opted to leave and head home. I’m not a fan of driving in the rain and in the dark and I didn’t want to be doing that too late at night. (I guess I’m getting old)

Kicking Daisies shows are always so high energy… I am now planning when I will get to see them again. (They are playing with Action Item in New Jersey in November so I am thinking that may be the winner, especially since the show starts so early…)
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Kicking Daisies At The Space 1/29

Katie January 30, 2011 2 Comments

Kicking Daisies is a Connecticut based band made up of 4 teenagers, Duran (guitar/vocals), Ben (lead guitar), and sisters Carly (bass) and Caitlin (drums).  They were recently named Radio Disney’s “Next Big Thing” for 2010 and their single “Keeping Secrets” can be heard frequently on the station.  If you want to check out their music, they stream most of their EP on their website www.kickingdaisies.com and their EP is also available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon.

On Saturday they did a show at The Space in Hamden, CT.  A small venue which has a capacity of about 150. Also joining them for the show was FIGHTING CONFESSION and Twenty To Twelve.

When I got there, it didn’t look like doors were opened yet. I was a bit confused because my ticket said 6pm but the venue website said 7pm.  A little after 7 it looked like people were going in, but there was still a long line.  I waited a bit longer and ventured over to the door.  What had happened was they had a line with tickets and a line for people who were going to be buying tickets that night.  The line with tickets was inside and the rest were waiting (about 50 people) but the venue was nearly at capacity and they only had 20 tickets left!  Everyone was crowded around the area to give your ticket so I hung back while they sold the last 20 tickets.  People in the crowd were complaining that KD “better make it up to them” because they hadn’t missed a show of theirs yet. (Here’s a thought – buy your ticket in advance)

While I managed to sneak around to give my ticket and get my hand stamped the venue was handing out numbers.  They were sent to another area that the venue owned and then as people left The Space they’d be allowed in, in number order.

Twenty to Twelve was on stage already when I got in.  It was incredibly crowded and it was hard to really enjoy the band (no fault of the band though!)  I was standing right near the sound board with about 2 inches of personal space around me! It was awful for a little bit there.  Then I heard the owner (?) tell the sound guy it was the band’s last song, but after they finished it, they kept going into another song!  There were shouts of “cut the mic!”, but it seemed like the lead singer just got louder.  They did end up leaving in the middle of the song, but everyone was worried that would throw everything way off schedule for the evening.

Fighting Confession was up next and as they were in their first song, the owner (?) came back and said they were back on schedule and that Kicking Daisies would be on at around 8:45 or 9pm and didn’t even have an hour worth of material for their setlist.  It seemed like a lot of people were there for Fighting Confession and I had hear that numbers 1-10 from the waiting list were let inside.  They were alright, but I thought that they were trying too hard to impress the kids by saying “shit” every time they talked to the crowd.

Then it was time for Kicking Daisies.  The nice thing was, there was not a lot of set up time between bands at all. Only about 10 minutes which was pretty shocking. Usually shows are like 20-30 minutes in between sets!  The owner(?) said that he wasn’t even going to introduce them, we had to shout who we were there to see and he made everyone shout “KICKING DAISIES!” twice before they took the stage. Their first song was Promises and man do these kids have energy.  During one song, Ben had a guitar solo and he climbed up on the drumset and started playing the guitar with his teeth. It was ridiculous (in a really good way) and they really had the crowd pumped.  They said happy birthday to a few people who were in the crowd and talked a bit about their EP and new album that is due out hopefully in the Spring in between songs.

Before “Video Killed the Radio Star” Duran joked that he had written it back in the 80s and Caitlin did a bit of “ba dum ch” on the drums. The Duran tried to say that he was sorry his jokes were bad, but every time he said ANYTHING, there was Caitlin again with a “ba dum ch”  To the point that Duran couldn’t even say what he wanted to say, he just cracked up and asked her to stop.  Of course, that made her do it one more time before they finally went into the song.  After that song they went into another cover – except this time Caitlin and Duran swapped places.  He played the drums while she rapped on a rendition of “Airplanes”  I wanted to sneak out a bit early to get out of the parking lot ASAP (snow was supposed to be coming) and I hear the owner(?) tell another guy that “that was it” so I decided to take off.  I don’t know if they did an encore after Airplanes or not.

I think that they are really going to be going places.  For being so young they are all really good at their instruments (especially Ben!) and they seem to be having a ton of fun doing it.  I am pretty sure next time they come around this area it will be somewhere a bit larger – as they recently sold out The Fairfield Theater and now The Space! (Both in the 150ish for capacity)

Set list and a couple of photos under the cut!

Promises
Cruel Intentions
Shut Up!
Shame
Keeping Secrets
The Plan
Alive (new)
Masquerade
Breathing
Video Killed The Radio Star (cover)
Airplanes (cover)