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Review Wed May 13 2009
The Kills and The Horrors @ Metro, 5/9/09
The Kills brought their brand of sultry, gritty, and exuberant rock 'n' roll this past weekend to a sold out crowd at the Metro. Sharing the bill with them on their tour is the UK gothic glam punk outfit The Horrors.
[More, including more photos by Steve Gasikowski after the jump.]
I was looking forward to seeing The Horrors again, after seeing their explosive live show a few years ago at SXSW. Picture tall guys wearing all black suits and ascots, thrashing and yelping around stage to organ infused dark punk music.
The band has changed direction though, as evident Saturday night. Their new music is less frantic and energetic, which doesn't bode well with their sloppy style of performance. A sloppy quick song can work, but a sloppy drone jam comes off as lifeless and limp. Lead singer Faris Badwan thankfully still possessed an aloof and angry charm, as he stalked around the stage, using his microphone as a bullwhip while throwing looks of discontent and disdain at his band mates. At times his stage demeanor even comes off as a gothic version of a young Iggy Pop, but until the band picks up the pace again, their live show falls flat.
The Kills took to the stage next, and opened with "U.R.A. Fever," their sultry and stripped down opener off their last album, Midnight Boom. Lead singer Alison Mosshart paced and swayed around the stage, while guitarist Jamie Hince posed with his guitar cocked like a gun, ready to fire. The set heavily relied on Midnight Boom, a wonderfully short and tight album, and one of my favorites in the past five years. Less polished but just as catchy older gems like "Fried My Little Brains" fit perfect with more recent material, and their barren cover of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You" were both impressive and captivating. Mosshart put a unique spin on both songs, yet kept true to their original form overall, which is exactly how a cover should feel.
The Kills live are up-tempo and pulsating, possessing a sexual tension in the chemistry between Mosshart and Hince. The duo bounces their energy off each other and mesh perfectly on tracks like the endearing "Last Day of Magic" and "Goodnight Bad Morning," and you can truly tell the two work in perfect tandem when writing and composing their music. As the duo closed out the show, Hince heavy handed on guitar while Mosshart fell to the floor, she stretched her body over a monitor, back arched over the front of the stage, you could truly see why The Kills could possibly be the sexiest band around.
[See more pictures from the show by Steve Gasikowski at the Gapersblock: Transmission Flickr page.]