Kittie with Headstrong
and Slaves on Dope at the
Opera House, September 21. Tickets:
$15. Attendance: 500. Rating:
NNN Rating: NNN
once upon a time there was an all-girl band from London, Ontario, called Kittie. One of the girls (Fallon Bowman, guitars and vocals) went away to form her own band and was replaced (for touring purposes) by the bearded, bald-headed Jeff Phillips, who bears no resemblance to Bowman.When Kittie came to the Opera House in Toronto, the three girls and one boy, much like the Pied Piper, hypnotized the children (well actually, riled them up) and the children followed them (well, moshed to them), and when the children went away with their bloody noses they were not able to hear higher frequencies like other people any more.
After enduring two hours of auditory assault by Headstrong and Slaves on Dope, let me tell you I was pretty gosh-darn excited to see the stagehands coming out to turn everything up higher for Kittie. Yep, I was yelling, “Louder, louder, motherfuckers,” ’cause that’s what everyone else was yelling, as I shoved another pair of earplugs in my ears.
All the kitties in Kittie are past proficient with their instruments, and they’re pretty tight, but it seemed like they’d read and memorized Every Metal Band’s Guide To Thrashin’ Live.
Morgan Lander (vocals and guitar) and Talena Atfield (bass) performed the customary rites: jump up and down in one spot, feet spread 2 feet apart at all times raise arms, with or without heavy-metal hand gesture sincerely call the audience crude and offensive names and, of course, do the standard head-banging.
Beyond that, there wasn’t a whole whack of action onstage. But they’re young and have their entire lives ahead of them, right?
The most enjoyable aspect of the show came quite accidentally. Since the music was so loud, the vibrations were sending the sound waves all over the place, so when Lander wasn’t doing the thrash-metal throat-growling thing and was singing in a normal and coherent manner, she had a sort of Stevie Nicks vibrato. It’s kind of funny to think of Stevie Nicks singing in a metal band.
It could work.
