Setlist:

No Wow
Future Starts Now
Heart is a Beating Drum
Kissy Kissy
U.R.A. Fever
DNA
Satellite
Tape Song
Baby Says
Last Day of Magic
The Last Goodbye
You Don’t Own The Road
Sour Cherry

Encore
Black Balloon
Pots and Pans
Fried My Little Brains

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set list: No Wow, Future Starts Now, Heart is a Beating Drum, Kissy Kissy, U.R.A. Fever, DNA, Satellite, Tape Song, Baby Says, Pull a U, You Don’t Own the Road, Sour Cherry.  Encore:  The Last Goodbye, Pots and Pans, Fried My Little Brains

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PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Radiohead –  everything

Arcade Fire – Funeral

Fischerspooner – #1

Thom Yorke – The Eraser

Brazilian Girls – Talk to La Bomb

The Kills – No Wow

The Knife – Silent Shout

Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

Aphex Twin – drukqs

-VOICEsVOICEs

The Kills by Carlton Beener

Dear Rock Concert Gods,

I’ve put off writing this letter to you due to my admiration, love, and passion for good music. But it’s time. Please, dear gods that rule our eyes and ears—our hearts and our dancing feet—can you please put a cap on how many a-holes are allowed per venue per show? I’ve been to so many shows lately where the bands rock it to the max while the audience stands staring like a vacuous black hole of suckage. If you plan to grow roots in the middle of the dance floor only so that you can stare at the band with an “I just pooped my pants” expression, please, leave.

Having said that, I’d like to personally thank you, gods of straight up Rock and Roll for the Henry Fonda Friday the 22nd of May night train to rock-town. I jumped out on the dance floor with a drink that matched the pink and red lights that veiled the boyish Horrors on the stage. The five skinny mods danced minimally as they emitted deep, dark, droning music with hints of ‘60s garage rock. I had a hard time not staring at the bassist who, with a slightly disheveled bowl-cut and a striped black and white shirt, looked like a mannequin from the ‘80s. From their name to their music to their clothes, these British tater tots are skilled but raw musicians and talented performers. Proof that a good band is composed of artists who are both good musicians and good actors, The Horrors brought the proverbial “it.”

The Horrors’ theatricality led fluently into The Kills set. Both in name and in spirit, these two bands drop it like it’s cold, deep, dark, and handsome. Alison Mosshart knows how to handle the hipster crowd, seductively spewing lyrics from underneath her sweat beaded long dark hair. Jamie Hince, the musical Fred Astaire to Alison’s Ginger Rogers, feeds the ever-hungry rock crowd with his steady guitar riffs and occasional dapper vocals. Chronology never sounded so good—If The Horrors danced me into the 1960’s—The Kills kicked me into the punky, grainy 1970’s.

So, despite a sometimes bitchy and mostly unmoved (and unmoving, physically) audience, The Horrors and The Kills delivered. Alison Mosshart’s cover of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” are definitely worth mentioning. She and Jamie Hince kept the integrity of each song while simultaneously Killing it. And, in a collective finale, The Kills had The Horrors came out on stage for an animalistic game of each lead singer singing “Baby, Please Don’t Go” back and forth to the other while circling him/her. Just like in the rock jungle, the game ended in a (female) Kill attacking the lead Horror in a jumping maneuver that left the Horror immobilized on the ground beneath the lead Kill. (P.S. Thanks, Rock Gods, ladies always win.)

—Linda Janota + [Photos]

Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince of the Kills perform to a sold out crowd Friday night at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.

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Sonadora / Peachfuzz / dios malos @ Spaceland
The Raconteurs / the Kills @ the Greek
CSS / SSION @ The Mayan
Pizza! @ Pehrspace
Fleet Foxes @ The El Rey

Frankie Face @ The Pike
High on Fire / Megadeth @ LB Arena
The Kills @ The El Rey
The Monolators @ Que Sera
Free the Robots @ Low End Theory
Moonrats / Cave Singers @ The Echo
Dresden Dolls / Smoosh / Lavender Diamond @ The Wiltern

The Kills “Last Days of Magic”

The Kills’ newest release Midnight Boom is another piece of “very disposable” media! I don’t know anything about them nor do I care to! If you’re into snotty neo-underground fashion-conscious new wave, this “bud’s” for you!! All your typical chic drug references on top of remedial musicianship make up this bowl of “fruity pops.” Most of the time it reminded me if the B-52’s fired Fred Schneider and one of the girls and decided to get a “little edgy and angular” for the camera. I know when they wrote “What New York Used To Be,” they thought they really “captured the vibe.” All in all, lots of fashion photos in the booklet. A metrosexual classic!!! Hail Satan!

— Heru John Basil