Photo by: Billboard.com

Friday night, Foster the People performed with The Kooks and Kimbra, creating a very diverse and international show. Kimbra from New Zealand, The Kooks from England and America's Foster the People rocked out to a sold-out crowd in Columbus at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion.

The audience was filled with beer guzzlers and overly hyper teens, and the sky was threatening rain all night, but this did not keep the show from being anything less than amazing.

Kimbra was quirky and her somewhat awkward dance moves made her lovable and charming. She just released her debut album, Vows, in the U.S. a couple weeks ago and is mostly known for her part in the Gotye hit, “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Unfortunately, with Kimbra being a relatively new artist, the crowd was unfocused on her and it was obvious the majority were there only to see the other two bands.

The New Zealander’s voice, however, was flawless and her band sounded incredible. Her vocals in “Two Way Street” rang throughout the pavilion, sending shivers down my spine. She performed her catchiest hit, “Settle Down,” harnessing an eerie quality in her voice. Kimbra’s set went by in a flash, but as the new artist’s first tour, it was off to a good start.

The Kooks followed, instantly grabbing the crowd’s attention, and at the chorus of their opening song, “Always Where I Need to Be,” the pavilion went wild. It was evident there were some hardcore Kooks fans as they shouted the lyrics right along. Their excitement escalated when eight yards from the stage became three very quickly.

The brit-pop band played a 13 song set, but surprisingly only a couple of them were songs off their most recent album, Junk of the Heart, released in September of last year. Luke Pritchard’s Cockney accent was incredibly sweet and when he came to the edge of the stage, he had all the teenage girls swooning.

The Kooks kept their energy pulsing through the audience until their closing song, “Naive,” which is one of their better known hits.

As night began to fall and the crowd was happy and drunk, anticipation for the main act, Foster the People, started to rise quickly. The stage props were magnificent with golden accents and the main attraction was a giant sun with a digital face that kept changing expressions.

The band’s set was relatively short, but they performed all ten tracks from their sole album, Torches, which came out in June of last year. This time last year, the alternative-pop band was little known. Then their single “Pumped Up Kicks,” blew up at the speed of light, making the band’s name recognizable and earning them two Grammy nominations.

Since this is their second tour off one album, fans were expecting some new tracks. For the band’s set, they played only three unreleased songs, titled “Love,” “Lovely Motherfucker” and “Ruby.”

The opening song was a good choice on Foster The People’s part, for “Miss You” is an attention grabber and at the upbeat synthesized bridge section, the entire pit was jumping up and down in one motion.

Mark Foster grabbed his electric guitar for “Helena Beat,” one of the band’s catchiest songs and kept the crowd’s spirits lifted. On the rest of the songs, Foster went back and forth between playing his synthesizer and banging on his drum and all the while singing with his incredible falsetto vocals.

The audience was in for a treat when Kimbra was welcomed back to the stage where she performed “Warrior,” a collaboration piece between her, Foster and A-Trak.

The band’s unreleased song “Love” slowed down the hype a bit, but it was quickly brought back up with the second half of their set which was non-stop energy.

For their encore performance, Foster came back to the stage by himself. He played an acoustic song called “Ruby” which was melodic and dreamy and got the crowd swaying back and forth.

Finally the moment everyone was waiting for, the band returned to the stage to play their big finale. “Pumped Up Kicks” was a smash and the crowd surfers went ballistic. To add a twist to the performance, Foster the People ended their set with a dance remix of the song and the atmosphere was raging.

The finicky weather was barely noticeable during this exhilarating performance. The dancing and singing were nonstop, and this unlikely trio was well worth the ticket.

Setlists:

Kimbra

1.Limbo

2.Good Intent

3.Two Way Street

4.Settle Down

5.Old Flame

6.Cameo Lover

7.Come Into My Head

The Kooks

1.Always Where I Need To Be

2.Is It Me

3.Matchbox

4.Sofa Song

5.She Moves In Her Own Way

6.Rosie

7.Run Away

8.See The World

9.Shine On

10.Ooh La

11.Do You Wanna

12.Happy (Junk of the Heart)

13.Naive

Foster the People

1.Miss You

2.Life on the Nickel

3.Helena Beat

4.Broken Jaw

5.I Would Do Anything For You

6.Waste

7.Warrior (with Kimbra)

8.Love

9.Call It What You Want

10.Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)

11.Warrant

12.Lovely Motherfucker

13.Houdini

Encore: 14.Ruby

15.Pumped Up Kicks (Remix Outro)

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