The Life of Riley in Cologne 2011

In September 2011 Riley Smith and his band The Life of Riley came over to Germany for the first time to play to gigs in Frankfort and Cologne. These were their first two shows in Europe (aside from England) and so it was an exciting event for both band and fans. Riley is probably best known for playing Kyle Singer in "24 – Twenty Four" season 3.

Foto: The Life of Riley, Köln 2011 - Copyright: myFanbase/Nicole Oebel
The Life of Riley, Köln 2011
© myFanbase/Nicole Oebel

There weren't nearly enough people in the Kulturcafé Lichtung in Cologne on Sunday evening to witness this load of joy happening on stage. The Life of Riley, which is singer and guitarist Riley Smith, guitarist Henri O'Connor and percussionist Jonah Dolan were nothing short of a firework of high spirits and easily captivated their audience with that. And on top of that they made music. Some of the folky rock and pop songs, performed with two acoustic guitars and percussion, invited you to dance and some led you to close your eyes and dream. Also the fervent crowd-singing was something you don't hear very often in an only half-filled location. Obviously the fans had been waiting for The Life of Riley to come play in Germany and sang along with every word on songs like "Long way home" or "Bang Bang". Riley and the guys showed how much they loved the feedback and Riley even turned the microphone into the crowd saying that this has been something he always wanted to do.

Foto: The Life of Riley, Köln 2011 - Copyright: myFanbase/Nicole Oebel
The Life of Riley, Köln 2011
© myFanbase/Nicole Oebel

Jonah Dolan and Henri O'Connor also sang lead vocals to one song each and impressed the audience convincingly that they can do more than background vocals. Still it’s Riley’s raspy bar-singing voice that stands out and has recognition value. But it's also his cheeky boyish charme and his being so talky on stage that makes him incredibly sexy, for example when he dropped his shirt, which Jonah commented cheerfully with "Now the pipes come out!", he lifted his arm with a big grin on his face saying "These old things?" – or when he told us the story behind "Bang Bang", which he wrote inspired by an experience with a girl, he said he met the girl "...and to cut a long story short the next morning she was wearing my shirt!" with a big grin again. Maybe not everyone feels that way but for me I find it's much easier to access songs you hear for the first time at a live show when they are introduced and presented in such a highly loveable way.

Foto: The Life of Riley, Köln 2011 - Copyright: myFanbase/Nicole Oebel
The Life of Riley, Köln 2011
© myFanbase/Nicole Oebel

Riley also introduced his solo song "Stay" with very moving words saying that in Frankfort on the night before he was very exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed with the situation being welcomed with such open armes on stage in a foreign country that he thought he messed up the song. This time he promised to try and get the song right, and as someone who heard the song for the first time I can only say to me it sounded perfect. When the concert moved towards the end and the audience wouldn't have it, Jonah said "We are probably every bit as sad as you are!" And thus he and Henri were quite easily convinced by Riley to play two more songs as an encore. This was very special because they hadn't ever played those songs together as a band or at least not for a long time or acoustic at all. One was called "Short Story Longer" and it was so catchy that you could join in and sing the chorus with the crowd right away. An all around great concert of a band that had a lot of fun on stage and 'infected' everyone in the crowd with it.

Nicole Oebel - myFanbase