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| The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Kills finished out their North American Tour with an incredibly energetic performance by Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince Saturday night at Oakland’s Fox Theater. The duo’s 90-minute set was light on banter and heavy on brilliant musicality. Combined with a brilliant opening set from Heartworms, it made for one of the most exciting evenings of music in recent times.
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| Jamie Hince of The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Taking the stage with beverages in hand and getting quickly down to business, both Hince and Mosshart donned their guitars for “Kissy Kissy” off their 2003 Keep Your Mean Side album. They wove their guitars together for an extended introduction with a heavy middle eastern sound before Hince issued the first vocal. Hince showed no signs of strain, despite having to overcome six-months without walking after he shattered both his feet during the pandemic. The man who had already overcome the loss of dexterity in the middle finger on his fret hand still wowed the crowd all night with the wall of sound he created with his Hofner guitars with Bigsby vibrato. Mosshart, meanwhile, was a whirling dervish of eccentric and elegant movement as she wrapped herself up in her guitar cord from her movement and flipped her hair wildly throughout the first song and for most of the concert. Hince ended the song pounding on his guitar as the crowd roared their approval.
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| The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Mosshart took off the guitar for “URA Fever” and became a constant source of motion and energy. Touring since she was fourteen years old, she was compelling and projected a ton of confidence with a full bag of front person moves – from James Brown to Mick Jagger to Axel Rose. When she wasn’t singing, she was prowling the stage like a lion with her large mane of hair providing endless angles of entertainment. For the second song, she frequently headed to the front of the stage to point and lean out toward the crowd.
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| Alison Mosshart of the Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
A powerful rendition of “Love and Tenderness” – the first of many songs off 2023’ amazing God Games album followed with Mosshart continuing in the lead singer role sans guitar. I had God Games on repeat many times throughout 2023 and the start of 2024 and despite the album’s spacious sound and unique arrangements, Mosshart and Hince were able to deliver a bigger expression of many of the tracks. Performing as a duo and thus without a live rhythm section, The Kills openly lean on backing loops to fill their sound. This reliance led to a couple false starts on songs Friday night, but they were quickly remedied.
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| The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“103” and “Going to Heaven” made it three God Games songs in a row. After a great version of “Baby Says” from 2011’s Blood Pressure, The Kills delivered another triplet of songs from God Games. One of the biggest songs of the night was “New York” – Mosshart’s ode to returning to a post-covid New York City. Live, the song filled and circled the theater in every direction as Mosshart belted out “You taste just like New York.” They received the biggest ovation up to that point for their rendition. They followed with “Wasterpiece” and then a powerful “Kingdom Come” that roared with the power of a freight train as it gained momentum and built power until a big crescendo.
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| Alison Mosshart of the Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Hard Habit to Break” was another highlight of the night as Mosshart danced tall and free with the unbridled joy of someone doing exactly what they want to do at the top of their game. Meanwhile, Hince played his guitar with so much aggression that he looked like he was either going to fight someone in the front row or beat his guitar to death. “God Games” followed – laying out an argument with its lyrics of a world with some strings pulled and inertia created outside of free will:
But he’s hereOh man he’s here
Aged by a mad love
But I’m here
Like a Matador they’ll adore you
For every heart you tore through
And like every Matador before you
They’re praying
For the bulls
To gore you
“DNA” followed with Hince providing cool background vocals throughout and Mosshart addressing the Oakland crowd as the song’s finish. “We can’t thank you enough for this last night of the tour. You guys are too fucking much!” She strapped back on her guitar and laid into “Black Balloon” while Hince unleashed a guitar sound that blended elements of The Clash and traditional Surf Guitar. That led nicely into the Malibu Canyon-sounding "LA Hex" with its hypnotic music and vocals. If you closed your eyes and listened, you could almost feel the power of a Southern California rip tide. On this and virtually all their songs, The Kills were heavier and a bit faster live than on recordings.
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| Jamie Hince of The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Hince laid heavily into the most biting notes of 2016’s “Doing It Death” as the heaviest song of the night received one of the loudest ovations. The Kill’s ended the main set with a cool, powerful version of “Future Starts Slow” that ended with Hince leaving his guitar screaming for more than two minutes on the riser as they took a preliminary bow and exited the stage.
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| The Kills @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
When Mosshart returned for the encore, she brought a stool with her as Hince took to the keyboard for a beautiful version of “Blank.” Not surprisingly, Mosshart was only in the chair for the first half of the song before she was back in her whirling dervish mode. The duo strapped their guitars back on for “Better Days’ where they both prowled and stalked each other across the stage. “My Girls My Girls” saw terrific harmonizing between the two before they finished the show with a fun and frolicking version of 2008’s “Sour Cherry.” It was a performance that evoked memories of White Stripes at their height of greatness and beckoned for bigger audiences.
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| JoJo Orme of the Heartworms @ the Fox Theater (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Earlier in the night, the audience witnessed a dazzling performance from Heartworms – the stage and band name taken by lead singer, JoJo Orme. Orme is a superstar on the rise with stage command, presence and voice that pulled equal bits of Sinead O’Connor and Billie Joe Armstrong. On songs such as “24 Hours” and “May I Comply,” she and her band created emotional Post Punk that saw the crowd grow from early intrigue to roaring appreciation at the end of the set that sent a set break buzz in the crowd of what they had witnessed.
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