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Review: The Kills at the Parish
London’s The Kills managed to pull off a rock-solid set to a sold-out audience Saturday night at the Parish Room despite performing in what felt like oppressive 110-degree summer-sun heat. (Something seemed to be up with the air conditioning in the Parish.)
The Kills — American singer/guitarist Alison “VV” Mosshart and British guitarist/vocalist Jamie “Hotel” Hince — endured and overcame, inspiring the audience to dance, drink and push the sweat pooling on the floor to the back of their minds.
The Kills are well known for powerfully focused live shows that are often short on between-song banter and long on raw, lo-fi, bluesy post-punk rock played along to prerecorded drum machine tracks. Their dual male and female vocal harmonies provided a sexual synergy that expanded the subtext and connotation of songs such as “Last Days of Magic” as they sang in unison: “We’re two parties / Two parties ending / I’ll be the man with the broom / If you’ll be the dust of the room / And there’s only so much you can hide / Before I corner you / Last day of magic / Where were you? / My little tornado / My little hurricane.”
While most audience members appeared focused on vocalist Mosshart, with her Siouxsie Sioux-meets-PJ Harvey vocal coo and her decidedly strange stage presence — she paced the entirety of the stage like a caged feline between songs — I was drawn to the blustery cool of guitarist and vocalist Hince.
By the second song, he had already done a one-legged MC5-esque shuffle dance across the floor while rocking lead and rhythm guitar. Despite Hince’s impeccably good taste and carefully constructed restraint, songs such as “Kissy Kissy” subtly revealed that the guy is a deeply powerful guitar player.
The band rocked out on the strongest tracks from their recent release, “Midnight Boom”; “Cheap and Cheerful,” “URA Fever” and “Last Days of Magic” were audience favorites. Hince’s vocals were so silky when he took his turn fronting “Kissy Kissy,” his rock ‘n’ roll charisma so strong, he was more captivating than front woman Mosshart and her less subtle histrionics.
Lazy music journalists have often compared the Kills to the White Stripes. Saturday evening’s performance proved the two bands really have nothing in common other than their gender makeup. The Kills owe more of their musical debt to lo-fi duo Royal Trux than the Stripes. Look for the Kills popularity to rise as more rock fans discover this 21st century Timbuk 3, and just what a monster guitar player Hince has become.
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By Joel
May 27, 2008 4:51 PM | Link to this
We have pictures/video from The Kills show.
http://ultra8201.blogspot.com/2008/05/last-night-kills-at-parish.html