On a rainy night where it was music galore in Sydney with the likes of The Rapture playing at the Metro and Hot Hot Heat playing the Factory Theatre, Cold War Kids were in stiff competition to get a decent crowd down to the Enmore Theatre.

Cabins started off the night to a crowd that looked more like they were at their primary school assembly rather than a rock show. Much of the crowd had taken their place on the floor with legs crossed, finding it more amusing to talk amongst themselves rather than watch what was happening on stage. However for those who were listening, Cabins put on a great show which the local boys from Sydney have become known for. It is no wonder how they got a spot at this year’s Sydney Big Day Out.

The Enmore started to fill out around 15 minutes before Cold War Kids were due to come on. The band really took a no frills take on their stage show, with no fancy lights or big back-drops - simply just the Enmore back stage and four sets of lights just so you know the band is there.

They came out to a roar from the crowd and jumped straight into new tracks “Royal Blue” and “Finally Begin” from the upcoming album Mine Is Yours. This turned out to be a bit of a trend for the night as CWKs played 7 songs from new LP. They then went into “Mexican Dogs” from 2008’s Loyalty to Loyalty then “Red Wine, Success”, from their debut LP Robbers And Cowards. It was here at the crowd really really got into the show.

CWKs then followed with my personal favourite from the new album, “Skip The Charades” - a really chilled acoustic song, early Kings of Leon-like which was the perfect interval into probably the bands biggest song “Hang Me Up To Dry”. As you can imagine, they had the whole crowd screaming “You’ve rung me out 2, 2, 2 many times!” I think for lots of people there tonight that will probably be a highlight it was definitely up there for me.

“Dreams Old Men Dream” was next followed by another two new songs in the single “Louder Than Ever” and “Cold Toes On The Cold Floor”. While this was probably the first time most had heard these new tracks, it didn’t take long for people to get the chorus stuck in their head from “Louder Than Ever”. Thanks no doubt in part to recent Triple J rotation, by the second verse most of the crowd was singing along.

Next was the track from the latest EP Behave Yourself that should be pretty up there on the 26th of January on peoples hottest 100 lists called “Audience”. It was during this song that I realised something I didn’t last time I saw CWK, and that is that they like to kick each other while they are playing. Especially bass player Matt Maust. Very entertaining but strange considering they are playing chilled piano driven songs. They followed with new track “Bulldozer” then “Santa Ana Winds” before going into my personal favourite song “Hospital Beds” which I apologise if I was standing near you I was singing as loud as I could but I don’t think I was the only one.

Cold War Kids closed out the main set with new track “Flying Upside Down” then “I’ve Seen Enough” before walking off the stage to an instantaneous chant of “eennnnnnncccooorrreeee”. Soon enough, they came back on playing a track I didn’t expect but was very glad to hear: “Saint John”. Apparently it was the first time they'd played it in quite a while, too. They finished the night with an amazing version of “We Used to Vacation”. What a way to end a fantastic evening! Expect the new album to be on your best albums of 2011, because if tonight is anything to go by its going to be big.