The Kills @ José Cuervo Salón, Mexico City
Alejandro De Luna
Photos property of Toni François
I had the chance to see The Kills in two occasions – sadly, both after their best moment and promoting nothing but their last effort from 2011 that lead them into creative stagnation till these days. My first experience came with a massive festival in 2012 where I thought that the stage was too big for Alison Mosshart´s sexual attitude and dirty vocals that didn´t blend well with Jamie Hince´s dissonant guitar in a colossal stage.
Dirty music always sound better in small shitholes, so 2 years after my first experience, here I am at a packed small venue for my second opportunity. And despite my perception improved, The Kills still can´t satisfy me. Almost four years without new material, an indulgent Mexican crowd in their pockets that claps and shouts with every single movement from the band without judging the deficient sound coming out from the speakers and a polished setlist that forget the old stuff certainly didn´t help. But, oh, Alison….
Maybe I´m viciously and perversely obsessed with Alison Mosshart when she´s on stage, but maybe I don´t really like The Kills? Maybe they are overrated? Or I just had bad luck in those two opportunities? Maybe we are so in love with them because there´s a quasi sex symbol and fashion icon playing rock ‘n’ roll next to Kate Moss´ husband? Or maybe I don´t really enjoy their current setlist and their two last albums? Yes, that´s the problem. In 18 songs, they just miserly threw 4 tracks from the early stuff – their best songs to date and when my fetishistic obsession with Mosshart started. They are certainly not promoting a new album, so why not to play a democratic setlist? But, oh, Alison….
The Kills from 2003 to 2007 was a kick ass act with brilliant songs. The sound was raw and perverse – a refreshment towards the clean, polished and over produced sound from the majority of their contemporaries. Well thought references and tributes to The Velvet Underground, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Sonic Youth and other references to post-punk, garage and lo-fi lunatic pioneers, was enough for me to find them suitable to my sonic perversions. And then Alison Mosshart´s… well…enough said. But then, Midnight Boom (2008) came and I step away.
Yesterday they came back to Mexico City – a place that always received them with honors since 2005 – leaving behind the drum machine and accompanied by two stand-up drummers dressed in black simulating The Velvets´ or The Jesus And Mary Chain´s style. Behind Jamie and Alison just a leopard print. In front of them, a lustful crowd anxious for listening their messy (but polished) sound while breathing the heartwarming effects of cannabis and analyzing Mosshart´s rock ‘n’ roll snobbery next to Jamie´s dissonance.
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So here we have an acapella version of “M.E.X.I.C.O” that lead into “U.R.A. Fever” – the closest we will listen to The Kills rapping – “Future Starts So Slow” and “Heart Is A Beating Drum” that suffered from the worst sound deficiencies of the night. That didn´t matter to the greater part of the crowd cause Alison Mosshart already had the it in her pocket – with those perverse and catatonic movements it´s difficult not to enter into her claws.
‘Finally they are gonna play the early stuff, the sound that I like’, I thought when I listen to the first chords of “Kissy Kissy”, a desert highway-like druggy track from their debut album. But then again, back to Blood Pressures (2011) with “Satellite”, “DNA” and “Baby Says”, which they´re not bad, but they are not getting even closer to other greats like “Love Is A Deserter”, “Superstition”, “The Good Ones”, “Cat Claw”, “I Hate The Way You Love”, “Sweet Cloud”, “Murdermile” “Pull A U” or a handful of gems presented as B-sides. Why not to play some of those songs?
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After the pop-like structures, processed and digestible songs from Midnight Bloom like “Cheap And Cheerful” or “Tape Song”, we come to the cream of the night: “Monkey 23” – yes, from the first album – that was transformed into a madness of Velvet-like dissonance. Just beautiful. Then the best part: an encore composed by some raw essentials like “No Wow” and “Fried My Little Brains.” Immediately after, they threw “Sour Cherry” that lead into a sassy tribute to Sonic Youth´s disturbing sound in “The Last Day Of Magic.” And before we went back into the pouring rain, a haunting moment with Jamie on the keys in a sinister ballad called “The Last Goodbye” that reminded me of Louis Armstrong´s “What A Wonderful World”, but overlaid in walls of sadness.
Still, The Kills do not impress me. I treasured their early stuff and that´s enough for me, but, oh, Alison….
SETLIST
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(Acapella)
- Encore:
