The Kooks: The Bitter End 2025

Hard to believe that the perennially sunny, boyish The Kooks have been around for over 20 years, but as one of the indie guitar bands that defined the soundtrack of the early-mid 2000s, they've survived with humor, chops, and devoted fan base intact. On their seventh album, Never/Know, The Kooks' spirited songs recall just what made their debut album, 2006's Inside In/Inside Out, one of that year's massive guitar-centric releases, alongside Arctic Monkeys and Razorlight.

The tides of the music industry isn't always easy for long-lived bands, but The Kooks' indefatigably catchy songwriting has seized the imagination of an entirely new generation that has discovered them on TikTok, via gritty, wiry classics like "Ooh La." The timing of the release of Never/Know couldn't be more fortuitous for the the group, who returned to North America for the first time in a couple of years for a spring tour and they now have a packed 2025 of gigs, including their former stomping grounds of the UK's Reading and Leeds festivals.

Lead singer and guitarist Luke Pritchard's adventures in fatherhood (he has two toddlers) has also informed the new album on tracks "If They Could Only Know" and "Never Know" — the latter which inspired the album's title.

For an intimate FUV Live gig at The Bitter End in early June, Pritchard and guitarist and backing vocalist Hugh Harris, who are the remaining original Kooks, played a generous set that not only mined past gems, including "Sofa Song" and "Ooh La," but those dynamic new songs.

Watch videos of two set highlights: "Sunny Baby" and "If They Could Only Know," both from Never/Know and "Always Where I Need to Be," found on 2008's Konk.

[Recorded: 6/2/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara; produced by Meghan Suma; hosted by Eric Holland. Videographers: Adithi Vimalanathan, Olivia Iannaccone, Nikki Phillips, and Alena Godas.]