Ruislip Manor 1 Biggleswade Town 2

17mar08
Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division
Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip
att. 53

Hobo in my pocket #29


from the Vanity Project archive (issue #6 - May 2003)

The Kills.
Southampton Joiners Arms. 03mar03.

He faces out. She faces him. V.V. & Hotel, like some minimalist art installation version of ABBA's 'Take A Chance On Me' video. The stage is bare save for two persons and two guitars, the rhythm tracks housed on a DAT, yet still they close ranks towards the centre of the stage. Being a duo sans drumset, there is little to draw your attention away from their stage poise initially so opposite but yet so together in their stance. The shapes and angles created, the product of their postural tilt, ideally complement the jutting angularity of their earthy, transatlantic D.I.Y. rock n' roll. A detached red spotlight hits the rear wall of the venue, giving V.V. a devilish aura, from my perspective. It appears to be very deliberate mise en scene for their music's distinct 'redness', being dangerous, abrasive, sleazy, nasty - Fuck the People indeed. As the show goes on the more insular they become, drawing in to face each other, side on to the audience, aloof and intimate as hell, energies caught in the channel of their magnetism. When such remarkable grooves emanate from so basic an ensemble, I can't help but be caught in it too.