Opening the evening were the duo Baba Ali. They have obvious synergy with the Kills, being a duo using guitar and samples with an American singer and British guitarist. They bought their post-punk disco vibes to the Troxy. It’s very much a dark and sweaty 80s club vibe. I’m not sure the Troxy was the right venue. Having seen an intimate performance, despite their energy, some of that sweaty vibe was lost in the big space. But if you get a chance to see them play a smaller venue, definitely go and see them.

I have been hearing a lot of good things about Picture Parlour. The music I’d heard, hadn’t done much for me. But I had heard their live shows were really good. I was pleased to see them on the bill.

Musically, they didn’t do much for me. it would be easy to say they sounded a bit old fashioned, a bit ‘classic rock’, but music is recycled and old sounds become fresh again. But that’s what they felt to me.

Performance wise, they were very tight. In their front person, Katherine Parlour, they have a very strong presence. She breezes around the stage with a confident swagger you rarely see. Not brash or in your face. Somebody confidently leading their band from the front with a really good voice. It’s just a shame that despite this, I didn’t connect with their music.

It was great to catch up with the Kills. It had been far too long since I had seem them. Playing the majority of their God Games album, the new material seemed to fit in well with their back catalogue. I used to think they needed to have a live band. A few years ago they did briefly toy with a live band but this tour was just them and their amazing chemistry. It is their chemistry that makes them so special to me. They know each other so well and seem so comfortable with each other that they react to each other as if they are finishing each other’s sentences. Tonight was no different. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait so long to catch them again.

Set List

• Kissy Kissy
• U.R.A. Fever
• Love and Tenderness
• 103
• Going to Heaven
• Baby Says
• New York
• Wasterpiece
• Kingdom Come
• Hard Habit to Break
• God Games
• Black Balloon
• DNA
• LA Hex
• Doing It to Death
• Future Starts Slow
• Blank
• Better Days
• My Girls My Girls
• Sour Cherry

Artists I liked

Otoboke Beaver, Gurr, Fable, Gabrielle Aplin, Dead Pretties, Aldous Harding x3, Pins, Dronningen, Rose Elinor Dougall, The Avulsions, Tired Lion, Byrde, Pumarosa x2, Life, Dream Wife, The Kills, Public Service Broadcasting, Gold Class

Artists that were okay

J.W.Paris, Yon Aka, Molly, Emme Woods, Fazerdaze, Bite The Buffalo, ILL, Flamingods, Slotface, Kane Strang, Hey Charlie, Olympia, Puma Blue, Our Girl, Abattoir Blues, Hazel English, Emily Barker, Education, Mata, Like A Motorcycle, Locks

Artists I won’t be going out of my way to see again

Skott, Dream Nails, Cherry Glazer

Best Gig

May is Great Escape month. With my poor blogging, I didn’t keep track of the bands I was seeing as well as I should have, so the number of bands I saw this month was much larger than recorded. Few new bands stood out. But there were some excellent highlights this month with a number of my favourites such as The Kills, PSB, Pumarosa and Aldous Harding. I think The Kills was probably my highlight of the month.

Best new band

Gurr

Albums of the Month

• Parasite (EP) – The Coathangers
• The Witch – Pumarosa
• Party – Aldous Harding
• Popular Music – Life

Best photo

Playing songs from their new album along with many of their greatest hits, the evening flew buy. They were both on top form. Alison prowling around the stage full, like the rock goddess she is. She’s still one of the best front person in the business. Pure rock and roll. Backing her ably on guitar playing his distinctive style of rock was Jamie. At times they really looked like they were enjoying being back on the road. A surprise for this tour was a drummer. I’ve long said that they need a drummer and it definetly added to the dynamic. It felt right. Yes, they still had their backing tracks, but the addition of a real drummer added to their sound.

Support was from Georgia, who I really didn’t like

The day day started brilliantly. Boro gave Charlton a (probably undeserved) 4-1 drubbing. So I was already in a good mood before the gig.

With the doors advertised as an early 6.30, I knew there would be little chance of getting on the baririer as there would be little chance of me getting across London after the match in time. By the time I got to Alexandra Palace, there already were two large queues. Luckily by the time everyone piled into the venue i managed to get a place a few rows back from the front.

I’m a big fan of The Kills. I’ve seen them numerous times. In Alison Mosshart. They have a fantastic front women and Jamie Hince manages to keep the music interesting. Over the years, Alison seems to have continuously improved vocally and tonight they were on top form.

After The Kills, we were asked not to take photos, so there’s no photos for Jack.

When Jack announced that he was touring with two separate bangs. I did think it was slightly portentous – and let’s face it Jack White can be a bit portentous. But it actually works well. Both bands bring a different dynamic to the event and it brings an element of suspense as you wait for the band to arrive. Tonight, Jack chose his female band. To be perfectly honest, I prefer this band over the boys. So I was please to see them.

As with his previous gigs. There was no sign of a set list. With Jack choosing the songs as he went along and like previous gigs, he was excellent.

Their last album, Blood Pressures was an extremely strong album an album I felt was a departure from earlier work. After two years of touring with the Dead Weather, Alison’s vocals are stronger. It also gave Hince nice time to experiment with new sounds.  It all added to a thicker sound than previous albums.

Since their last tour and album there’s also been a high profile marriage. Hince has married Kate Moss. This has put The Kills name into the mainstream. So I guess it was no surprise to see them play bigger venues on this latest tour, with tonight’s Brixton Academy gig the biggest I’ve been to.

The first support for tonight were Trailer Trash Tracys. I don’t really know what to say about these guys. The sound was awful. Not helped in part by the lead singer’s who appeared to be performing a sexual act on the mic. She really needs to be taught how to use a mic. They work better if you leave some space between your mouth and the mic. I think I made out about 5 discernible words in their whole set. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and put the performance down to poor sound. But I was’t impressed.

Sometimes support acts just seem completely inappropriate. I mentioned the marriage earlier. This year I’ve noticed a change in the crowd. There’s noticeable percentage of the audience that appear to have been attracted because of the high profile wedding. It’s definitely a prettier audience, but it’s not the normal indie crowd.

I mention this because the second support was Josh T Pearson who I saw last week at the Barbican. It was also the fourth time I’ve seen him this year. As usual his performance was strong. But he was completely inappropriate for this crowd. His 10 minutes long songs were never going to hold the attention of a cosmo reader and the crowd just talked through his set.

Surprisingly, tonights Kills set was more varied and longer than I expected. Gigs earlier in the year focused almost entirely on the material from the Blood Pressures album. But tonight the set was much better balanced with material from every album. (Although I’d like to hear a few more No Wow songs). Some songs I’ve not heard for years. The new material also benefited from the year on the road and felt fresh and new. They were also much tighter than they were at the first gig of the year at SXSW. The danger for a band that consist of a guitarist and a vocalist playing such a large stage as the Brixton Academy is that you could easily get lost on the stage. So sensibly they employed the services of drummers and a choir for some of the songs and the bigger stage just gave Alison more space to stalk around. So overall, an excellent gig.

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Having seen them two weeks earlier at SXSW I knew the gig would call heavily on their new material. The SXSW gig was enjoyable but suffered from some sound problems. But the new material sounded good. Luckily my copy of Blood Pressures arrived the morning of the gig so I had the chance to give the album a few listens to prepare me for the gig.

The sound of the new album is a departure from the earlier albums. It seems to reflect the fact that Jamie and Alison are maturing as artists. Alison has clearly benefited from her time with The Dead Weather. Tonight she stalked around the stage restlessly but with the confidence of somebody at the top of her game. Alison’s always been able to carry the songs through her attitude. But it was on the new song ‘Last Goodbye’ that showed how much she’s improved as an artist. This song is a departure for the Kills and relies on Alison’s to deliver a much more measured performance, something she did brilliantly.

As usual, the gig was a touch short. Leaving me wanting more. Luckily they return to London later in the summer.