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Concert reviews Music

Tasty Niblett

The Kills , Scout Niblett and C’Mon at the Horseshoe, April 7. $12. Attendance: sold out. Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN


Discovering a new band is like finding a $20 bill in the pocket of an old pair of jeans.

I got richer last Thursday when Nottingham’s endearing Scout Niblett graced the Horseshoe . Aside from her split 7-inch with Songs: Ohia, Niblett was virtually unknown to me but was obviously the ultra-femme audience’s best-kept secret.

In a blond wig and white ensemble, Niblett looked like an androgynous cherub. But her quiet demeanour vanished when she started to blast out her spontaneous numbers, her Cat Power-like vocals contrasting with grinding guitar and post-rock percussion. Letting out Björk-style wails while banging away at the drums like a child with pots and pans, she was challenging, original and captivating.

The ‘Shoe was packed to the tits when dirty duo the Kills sauntered in. Raven-haired Alison “VV” Mosshart prowled the stage in anti-rock-star mode, often completely neglecting the audience and scaling the back walls. Her jittery presence – whether due to chemical dependency or her desire to channel Iggy Pop – enhanced her garage-punk persona. I wasn’t entirely buying this act, but it made for an entertaining show and drove the crowd into a frenzy.

Jamie “Hotel” Hince ‘s bawdy blues riffs and stellar rooster-tic dance moves balanced out their obnoxiously loud drum machine, which ended up drowning out Mosshart’s Nico-like droning. The dry humping between Mosshart and boy-toy Hince was on the tamer side compared to past performances, but that’s not to say the sexual tension between these two wasn’t as strong as ever. Between their intense stare-downs and aggressive gyrations against each other, especially during raunchy duets like I Hate The Way You Love, the pair made sure their audience left sweating after a hot and trashy night out.

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