May 24--An injury may have contributed to The Kills' half-decade span between albums, but armed with new material the group returned to the stage at its respectably attended show at the Riviera on Monday with a more playful attitude and the addition of a drummer and a bassist/keyboardist who served as the rhythmic backdrop for the duo. One thing that has remained a constant is the chemistry between the magnetic Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, who riffed off each other during their engaging set.
The Kills are on tour for their forthcoming fifth album, "Ash Ice," the duo's first in five years. In between records, Hince suffered a hand injury that required multiple surgeries and he had to adapt his guitar playing, and Mosshart worked with her other band, The Dead Weather, on a new album. Though "Ash Ice" won't be released until June, the band previewed several new songs during the set.
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Much of Mosshart and Hince's material deals in the push-and-pull of lust and love's messy, sometimes venomous aftermath when it all goes awry. And though they're not an actual couple, onstage their songs' emotions rang clear, whether it was Mosshart's sultry-to-sneering vocals meeting Hince's guitar stomp on the foreboding "No Wow," or when their singing mingled on the country-tipped ballad "Kissy Kissy," their flirting voices belying the lyric's promises to burn and stab each other's hearts. New tunes, such as the revved-up "Siberian Nights" with its warning signal beginnings and melodic turns and the catchy "Doing it to Death," pointed to a more considered style than some of The Kills' raw, gritty earlier work.
Mosshart was a riveting force onstage, with her signature tousled hair flips, stage prowls and circular pacing building tension before she let loose a cathartic wail, or pulling back for her sultrier deliveries. She took a turn on a keyboard and drums, and donned the guitar for several songs. And while Hince's injury may have temporarily derailed him, aside from the immobility of his third finger on his left hand while he played, it didn't hinder him sonically. The two had a comfortable looseness between them, trading smiles throughout the set.
Mosshart and Hince were at turns menacing, allies, foes and conspirators while performing, like a couple they might write about who stayed together despite injurious moments and outside distractions that might pull them apart. And after 15 years together, The Kills also seemed to be having more fun than ever.
Althea Legaspi is a freelance critic.
ctc-arts@tribpub.com
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