The Kills kill time in San Francisco

May 17, 2008, at Slim’s

By Camille Ikalina Robles
Published: May 19th, 2008 | 8:10pm

She’s an American, he’s a Brit. Together, Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince make up the duo, the Kills, mixing glam and indie rock at Slim’s in San Francisco to almost-cliché perfection. Arriving fashionably late, things were running an hour past schedule in true rocknroll fashion. When the duo finally took the stage, Mosshart smiled coyly at the crowd and purred, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Normally, the stage at Slim’s is cluttered to the edge with guitars, drums, and amps, making it impossible to imagine fitting a band up there as well. But the Kills run things a little simpler. With only a few guitars and a bumping electronic bass and drum track, the stage was wide open, leaving enough room for Mosshart’s frantic pacing in circles and jagged, volatile movements at the microphone. Her hair was messy enough to allow only a few glimpses of her face, usually at times when she was yelling into the microphone.

To say the crowd was into it would be an understatement. Rocking their own big hair and punk glam fashion, fans were getting incessantly more antsy and, in turn, drunker. The music kept them distracted from their own debauchery, however, as Mosshart and Hince meandered their way through intense backbeat-driven songs off their latest release, Midnight Boom (Domino), as images of people in suburban scenes played on the screen behind them.

“The Last Day of Magic,” “Sour Cherry,” and “Cheap and Cheerful” were highlights in a set full of sexual tension and hot heat. Mosshart and Hince played off of each other like lovers do, sharing secrets in glances or a few spoken words, and anticipating the other's moves in a way that comes with knowing each other very well. The fact that their relationship is strictly platonic doesn’t hinder their chemistry, which, in the end, is probably what makes them so good. Their shows are heavy, sexually explosive, and primal, and it’s obvious that the the Kills know exactly who they are and exactly how they want to express it.