It’s hard to believe that The Kills have been together for 10 years now. Or rather, it’s hard for me to believe because it dates me and makes me realize how old I am.
The last time I caught The Kills in concert would have been around 2004 in New York City with them supporting their first record, Keep On Your Mean Side, which is still my favorite album of theirs.
I missed the first opening band, Hunters, or at least missed what they looked like, I could hear some of their set, catchy punk pop guitars and boy/girl harmonies, while eating my slice of pizza at nearby Hoboken Pie.
I did catch the second opening act, JEFF the Brotherhood. Jake and Jamin Orrall, brothers from Nashville, who play catchy punk rock mixed with garage and psychedelic rock tinges. Honestly, they reminded me of Weezer circa Pinkerton era thrown in with a little more noise, which is not a bad thing. They rocked mustaches, long unkempt hair, white glittery drums, a pretty awesome clear SG guitar that only had 3 strings on it, and sold CASSETTES of their records, as well as vinyl and CDs, of course. “They’re taking it back to tape land,” is what their merch guy said when I asked what was up with the tapes, which, by the way, I think is awesome.
The Kills opened big with “No Wow,” the title track from their second album of the same name, while a huge cheetah print hung behind them, loud drum beats came in full swing and two guys, dressed in leather jackets and all black with red handkerchiefs over their mouths, banged on tom drums in unison.
(Photo by Rebecca Butler)
Alison Mosshart , with multi-colored hair and decked out in a leather jacket, thin button up blouse, tee shirt and tight jeans, strutted along the stage like an animal looking for prey while Jamie Hince, in a bomber jacket, scarf and jeans, wailed on his guitar. Alison would start off just singing a song and end it playing guitar or keyboards or toms, you name it, she was all over that stage! Three ladies all dressed in black, which seemed to be the theme of the night, joined them after a few songs and sang backup for most of the evening.
The rest was an hour and a half of pure noisy goodness as they tore through new songs off their recent album Blood Pressures like “Future Starts Slow,” “Heart Is A Beating Drum,” “DNA,” “Satellite,” “Black Balloon,” “Baby Says,” “Pots And Pans,” and “Nail In My Coffin,” sprinkled throughout with older favorites like “Kissy Kissy,” “Getting Down”, “Tape Song,” “Last Day Of Magic,” “Cheap and Cheerful”, and trading vocals back and forth on “UR A Fever.” They even threw in a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” which was a nice sparse arrangement of just guitar and vocals. They came back with an Encore of “The Last Goodbye,” my personal favorite “Sour Cherry,” “F*#K The People,” and “Monkey 23.”
All in all it was a good night. So thanks The Kills for 10 years of raw indie, garage, bluesy punk rock. I will blast your music in my car on the ride home.
(Photo by Rebecca Butler)
Better pictures of the entire evening, taken by professionals and not from an iPhone camera about 40 feet away, can be found here.
– Submitted by Mandi LeBlanc, Music Design