The Kills + JEFF The Brotherhood + Hunters @ L'Olympia

I guess I was a fan of The Kills to a certain extent in high school; I recall ordering a 7" of theirs from HMV back in the day and, upon discovering it would cost me a whopping 12$ for two songs, paid for it without hesitation. So yeah, I guess that would qualify my 14-year-old self as being a fan of The Kills. However, my 14-year-old self also thought ska was bitchin' and that Rancid was probably one of the best working bands in 2004. That being said, I was not expecting to be particularly impressed by The Kills' live show last Sunday at l'Olympia. I was also skeptical about openers JEFF the Brotherhood; while I definitely enjoy their recorded material, I heard nothing but awful reviews of their last performance in the city during Pop Montreal.

The Kills and JEFF the Brotherhood were joined by another group, Hunters, who opened up the show. I took a quick listen to their Myspace page beforehand to get a feel for their sound and decided I was looking forward to seeing their set and learning more about them. Turns out, I absolutely hated it. First they introduce themselves: "We're Hunters and we're from New York…" then added emphatically "Brooklyn." Uh oh. This was the beginning of a decently executed but clearly thought out, off-putting, systematic set incorporating almost every trope of rock and roll stage performance. The music itself was reminiscent of one-time “It” group Pretty Girls Make Graves with a preoccupation with sounding "hard"; Hunters' sound was eclipsed by their lead singer emulating Karen O/Debbie Harry/Kathleen Hanna.

JEFF the Brotherhood were a pleasant surprise. They sounded incredibly tight, loud and fuzzed-out, almost exactly what one would expect from listening to their records. For a two-man band they filled the large venue with sound and were fun to watch. The band would have definitely benefited from a smaller venue; they didn't seem to know what to do with all the space they were allotted, which resulted in some awkward pacing back and forth as an attempt to capture the attention of their audience. They were joined by the Kills' Alison Mosshart (who I briefly convinced myself was Kate Moss) for their last song and they all looked like they were legitimately having fun, which seems to be a rare occurrence in bigger/higher stakes/more expensive shows.

I must say that the first few songs in The Kills' set kind of blew my mind. I had low expectations for their performance and was completely turned around the second they stepped out on stage and started playing. The sound was so explosive, loud and perfectly heavy that I didn't even have to consult my inner teenager to find it badass. The Kills are another instance of a simple set up that manages to sound enormous. Jamie Hince's guitar almost sounded like a pounding, heavily electronic bass, and when paired with the group's two drummers and Alison Mosshart's effortlessly cool growl resulted in raw power. That's really the only way I can describe their live performance. While their set floundered a little on occasion (especially on some of the more sparse sounding recent tracks and those incorporating too much prerecorded material), in general the band KILLED. Ha. They also covered Patsy Cline, which undoubtedly rules.

-Kelly K hosts Cut Your Hair and Get a Job every Tuesday from 1-2pm