 indie rock photography by jasper coolidge     
The Kills 07.18.03
@ Maxwells Hoboken Other-worldly punk blues ferocity or pre-fabricated pretentious stage show? Certainly since the last two times I saw them, The Kills have become a much more polished duo - and maybe its the routine of playing the same songs night after night after night that's contributed to that impression. It's got to be hard to constantly generate the sort of dark frenzy that VV and Hotel immerse themselves in up there. My friend Amy, who's inaugural Kills show this was, couldn't stand them - for the exact same reasons that I love them. VV's heroin chic convulsions and stage stalking, Hotel's London gutter-punk bumping and grinding - while I see these as natural and ultimate expressions of their music, she saw them as contrived theatrical gimmicks. But what it really comes down to is the tension and friction between the two. If you suspend your disbelief that it's really there, the electricity is palpable - if you write it off as trite, then I suppose they would look pretty silly. As for me, I still got love for 'em - hell they're the most photogenic people and fascinating bands aesthetically I've ever seen - and the music's not bad either. thekills.tv |
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