Tag Archives: The Kills
A Duo Firing on All Cylinders
February 13th, 2012The Kills – Terminal 5 – February 11, 2012
All other music duos take note: The Kills are doing it better than you are. Saturday night’s show at Terminal 5 showcased all the ways Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince know how to work a room. His guitar grumbled to life at the start of show-opener “No Wow” and the crowd swayed toward her as she sneaked the first line into the microphone: “You’re going to have to stand over my dead body/ Before you walk out of that door.”
The line perfectly foreshadowed the next two hours and warned the sold-out venue that Mosshart and Hince were about to give everything they had. As the song kicked into overdrive, four bandanna-masked drummers—seemingly appearing out of thin air—pounded away in darkness while spotlights at the back of the stage followed the duo’s movements. There wasn’t a wasted moment to be found over the rest of the set. Hince contorted and jerked his body with every wicked note he played, and the number of Mosshart hair whips would have humbled Willow Smith.
The two worked their magic separately on songs like “U.R.A. Fever,” but returned together for others, at times crossing microphone stands, staring each other down at center stage or even physically embracing—literally leaning on each other to get out every note. Everyone in the audience served more purely as spectators than at a lot of other shows, really only getting a part in the “oohs” of the ghoulish, bayou-tinged “Satellite.” Luckily for them, Hince more than once leaned out over the stage waving his guitar chest high like a fisherman reeling in his catch, shaking them awake from their awed daze. —Sean O’Kane
Photos courtesy of Diana Wong | dianawongphoto.com
Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See the Kills on 2/11
February 7th, 2012
The Kills, those finely tuned purveyors of punk and blues, come to Terminal 5 on Saturday. The duo always puts on a great show, which is why this one is already sold out. But the good news is The House List is giving away two tickets. So if you’d still like to go, this is your chance: Try to Grow a Pair. It’s easy. Just fill out the form below, making sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (the Kills, 2/11) and a brief message explaining how you celebrated the Giants’ Super Bowl victory (or didn’t, Jets fans). Eddie Bruiser, who’s usually celebrating something, will notify the winner by Friday. Good luck.
The Kills Are on the Prowl
August 9th, 2011The Kills – Terminal 5 – August 8, 2011
When it comes to rock and roll, sure you’ve got your guitar and drums and vocals, but what it really comes down to is attitude. Playing the first of two big rock shows at Terminal 5 last night, the Kills stripped down to the bare minimum of the former, but cranked up the knob until the attitude needle was pinned in the red. Just a duo, Allison Mosshart on vocals and Jamie Hince on guitar came out and immediately were on the prowl, playing plenty from their new release, Blood Pressures, as well as some older cuts.
Mosshart had the classic bluesy growl going on and Hince’s guitar distortion offered plenty of ferociousness as well, giving the pair a big-cat-on-the-hunt quality. The metaphor was apt as the backdrop was a huge leopard-skin print from floor to ceiling: You could feel the appropriately faux-velvet texture from the back of the room. By the third song, “Heart Is a Beating Drum,” Mosshart had picked up a guitar and the Kills started moving in for the kill. With synchronized lights and preprogrammed fills and drums, the show was a well-choreographed affair. But rock and roll doesn’t allow for too much of that—with Mosshart knocking over her microphone stand or kicking over stage lights or not too subtly expectorating onstage and Hince’s guitar staying out of tune for longer than he’d like, and not a blurb of extraneous chitchat, this was a rock show through and through.
A couple of backup singers joined for two songs, including on the highlight, “DNA,” which found arms in the crowd waving furiously along to the music. Near the show’s end, Mosshart introduced a cover of “One Silver Dollar” as one of her “favorite songs,” diverging with a true duet before the show turned hairy again. The set was a lightning-fast high-energy hour, the band a cheetah ready to pounce and the audience ready to be devoured. —A. Stein
(The Kills again play Terminal 5 tonight.)
A Double Dose of the Kills
August 5th, 2011
Under the names VV and Hotel, Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, respectively, have been making a vampy mashup of punk and blues as the Kills for more than a decade. When Moss’s punk band broke up in 2000, she began corresponding with the Englishman Hince. They’d each work on music and then send the tape to the other, but when that proved to be dissatisfying, VV left Florida for London, and the two began making glorious lo-fi music together. The duo’s first album, the well-received Keep On Your Mean Side, came out in 2003. Since then, the Kills (above, playing “Future Starts Slow” for BBC Radio 1) have toured and continued to crank out new music. They went on a brief hiatus while Mosshart recorded and toured with the Dead Weather, but now they’re back. They’ve got a new album, Blood Pressures, and they’re playing Terminal 5 on Monday and Tuesday.
The Kills – Terminal 5 – April 29, 2011
May 2nd, 2011
Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See the Kills on 4/29
April 26th, 2011
The Kills have a brand new album, Blood Pressures, and they’re playing Terminal 5 on Friday. It’s a popular show, which means it sold out. But if you’d still like a chance to go, try to Grow a Pair of tickets from The House List. It’s easy. Just fill out the form below, and be sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (the Kills, 4/29) and a brief message explaining the virtues of bands with just two members. Eddie Bruiser, a fan of this terrific twosome, will notify the winner by Friday. Good luck.
