Photos by Lucy Blumenfield
In 2016 The Kills were touring in support of their recently released fifth studio album, Ash & Ice, the band’s most lush and expansive release to date. Joining them for a number of dates was then up-and-coming reverb rockers L.A. Witch, kicking off the shared run with a mythic set at Los Angeles’ ornate Mayan Theater. Fast forward to 2022 for incontestable proof that lightning does indeed strike twice. On June 6 The Kills took that same stage for their first headlining show in over three years supported again by a bolder, more spirited L.A. Witch for an unforgettable evening that felt like a triumphant homecoming after too long a time spent deep in the trenches of unprecedented events.
Lined up horizontally along the stage L.A. Witch presented themselves as a band of equals, a unified front of creative camaraderie enhanced by the natural ease in which each of the players brings their own individuality into the whole while supporting the uniqueness of their mates. The band is not an anonymous collective; they are a team, a gang, and together on stage an unstoppable force of feminine solidarity and resolute determination.
Powering through a tight setlist of the band’s most compelling compositions, L.A. Witch reinforced their uncanny ability to ascribe a tangible sensation of smoky intimacy to even the largest of venues, drawing the audience close with an irrefutable magnetism. The alchemical combination of L.A. Witch’s signature chiming reverb, leather-and-latex basslines, and percussion that is in turns punishingly intense and deftly precise has been augmented with the addition of a fourth player contributing a textural substrate of rhythmic guitar to the wider mix.
Under the expanded lineup old tracks burst with a fresh vibrancy, and new material smoldered with the cinematic seduction of a cigarette hovering above the the ruby lips of a noir fatale, dangerous and beguiling. The haunting loneliness that was a marked characteristic of the band’s early sound has blossomed into a vividly manifested confidence that juxtaposes solitude with fortitude, splendidly rendered like vibrant petals delicately ensconced within the spines of a flowering cacti thriving amidst the parched desolation of a desert expanse. The band truly hit their stride amidst the hypnotic, rolling rhythm of “Dark Horse,” breaking into a powerful stride that carried through the remainder of the set with a muscular assertiveness that undeniably casts L.A. Witch as one of the most exciting bands of their generation and well deserving of their place on this stage.
Appearing before the audience amidst the unsettling serenity of Vera Lynn’s apocalyptic wartime standard “We’ll Meet Again,” The Kills greeted a packed house with raised glasses and humble affability. The room was buzzing with anticipation, every molecule of air between bodies crackled static charged, ready and willing to bear witness in the secular communion of rock and roll ecstasy. Without a word the duo assumed their positions and began what can only be described as a total onslaught of overwhelming sound and electric fury.
The opening riff of “No Wow” hit like a thunderclap, reinterpreted from the simmering slow burn of the album version into an elemental blitzkrieg that broke upon the audience with hurricane intensity. Song after song, Hotel wrestled devastating riffs from the body of his guitar, forcibly exorcizing howling demons through a catastrophic wall of feedback as VV stalked the stage like a confident predator, snarling through bared teeth, a whirling goddess of pure primal intensity. This was The Kills at their most uncompromising, firing on all cylinders and performing at the absolute peak of their abilities in a no-holds-barred death race towards total rock and roll domination.
Downshifting from the initial barrage of high voltage tumultuous gutter glam, The Kills lost not a fraction of momentum as they transitioned into a series of slower pieces for the set’s midsection. One of the most incredible facets of the band’s sound is VV and Hotel’s uncanny ability to transform a simple ballad into a blazing torch song, monuments of melancholy that glisten like the tumbling ruins of moonlit mausoleums, cold and breathtaking but full of humanity. For all of her whip-taut vocals on their most aggressive tracks, VV’s voice soars in these quieter moments, buoyed by brilliantly emotive tones conjured into existence by the Hotel’s disarming guitar melodies.
For a team of two to command a room with such complete rapture is a unique skill. Where many of their binarily-structured contemporaries have expanded, disbanded, or surrendered to the current of the mainstream The Kills maintain an iron grip on the kind of inscrutable credibility and widespread appeal that so often evaporates under the blazing heat of career longevity. The secret, no doubt, is the electric chemistry the pair manifests in performance. Einstein called it quantum entanglement, spooky action at a distance, a theory describing an invisible bond that joins two disparate entities together across space. The Kills represent that kind of bond. Icons of an ideal, a platonic romance in the union of kindred spirits vibrating on twin frequencies and amplified by mutual respect and adoration. Three years away from the stage did little to dull the band’s razor sharp abilities, if anything their edge was honed even further, setting up the inevitable reunion as a unforgettable occasion and celebration of an inexorable partnership.
Polaroids from The Kills personal collection documenting the band’s 2002-2004 tours are currently on display at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York. Follow the band on Instagram and stream their catalog on Spotify.
L.A. Witch are on tour in North America this summer. Follow the band on Instagram and stream their albums on Spotify.
L.A. Witch Upcoming Tour Dates
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June 22 – 26
Sled Island – Calgary, Canada
July 29 – 31
Underground Music Showcase – Denver, CO
Sunday, July 31
recordBar – Kansas City, MO
Tuesday, August 2
Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
Wednesday, August 3
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern – Cleveland, OH
Thursday, August 4
The Garrison – Toronto, Canada
August 5 – 6
Back Alley Ballyhoo – Indianapolis, IN
Friday, August 5
Magic Bag – Ferndale, MI
Sunday, August 7
Natalie’s Grandview (Music Hall & Kitchen) – Columbus, OH
Tuesday August 9
Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday, August 10
Market Hotel – Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, August 11
Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD
Friday, August 12
The Pinhook – Durham, NC
Saturday, August 13
Asheville Music Hall – Asheville, NC
Sunday, August 14
Third Man Records – Nashville, TN
Tuesday, August 16
Three Links Deep Ellum – Dallas, TX
Wednesday, August 17
Parish – Austin, TX
Friday, August 19
Club Congress – Tucson, AZ
