The Kills brings the epitome of rock to Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl

It’s been nearly 20 years since I last saw The Kills live. I remember it was way back in April of 2005 when my friend Liz walked into the Sunglass Hut I was working at and exclaimed “you are coming to see an awesome band with me tonight!”. I didn’t know it then, but that night, I would fall in love with Allison Mosshart and Jamie Hince for the rest of my life.  I would easily rank them among my all-time favorite bands… I pretty much have everything they have ever created on vinyl. Sadly, that would be my last in-person encounter with the band until this past Tuesday night in Nashville. To say I had been anticipating this evening for a while was an understatement, not to mention the fact that I had recently discovered their opener, Heartworms, which only added to my excitement. 

Heartworms walked onto the stage in complete darkness with no intro music.

They immediately all faced to the left. The track began playing and in perfect synchronization they all faced forward and then to the right. The beat was hypnotic and perfectly matched each band member’s motions. The first few moments passed quite awkwardly: the audience remained in stunned silence, not quite sure what was happening. A man cut through the sound to yell “this is amazing!” and the rest of the crowd cheered. The following 30 minutes was nothing short of  post punk perfection, with elements of goth mixed in. The music of Heartworms sounds like something you would hear in a dark club in the 80s mixed in with other great sounds like The Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees. Their latest single “May I Comply” is insanely catchy and a great starting point for people looking to see what this up-and-coming UK band is all about. 

The familiar drum beat of “Kissy Kissy” was all that was needed to introduce The Kills to the packed Brooklyn Bowl crowd. Allison and Jamie walked out and I could literally feel the wave of air move across the back of my head from the crowd scream. Phrases like “commanded the crowd” often get thrown around on music blogs, but I personally feel like the sentence is overused as a way to hype up a band or to fill word counts. While many artists are certainly talented, only a very few actually have that true “it” factor when it comes to genuinely rocking the hell out of an entire audience. After more than two decades of music, The Kills still epitomize what it means to be true rockstars. Even Rock legend Jack White could be seen in the upper rafters of the venue, head-banging and screaming along to every word of every song.

In all my years of attending concerts, I have never seen this type of respect and admiration from a fellow legend.

The setlist was filled with classics like “Future Starts Slow”, “Sour Cherry”, and “DNA”, but also included many new songs from their latest album, God Games. Despite the fact that the album is relatively new, the crowd knew all the words like the obsessive Kills fans we are. To put it mildly, it was one of the best shows I have ever seen and I attend over 100 concerts a year. I highly recommend seeing this band live and if you have already missed them in your home cities, give their latest album a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

Photography by Derek Jones

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