The Edinburgh Blog

The Kaiser Chiefs gig at Meadowbank Stadium for T On The Fringe 2021 started at 4pm last Friday. When a friend phoned the satdium at 6pm there were still 2021 tickets available, so it wasn’t a sell out; but still not bad given the quoted capacity is 25000. At £31.50 a ticket that’s revenue above the £700K mark.

The weather was excellent, although early comers were thwarted in their attempts to sit on Meadowbank’s grass, as it had been watered prior to the gig - my trainers bore the mud next day to prove it. It wasn’t long before I was queueing 15 minutes to use a desecrated toilet or drink some Tennents lager at £3 a plastic pint. On the food front I settled on a chicken Fajita from some portable kitchen, which at £5 for a measly amount of poor quality chicken and vegetables could represent the most appalling value of anything on sale at this T On The Fringe gig.

The Pigeon Detectives kicked things off with a set the crowd seemed to enjoy, especially if enjoyment is measured by how many plastic glasses of beer were thrown in the air during their set. I’m not completely sold by the Pigeon Detectives, but did enjoy listening to them more than The View, who were the next support act up. I’m not really sure where ‘The View’s’ music fits, it seemed to resemble lots of what I heard before, only not as good. However, it was live music enhanced by alcohol, great weather and the high emotions the start of a long weekend evoke. The crowd seemed to enjoy the support acts; I enjoyed a few beers. Fair enough.

The Kaiser Chiefs came onto stage about ten minutes to nine ‘o’ clock, to a rapturous welcome. Their set opened with the unmistakable and very jumpy ‘Everyday I love you less and less’. It was a good opener and announced in emphatic fashion (as if the enormous illuminated ‘KC’ on stage wasn’t enough) that the Kaiser Chiefs had arrived.

Later on ‘I Predict A Riot’ provoked the usual jump up and down and generally go mental crowd response; I used this as cover to move forward to the front and get a closer look at Ricky Wilson leading the vocals on stage. Which reminds me: why would anyone pay over £30 to sit in Meadowbank Stadium’s seated area? The volume/acoustics are, in my opinion, never great at large outdoor events like this, so I really don’t see the point in being sat down hundreds of metres away from the stage? You would get more atmosphere listening to your iPod. No!?

Anyhow, the Kaisers rattled through their set list at fairly quick speed, with little in the way of audience interaction to note from Ricky. I was expecting a little more energy and crowd interaction from the Kaiser Chiefs, but it was restricted to a few comments and obligatory try and get the crowd clapping by leading from the front. I felt the crowd were ready to really let go, but the direction from the Kaiser Chiefs never really came. Saying that a few bodies did slowly make their way over to my head, only to be plucked out the air by an enormous security guard and escorted away from the stage.

The highlight for me was the current single “The Angry Mob”, which when it goes into ‘We are the angry mob’ mode, oozes big crowd appeal. It has an almost sinister undertone, which works brilliantly live. I’ve seen ‘The Angry Mob’ criticised for being just another ‘football chant’ song, but I like it and euphoric crowd pleasers like this are what The Kaiser Chiefs do better than most. So I wouldn’t want The Kaisers to massively change in this respect. Other highlights were ‘Take My Temperature’ and the final song of the encore, ‘Oh My God’.

So in summary The Kaiser Chiefs were good, but not great. This isn’t helped by Meadowbank Stadium which I don’t classify as a great venue for live gigs such as this. For next years T On The Fringe I think The Edinburgh Blog will concentrate on smaller, intimate gigs rather than minuscule outdoor festival type events like the Kaisers Chief gig which finish shortly after 10pm. That’s unless the line-up really does necessitate a trip to Meadowbank Stadium.

The set list for the Kaiser Chiefs at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium for T On The Fringe, Friday 24th August 2021 was:

1. Everyday I Love You Less And Less
2. Heat Dies Down
3. Everything Is Average Now
4. Born To Be A Dancer
5. Na Na Na Na Naa
6. I Can Do It Without You
7. Modern Way
8. Learnt my Lesson Well
9. Highroyds
10. I Predict A Riot
11. The Angry Mob
12. Thank You Very Much
13. Ruby
14. Take My Temperature
15. Retirement
16. My Kind Of Guy
17. Oh My God

More photos from the Kaiser Chiefs gig at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium are available.