The Kills, Louis XIV @ TheZoo, Brisbane (30/03/09)

Wed 1st Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

All satin shirts and skinny suspenders, openers Louis XIV are dressed to impress – even one of their amp stacks is adorned with a fresh bouquet of flowers. They thunder through some fan favourites – God Killed the Queen, Finding out True Love is Blind and Air Traffic Control among them. Despite all the effort, and although the headline act can be seen bopping their heads side of stage, most of the crowd look a little indifferent to Louis XIV’s standard brand of sleazy British pub rock.

Visiting Brisbane for the third time for this V Festival sideshow, The Kills quickly make the packed Zoo audience forget they’ve just sat through a half-hour delay. Upon hearing the dial-tone crackle that precedes U.R.A. Fever the audience give a welcoming roar to Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince. VV’s swagger leads audiences’ eyes all over the near-empty stage, following her jerky moves and poses. Something The Kills certainly aren’t lacking is attitude – attitude that oozes out of every on-stage movement, riff and raw vocal. The songs play a fitting soundtrack for the heavy-yet-fun sexual tension they exude on stage.

Their set covers songs from all three albums, focusing on tracks from their latest release, last year’s Midnight Boom. An amicable Hotel announces “I’m wasted!” before playing the first track tonight from debut album Keep on Your Mean Side, the bluesy Pull A U. Early in the set, the hypnotising mechanical beat of Sour Cherry is broken by the slow and steady build of Tape Song – which bursts into sludgy choruses punctuated by VV’s wail. An intense No Wow is the only song to make it into the set from the album of the same name, drawing an enthusiastic crowd reaction and getting everybody’s heads nodding and hips wiggling before the drum-machine launches into Alphabet Pony.

For a two-piece backed by a drum-machine, this pair certainly know how to work the stage, with more stage-presence than a five-piece band. They play off of each other with an electric chemistry, but it’s not just the people on stage receiving smouldering looks. For a band that has been criticized for not engaging with, or even looking at the audience, the crowd is given what must be rare lashings of attention. What’s more, the pair seem to lose themselves in the show, and it’s obvious to anyone just how much they’re enjoying themselves, which is most evident during songs like Last Day of Magic, Kissy Kissy and the sleazy Getting Down, which play-up the girl-boy dynamic.

VV lights a cigarette for melancholy latest single Black Balloon, which slows the set down before being picked up again by minimalist Hook and Line. The crowd sing along to the invitation to madness that is Cheap and Cheerful, echoing VV’s “It’s alright, to be mean”. A blistering version of Fried My Little Brains closes the main part of the set.

The duo return to the stage for a double-up of covers after the poor, sweaty Briton guitarist informs us of broken promises of an air-conditioned Zoo this time ‘round. First up in the encore is a sensuous take on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell On You, followed by an impressive cover of Captain Beefheart’s Dropout Boogie which sees VV sit down to enjoy Hotel’s guitar-straddling performance. They blew the audience away with a sexy and enthralling set that kept them satisfied from beginning to end, and you just know that this is the sort of passionate performance they give show after show.

Weren’t there? We were!