The Kills @ Webster Hall: The Badassadors of Indie Rock

There's so much to talk about with this unreal, mind-blowing show. I can start with how the duo were so on fire that New York's finest had to come in and shut it down. Members of NYPD, the Fire Department, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Guard, the National Football League, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Prize Patrol and Cap'n Crunch all had to be called to investigate the smoke that Allison and Jamie were causing with their intense brand of modern rock. Now, that my friends is hard core, TWO times.

Forgive me if I'm still pumped from the show at 2am. I have no idea why about five songs into their show, there were men in fire gear storming the stage and pointing to the roof. Even before they were there, I noticed three security guards on the side of the stage pointing to what I thought was the balcony. I was thinking someone was smoking weed or a fight was breaking out. Next thing you know, the Fire Dept. came and shut down the show.

An announcement was made that the venue was having technical difficulties. The look on Jamie and Allison's face were ones of befuddlement. I then took note of the fire exits. Twenty minutes later, the fire department was back on stage and on their way out. One of the guys yelled into the microphone, "ROCK 'N' ROLL!!!!!" Your tax dollars at work, New York *rolling eyes*. No clue what the deal was, cousins. All I know it was a buzz kill at that point. The band came out and got things on track with "Alphabet Pony."

The setlist (corrected, thanks for the heads):

• U.R.A. Fever
• Pull A U
• Sour Cherry
• Tape Song
• No Wow
• Alphabet Pony
• Wait
• Last Day of Magic
• Kissy Kissy
• The Good Ones
• What New York Used To Be
• Cheap and Cheerful
• Fried My Little Brains
• Goodnight Bad Morning
• Encore: Love Is A Deserter
• The Search For Cherry Red
• Fuck The People

Now that's out of the way, let me tell you that The Kills show tonight was crazy rocking. That's due in part to a genius new album, Midnight Boom, and that Jay and Alli Mo have sobered up just a little bit. I had seen them three years ago in Philly and I liked the idea of the band. Two guitarists/singers who are backed by a laptop who have a modern take on 60s garage rock and 70s punk. At that time, they didn't seem all together. Alli had been known to chain smoke and pace back and forth on stage in a nervous rage. All the while, she would have her back turned to the audience or hide behind her big jet black mop of hair.

Fast forward to 2008 and the band has made an album that will find its way in my top 10 and hopefully a Mercury Prize nomination. Midnight Boom is an animalistic, in-your-face head fuck of dirty guitar riffs, sexy/scary vocals and a cool rock attitude. The album bristles with grittiness that will make Royal Trux jealous.

With that in mind, I had been looking forward to this show the most this week, even higher then The Verve show. I wanted to see the two of them grind this new material on stage. They nailed everything. Jay, with his girlfriend Kate Moss sitting on the side, was giving Jack White a run for his money. He might not be flashy, but he plays with unhinged intensity. At the end, he was pulling out guitar strings and banging a water bottle against it. He even gets to unleash his inner-demon with his low-toned vocals on "U.R. Fever." As a side note, does Jamie look like the actor Mathieu Amalric from Munich and The Diving Bell & The Butterfly? That actor is also the new Bond villain.

If there wasn't firemen during the show, I would have started out with how Alli Mo was checking me out during the show. I'm not talking about coming over to me and singing a few bars. While she was walking in circles, she would glance over at me, then come back around again to look at me. She has lasers on me, I swear. She was toying with me. At one point, she was standing by me with her hair dangling over me. I'm looking up and I can see in her eyes that she was in the rock 'n' roll zone. The look was, "Yeah, I'm looking at you. What are you going to do about it?"

Let me just speak to her for a second folks....

Allison, I am but a simple music blogger born in Brooklyn and living in Jersey who drinks a lot wine and eats cookies. I do not live your rock 'n' roll lifestyle of hanging with artists and supermodels at fancy clubs and wearing trendy clothes. We're just in two different worlds. We can still be friends. *sigh*

Now that my friends is a cool chick. She's gotten it together since they put 2005's No Wow. She's embraced the rock star role better. She's like that chick in art class in college who sits in the back and doesn't say much. She has jet black hair and a tad on the goth/punk side. Then when you get to know her, she's actually really sweet and shy. Only if she took care of herself, she could be a really hot chick. Well, that's Allison Mosshart in a nut shell -- a tremendous fireball of energy on stage with a snarl of a singing voice. When she sings on something like "Sour Cherry," you don't know if she wants to seduce you or kill you. It's apparent that she's playing a character on stage and outside the glare of the spotlight, I'm sure she's just a fun, shy girl.

I do have to point out the back projection was cool as hell because at one point they showed the ending of this great French film called The Lovers on the Bridge. It stars Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant as homeless bohemians living under a bridge in Paris. The ending is remarkable and beautiful as Paris is lit up in fireworks. They also showed scenes from Godard's Sympathy for the Devil documentary and old footage of Sonic Youth and Patti Smith.

I was actually suppose to see them on Saturday at Johnny Brenda's in Philly, but had to back out ... le sad. If there's one thing I'll take away from this show is that these two cats are just as cool you can be and at the end, I felt like I was cool as well.

Comments

[Pepper]

There WAS a small fire on that faux ceiling. It burned itself out quickly and most of the crowd didn't notice it. I was just coming in to the show (late) when about 15 people came flying down the stairs saying there was a fire. I'm glad the FDNY came to check it out. You are a dick for assuming the show was shut down for no reason. Remember Great White?

[Steve Chernoski]

I was very upset with the sound . . .I'm glad your post explained the "tech difficulties" thing . . didn't hear that announcement. But we were on the balcony behind the sound board and those guys seemed to not be taking their job seriously - inviting many friends to drink around all the equipment. . . maybe I'm out of the loop on something, but it didn't look good. If I were the band, I would be pissed the venue didn't put forth its best foot for this show . . . but thought the Kills did a good job despite the difficulties at Webster Hall.

[uhoh]

sorry to say. not a great kills show. a little sad even. definitely in my bottom two. i've seen them pretty much every time they've played here since the beginning and something's lost. maybe it's the larger venues, perhaps the crap sound at webster hall. but it just wasn't the same. i miss the tension. i hope they can bring it back.

the back projection was nice though. it would have been mesmerizing in a small club or even the bowery.

[MusicSnobbery]

Hey, pepper. What made you assume from my post that the show was shut down for nothing? From the front of stage, I could not tell what was going on above me.
I quote myself: "An announcement was made that the venue was having technical difficulties. The look on Jamie and Allison's face were ones of befuddlement. I then took note of the FIRE EXITS." But thanks for assuming I'm a dick.

[Dude]

There was a fire. I smelled the smoke, saw the smoke, and had people panicked, we would all have been trampled to death as the fire exit strategy wasn't exactly encouraging. Those firemen were there to try and keep us ALIVE. If anything, it enhanced the show. In a couple of years you'll be saying, "I was at that Kills show where the roof caught on fire" like it's a badge of honor, not bothering to mention that you whined about on your blog like a spoiled little kid.

[MusicSnobbery]

Yes, I'm spoiled kid because nobody made an annoucement about what was going on. Instead, we get a fireman yelling Rock N' Roll on stage. Again, I could not see anything from where I was.

They were afraid of yelling "fire" in a crowded room and having people rush the exits and trampling each other to death. The fireman yelling "rock n' roll" on stage was funny. It's one of the hundreds of rock shows you'll go to in your life, and now you'll never forget it. The show was great and something out of the ordinary happened.

[red]

I do love them and enjoyed the stage invasion by the firemen but the sound was not very good and I miss the old sexual energy between them (i guess kate has put a kabash on that).

At past shows, I always felt as I was a voyeur when I watched them. watching something that should be intimate and not public. audiencr always felt a little dirty....

It was good to see allison more stable. One show she whispered to me in the front that she was not sure she was going to make it through the whole show.

Her vulnerabilty and his bravado is what makes them rock-n-roll.

The people watching was pretty good at the show, too. Completely the english scenester crowd. I ended up next to Jefferson Hack, Kate's baby daddy and a gaggle of british top models.

[Margaret Mead]

The show was sort of a disappointment. The sound was not good at all.

I did notice the ceiling catch fire in multiple places and attempted to alert the people in the booth. At one point, the sound guy just shrugged his shoulders at me like "what do you want me to do about it?"

Eventually, as embers were falling from the ceiling we were able to convince someone else in the booth who took quick action.

The thing is, had one of the trusses from the ceiling caught fire and broke from their chain, it could have seriously hurt some people.

The projections were one of the best part of the show.

[Brad]

Great post, thanks for the cool pics.

Last night was ladies night at the Webster Hall night club, and I thought the strippers had accidentally ended up on the wrong stage ready to strip off their fire gear for the ladies. Instead, the roof was on fire. I say, we don't need water, let the motherf$*ker burn. . .and so on.

[spinello]

I'm pissed! I saw the fire from the balcony, it spread about five feet on the ceiling, stage left. I grabbed my friends and went downstairs, firefighters came in, and we took off. Should have stuck around, I guess? They sounded fucking great. Arrrgh!

[pepper]

Just the tone of your story made it out that you were pissed your private little show was interrupted by Firefighters. Because Firefighters are always just interrupting things for no reason. It was cool that he yelled Rock and Roll... What's it like to just be pissed off at everything?

[Margaret Mead]

I thought when he yelled "Rock and Roll" into the microphone was cool as well.

He also had the biggest smile on his face when he was up there.

Firefighters are amazing and it gave me great pleasure to see one of them actually enjoying themselves for a second.

[jjazznola]

I do not recall hearing "Fuck The People" as the last song. I was really hoping they would play it. Maybe they cut it short due to the fire break. We were about 15 ft from the stage and the sound was great from there. I laugh when people complain about the sound from the balcony @ Web Hall. What do you expect?

That firefighter was just a man that recognized his moment. When the hell is he ever going to be on a stage in front of that many people again with an open mic? I'm not one to champion the cause of "authority figures", but those guys were there TO SAVE OUR LIVES. I applaud them for having the sense to keep things calm and not yell "fire" in a crowded room. If they want to have a little fun after the situation has been quelled, so be it.

The sound was great from the floor. The band played with passion and the presentation was spot on.

The only thing bad about the night was The Childballads playing so early, and Telepathe playing at all. Good lord, what a bunch of crap. Stewart Lupton is amazing though, sorry I missed him.

[Chris Grayson - GigantiCo]

Oh my fucking god, I'm so pissed off. We showed up for the show apparently just as fire trucks had arrived. Bouncers and firemen were clearing people off the sidewalk, telling everybody that the show was canceled, that the venue was being evacuated, telling everyone to go home. We showed them our tickets and they still ran us off the block.

We went down to the corner, across the street to a pool hall and played a couple games of pool, until all the "excitement" had calmed and the fire trucks had left. When we went back, the doorman said that The Kills show was cancelled, and that the band was not going to come back on. He said a DJ was going to take over and there would be no more live music. So we left, hoping to learn something online about a reschedule date. And now I read this. Fuck all those fucking assholes.

I bought our tickets the day they went on sale. I was waiting months for this show. The Kills are one of my favorite bands.

It is not The Kill's fault in any way, but I'm so pissed off at the assholes running that venue, I'd like to punch somebody.

[chaplin francis frazier]

THE CHILD BALLADS, the underground moniker of a poet gang leader by the name of STEWART LUPTON AND A GROWING NUMBER OF HYPER LITERATE DELINQUENT SHAKESPEAREAN GRAFFITI ARTIST AND MOPED GANGS AND THE LIKE WERE THE MOST COMPELLING PHENOMENA I HAVE SEEN SINCE GIVING BIRTH. IF THERE IS ANYONE ALIVE TODAY ON THIS COLD ROCK HURLING THROUGH SPACE THAT HAS INHERITED THE MANTLE OF LORD BYRON ( COMPLETE WITH THE GLORY, HUMOUR , SUFFERING, HUMOUR MADE FROM SAID SUFFERING, AND HEART STOPPING-SHOW STOPPING, GOD GIVEN TALENT, AS WELL AS INNER SENSE OF DAMNATION AND A FACE SO BEAUTIFUL TO BLOCK OUT THE SUN) IT IS STEWART LUPTON. SURE, HE'S AN EASY TARGET. A HISTORY OF SELF DESTRUCTION, POETRY AWARDS AND A CERTAIN, INIMITABLE ' TOUCHED' WAY ABOUT HIM , COMBINED WITH HIT OR MISS SHOWS, HAVE MADE HIM A POPULAR CHAT ROOM RELIGIOUS FIGURE /PUNCHLINE. NEVERTHELESS, THE MAN HAS "IT." WATCHING LUPTON ON A BAD NIGHT IS LIKE WATCHING ALI LOOSE A FIGHT. IT STILL BEATS THE LIVING S H I Tut OF 80% OF THE PROPHETS OF MEDIOCRITY THAT ARE CLOGGING THE ARTERIES OF ROCK AND ROLL. SCREW ALL THE NAYSAYERS, THEY ARE LOWERE THAN THE PEPPER SPRAY LISTON PUT ON HIS GLOVES TO BLIND HIS OPPONENTS. THEY FORGET THAT LUPTON CAN DANCE. THE MAN CAN DANCE MOST FRONTMEN IN CIRCLES WHILE RECITING 'CHILDE HAROLDE' PT.S 3 AND 4. HE TRULY TRULY HAS IT. ALL HE WANTS TO DO IS PASS IT ON, GIVE IT TO YOU, GIVE YOU A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. HE IS BACK. MANY HAVE FELT A RECENT DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE. THE MAN IS BACK AND HIS DANCING SHOES ARE SHINED. I THINK HE MIGHT LOVE US. LET HIM
JOE FRAZIER | 05.05.08 - 1:28 am

[kate]

it was good to see allison awake. (you'll know what i mean from the link below)..despite the fire drama - it was a great show!
http://www.uncensoredinterview.com/vlogs/4479-Driving-Out-The-Starving-Artists