20 Years Later, the Cold War Kids are all right

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Set us as preferred Midway through Cold War Kids’ hourlong set supporting Young the Giant at the Forum in July, frontman Nathan Willett took off his guitar and sat down at the piano.He began playing “We Used to Vacation,” the opening track of the band’s 2006 debut album, “Robbers & Cowards,” stopped to adjust his microphone, and started again.Seemingly overcome with emotion, he paused once more.

Turning toward the audience, he explained that performing the previous song, “There Goes the Night,” had transported him back to the downtown Long Beach house that inspired it.“It’s funny the memories that flood to you,” he added.Facing the piano again, he said, “We’re going to keep going on the old stuff.This is the first song from the first record,” before leading the band into a three-song run from “Robbers & Cowards.”Months later, Willett, 47, says he was initially wary of celebrating the album’s 20th anniversary.

He appreciated the milestone but worried that marking it with a reissue and tour would simply be an exercise in nostalgia, like former high school football players reliving their glory days.“You want it to be an important moment, but not where you hang your hat,” he says, drinking a Kronenbourg on the patio of an Atwater Village bar.Then, while combing the band’s archives, he and bassist Matt Maust unearthed four unfinished songs from the “Robbers & Cowards” era, giving Willett an idea: “What if we recorded these songs for the first time?”“They excited me, and I wanted them to become the kind of songs that we play every night, the kind of songs that become important in our catalog,” Willett says.Recording them, he adds, “was so much fun and made the whole anniversary thing make sense to me.”The resulting “Robbers & Cowards / Complete Cowards” add...