They're confirmed to play Glastonbury and the V Festival this summer but Tuesday's secret gig at Komedia wasn't about drawing massive crowds.
The gig was exclusively announced on The Kooks' website and was an opportunity for dedicated fans to see their favourite band perform a rare concert in an intimate home-town venue.
Including a date at the Concorde 2 on Sunday, this was their second secret gig in Brighton.
As well as an opportunity to warm up for their sell-out US tour and appearance on the David Letterman Show, it was also a chance to showcase new songs.
First of the newbies was Oil, which sees the band adopting a more political stance within a package of fierce guitars and raw, relentless vocals. Interesting, but not instantly appealing, it does at least see the band experiementing with a new, harder sound.
While it was difficult to hear the lyrics, I assume the political slant was continued with Saboteur, an epic journey into rock pyschedelia, full of cheeky riffs and cries of "Awooha!".
Gentler melodies and catchy guitars returned in Disappear, while Always There looks set to be another sing-a-long classic with it's "doo doo doo dah" chorus.
Unlike their atmosphere-lacking concert at The Dome back in December, this gig had all the hunger and energy of one of their early Pressure Point or Freebutt shows.
They blasted through debut album Inside In/Inside Out, inspiring some crowd surfing with raucous renditions of Time Awaits and You Don't Love Me.
Covered stylishly by Luke's former schoolmate Lilly Allen - and dreadfully by ex-Sugababe Mutya - it was good to hear Naive in its original glory.
Performing precarious balancing acts on monitors and dangling his limbs over the audience, Luke had the rare magic of a young Jagger or Morrison.
But while his sinewy body had all the moves, his mouth didn't, judging by his inaudible mumblings between songs.
Wearing a clingy, red and blue, long-sleeved V-neck top, which wouldn't have looked out of place in an episode of Star Trek, Lukedid manage to communicate one important sentiment, saying"the last time we played here it was pretty rubbish - tonight seems pretty cool."
I would say it came close to perfect.
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