Lisboa report I: Sound exhibition, Radiohead, The Kills

I'm no longer doing my reviews in chronological order, I'm that behind on blog work. But I'm catching up, I'm getting there. Here is the first of a two-part series on my musical experiences while spending a week in Lisbon last month.

C* listening intently to Excepter

The most noteworthy experience we had in Lisbon was art-related. We ventured out of the old city centre and took a tram out to the Museu Colecção Berardo, a space built to accommodate the impressive modern art collection of Portuguese millionaire José Berardo. Entry to the museum is free to the public and pretty much all art movements of the 20th century are represented and informatively presented. To our delight, while there, we stumbled into a small temporary sound art exhibition called O Novo Ofício (The New Trade). It displayed pieces of sound equipment and art associated with music and sound collages, starting with Eric Satie and moving up to contemporary musicians like Excepter, Black Dice, and Jandek. It was the most amazing exhibition and I wish it could move to Berlin for all of you to see. You were given MP3 players with songs and you would select the relevant track to the piece of art or musical equipment you were looking at. Some pieces involved the visitor by encouraging play, others were off-limits to the public. We spend a lot of time in those two small rooms. My favourite pieces were those by John Cage, a rondel of record players and literally hundreds of records that you could play as you chose, and by Excepter. They had chosen to transform a hot dog cart into a boom box stand with candy and skulls and bones added. The chosen song was so good I listened to it three times in a row, all too aware that J. had been seeing them at West Germany only the night before. Magic.

Our primary reason for our little travel to the Mediterranean was the Optimus Alive festival, which we had to attend in a work-related matter. The Kills were playing the festival on the stage sponsored by a beer brand at 1:50 am. (On a side note: that brand seems to follow us around. A week later, we would see Moon Duo at another sponsored event, not to speak of the beer sponsored festival that The Kills played earlier last month - when did that beer brand become so interested in sponsoring music events?) Now I seriously lack rock'n'roll credentials since I struggle to sustain stamina past midnight. However, my partner had a lot of work on his plate and I could watch Radiohead, making the time pass surprisingly fast. I was getting into the Portuguese late-night spirit. 

Quick review: The Kills + Weekend

This was my fourth Kills performance this year, and my third Weekend one. Was I going to see/hear anything new?? Yes for that matter.

Already at The Kills' soundcheck, I was wondering how Weekend were going to perform on the massive stage at C-Halle to a room full of Kills' fans that had probably never heard anything like Weekend in their lives before. But hey, my faith in Weekend received another boost last night when Weekend played their best. I loved their gig at Comet, I thought they were quite good in London, but they really killed it last night. What a great band that should become massive just so that they can only play these huge stages to big audiences. They can do it and they deserve it.

The Kills have padded out their show. Not only is the set now longer than it was at the start of the year, they also bring with them four drummers and two gospel singers. The drummers do a choreographed routine while playing, the gospel singers do what gospel singers do. It all works really well. I was surprised and delighted because, I admit it, I had grown a little bored of their two-people-show. I mean, they're amazing live (trust me), but by the 6th time that you see them it's all a little familiar. So the additional people on stage really made a big difference to the overall experience. The set was also very rock'n'roll and probably the best I have seen them perform so far. A big difference from when I saw them at Huxleys in April. Just wow.

We hung out for drinkies afterwards and moved on to 8mm bar, which celebrated its 9th anniversary last night. I'm a little sad to know I won't be seeing them again in the nearest future, these nights just pass too quickly. Next year may come and bring new things for The Kills, and for Weekend, too.

At Soundcheck

Berlin/LA

Some impressions from the Berlin gig and the Conan show in LA (read my reviews of those in April).

Austin Report: Cold Cave + The Kills

OK, so what am I doing in Austin? I was spontaneously invited to fly over to Austin for a few days and I took up the offer to stay at a beautiful house by the creek and go to the springs to bath, to restaurants to eat and to a different venue every night to report to you on some of the most amazing gigs. 

The Kills are currently on a tour of the US and have chosen Cold Cave as their support act for the entire tour. When I heard this I got well excited! Cold Cave is the new project grouped around Wes Eisold, a lovely person who I admire greatly artistically. They play dark new wave with a dance beat and are very much in fashion with that.

At the band's request, Cold Cave played with only blue lights on stage. It made for a great eerie atmosphere. I had never really thought about stage lighting that much before and this group showed me how much the whole atmosphere of the gig can be influenced through the type of lighting you choose. I was very impressed by their first few songs. The music with the stage presence of the band just really captured my attention. To my surprise, the rest of the audience was not for dancing or showed any signs of appreciation except for the mandatory claps between songs. Austin, you can do better than this. But I have to admit, with an audience that wasn't dancing, and this being dance music, and with every song sounding roughly the same, I did get bored a little halfway through the set. I would really prefer to see this band again at a small venue with a party audience. It could make for a great gig.

I have written enough about The Kills to bore you with yet another review. Just this much: They were way more energetic and powerful in Austin compared to Berlin. And I was ever so impressed by that. What a fantastic duo.

LA report: The Kills on Conan O'Brien

What a fun thing to do on your first day of vacation! And how very LA!

The Kills had been invited to play a song on the Conan O'Brien show and I had been invited to come along and sit in the audience. As VIP guests we were also allowed to watch an additional Kills performance backstage that was being recorded for the website and has since appeared on Pitchfork.

Time and again I am impressed by how professional The Kills are. Alison was wearing a jacket that was designed for this TV appearance and had her hair backcombed to a massive piece of art. Jamie had obviously paid a lot of attention to the set-up of the equipment. The sound was excellent, which I didn't necessarily expect in a TV studio. And of course, they performed "Satellite", a firm favourite of mine, live, even with gospel background singers - none of that taped rubbish. 

The sound in the small room that the extra material was being filmed in was a little more raw. The audience there consisted mainly of younger employees working for the Conan show. With a relaxed atmosphere, nobody seemed to mind that the song had to be recorded twice in order to ensure that no mishaps were included. 

The Kills' "Satellite" on Conan

Review: The Kills

Let's start this review with some honesty: I am bias. Jamie and Alison of The Kills belonged to my close circle of friends when I lived in London and we all lived on toast with Marmite and nut roast back then. And even though we lead very different lives these days, I do share memories of birthdays, gigs, barbeques, scrabble and pub nights with table football and darts with this duo.


Despite this, I am a fan of The Kills as the band that they are. I would be a fan if I didn't know them personally. Two-pieces often convey a special energy and The Kills are the epitome of a duo which feeds on that energy. While their music is minimalist at times, it is also very powerful yet personal. And when performed live, the audience is mesmerised by the energy and connection between Alison and Jamie.


The Kills had been idle as a band for a couple of years, with Alison being part of Jack White's project The Dead Weather, and this was the first time that they performed in Berlin since that break. Has much changed?


I arrived at the venue at 7pm and was taken aback by the crowd waiting to get in. Gigs in Berlin never start before 9pm. As it turned out, these were die-hard fans, waiting to get an autograph and to reserve their spaces in front of the stage. A quick scan of the kids in line lead me to believe that hardly anyone waiting was over 20 years old. And this was a surprise. When The Kills performed at Postbahnhof two years ago, the audience was rather mature. 


Thanks to my Access All Areas pass, I could watch the performance from a balcony at the back of Huxley's. Huxley's is a large venue and I'm a small person, so I was grateful that I was able to see from high up. A side note on the pictures I take: I try to take pictures that convey the feeling of my particular position during the show. Most of the time this means that the pictures aren't particularly artistic or necessarily clear but that you get a rough idea of where I was and what it looked like from the position I was in. At this gig, I realised for the first time that my concept is not working. I had a very good view from where I was watching but the picture looks as if I couldn't see a thing unless I had a lorgnette or some binoculars.


The performance itself was very professional, as you would expect from an experienced band like The Kills. They played the songs from the new album "Blood Pressures", which are a bit more bluesy yet poppy than older numbers, as well as some of the popular hits from the previous album. Where I was standing the sound didn't impress, with most special effects like an additional keyboard or distorted vocals not transporting at all. However, later quizzing others, I was told that if you stood in the main crowd the sound was fine. The interaction between Jamie and Alison was intense as always but came across a little more studied than on previous occasions when I had seen them and I guess you could expect that after all these years.


I don't think there is such a thing as a bad Kills concert and if you haven't seen them before, I recommend that you do. But I also didn't feel quite the magic I felt a few years ago. I cannot tell whether this is because I have seen them many times and it's not a suprise to me personally anymore or whether it's something else. But I guess, everyone in the audience loved The Kills as much as they had always done, and I was happy to hang out afterwards at a small Neukölln bar with a group of friends that I don't see often. But only once we had made it past another group of teenagers waiting to get autographs at 1am...