Hardly Killer
The Kills • another crowd favourite for the day • opened their set with “U R A Fever”, with Alison Mosshart sliding about the stage all hips and pouting, though not entirely relaxed. In fact her and Jamie Hince seemed rather awkward for a good part of the set, saying nothing to the masses gathered before them. Only after a slight technical hitch did they seem to relax a little more into the gig, sharing knowing glances and grins, moving with the same jerkiness and staring down the cameras with the same moody eyes.
The pair does not so much have an electric chemistry on stage as a slow, unbothered burn; they could just as easily have been playing the Mighty Boosh Festival, as jamming alone in the studio. Later, Mosshart casually lights a cigarette on stage and lolls about with the microphone, both she and Hince are quiet and speak little to the crowd, but she seems to be more sultry, weaving about the stage, her windswept hair offering glimpses of flirtatious eyes.
But still, this aloof sexiness mostly carries the set, and tunes such as “Cheap and Cheerful” and “Long Time Coming” set audience toes a-tapping and heads a-nodding. Mosshart’s voice softly purring through “Last Day Of Magic” like a much softened Brody Dalle or slightly less manic Karen O.
To be honest The Kills disappointed; they gave very little to the audience and barely seemed to care abut their own performance. Looking and swaggering about with rock star cool just doesn’t cut it when the energy is lacklustre and apathetic.