Coming to take your town, pillage your daughters and perform ritual satanic sacrifices, the misconception of metallers today. Just like every teenage boy must be someone who wears a hoodie and robs old grannies, every metaller MUST be satanic. So, standing outside the Underworld in my Machine Head hoodie chatting about how the phone box just rang and how some random guy answered it and had a conversation with the person on the other end, some respectable guy in a suit walks past and says “MACHINE HEAD, GREAT BAND”. Metallers are actually among the nicest safest people ever, sorry to ruin their reputation. They are the people that once used to label metallers as evil, they are your politicians, bus drivers, teachers, footballers, shop owners, office workers, chefs, youth workers. You’d be hard pushed to find someone these days that doesn’t own at least one Metallica album.
Considering Kittie have been around for about 14 years and have released 5 major albums its surprising that they're still somewhat unknown, or even still labelled as "that girl band". Most metallers would say "you're seeing Kittie lol see a real metal band like Malefice", so I did, I saw them support Kittie, that's right Malefice SUPPORTED Kittie. So the question I had was is Kittie just a novelty or are they actually any good, and will it just be a bunch of emo girls coming to lend their support to a girl rock band? The consensus in the queue of guys outside was “They’re actually really good”.
Before we get on to Kittie, we have 3 support acts to listen to. The queue outside was tiny, and considering that there were 4 bands playing a 100 club tickets were still available on the door. Once inside I made my way to the front of the balcony and chatted to some hardcore metallers about Fear Factory, Machine Head, Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Exodus... not just a bunch of teenage girls or horny little boys coming to see a girl group but real metallers, with leather jackets and tattoos.
The truth of the matter was that I was really only there for Kittie and I have to admit that I didn’t really know the other bands, I’d just YouTbe’d them a few days before. So what were they like and were they worth seeing. First up was Forever Never (ironic as the name sounds). Just before they came out someone described them to me as “good singer”. Ok, cool. Smartly dressed in shirts, the bassist with a nice emo hair, guitarists who defiantly blow dries theirs, and a singer that looks like he likes his McDonalds; they don’t strike me as a typical metal band, but they sounded metalcore enough. While the guitarists were a little stagnant at times, their drummer, pounding away with intensity and energy and their singer, pacing around the small stage going from clean to more shouty vocals more than made up for it. They had a pretty good following being from Essex and most people seemed to know their songs. All in all they were pretty good on the night and a crowd pleaser although they did strike me as a kind of alter-bridge wannabe band and I wished their guitarists had been more concerned with putting as much effort into their playing as they did on their appearance. Sadly being first on did mean that the floor was only about half full when they finished their set and they failed to get a circle pit going. ***
The second band on, Reading’s own Malefice were probably the best known support band of the night which surprised me that weren’t higher up the bill, but then again with a Canadian band headlining it’s not surprising they put their American neighbours It Dies Today as main support. Malefice is what a real metal band should look like – long hair, tattoos and aggression. They definitely take their influences from Lamb of God / Chimaira with full on metal, distorted guitar-drum blast beats and Mark Hunter screaming vocals. The drummer, blatantly the twin of Machine Head’s baldy Dave McClain, looked completely bored on up there. While his blast beats were impressive he looked like he’d not slept in months, putting hardly any effort into his playing. In between songs the singer admitted that the month touring they had done wasn’t as much fun as they had wished and they were all pretty knackered. That saying you can’t knock their stage presence and were actually the only band on the night to get a number of circle pits going. Definitely a band I’d see again. ****
Finally, America’s own It Dies Today. After the crowd participation during Malefice it would have taken a pretty good band to keep the momentum going but actually most people decided to take this as their opportunity grab a few beers before Kittie. It Dies Today certainly do love themselves, way too metal core after Malefice and far too up their own ass, licking their guitar neck and touching each other’s groins during their set. The guy next to me that was influential in starting the Malefice pit, yawned and chatted to his mate during their set, which sums up their performance for me. Stagnant, boring and nowhere near worthy to be main headliners to Kittie. The arena at this point had filled to almost capacity, but this was nothing to do with the band on stage, more the band backstage about to come out to show everyone that they’re not a bunch of chicks with guitars. SO let’s forget It Dies Today ever played, forget rating them and move swiftly on.
I’ve been into Kittie for about 9 years, and by that I mean I heard What I Always Wanted about 9 years ago, and although I thought it was a good song it was the “girl group” novelty that I liked about them. Nowadays that novelty has very much faded and their last 3 albums are actually phenomenal, and very different to their debut effort Spit. I absolutely loved Until the End, and Funeral for Yesterday cemented me as a Kittie fan solely for their music. As for their latest offering In The Black, this is a masterpiece of a metal album. Well produced, talent, as heavy as a Ten Ton Hammer and as groovy as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. In some ways it’s a miracle Kittie are still around, with their struggles as a girl band in a male dominated metal world and their numerous line up changes. If it wasn’t for the sisterhood of singer/guitarist Morgan and drummer Mercedes Lander they probably wouldn’t be around today, and metal would be worse off for it. If you didn’t already know about their struggles, watching them together tonight you wouldn’t have had a clue.
The lights dim and Kingdom Come (the intro track on their latest In The Black release) plays over the PA. Suddenly the lights raise and 4 tattooed girls playing flying V guitars and 5 string bass’s mosh in front of your very eyes. You wouldn’t want to call these girls a ‘girl band’ and I will now no longer use that analogy or they WILL kick my ass. They tear through their opening track My Plague before seamlessly continuing into the mighty Cut Throat and Oracle with no stopping for breath. This looks like a line-up that has played together their whole lives. They are in tune with one another, a tight nit group, a premiership winning team, playing off each other and having fun doing it. They are as professional in their sound and ability as any well respected metal band. Morgan is on fire tonight. It’s completely surprising to see such a small girl creating such a screaming vocal range but as effortlessly as she makes the vicious screaming throat vocals look she also belts out clean crisp high notes with the same amount of ease. Her guitar ability is impressive too and trust me if you don’t know Kittie, their new material is no slouch. Lead guitarist Tara is impressive in her guitar skills going from heavy distorted riffs to technical solos with effortless precision. Mercedes doesn’t put a beat wrong all night, keeping them all glued together whilst also adding some doom vocals to accompany her sister. And as for the newest cat in the band Ivy, she looks to be having a complete blast on stage, playing off Tara and Morgan and moshing around the stage with her mass of hair windmilling all over the place. They’ve come to prove a point... and they’ve proved it, with a smile on their face and a bucket load of metal. The rest of their set is relentless, a freight train of distorted metal with a set list of Flowers of Flesh and Blood, Never Again, Pussy Sugar, Burning Bridges, Breath, Forgive and Forget, This Too Shall Pass and Sorrow I know. They even brought their very own pyrotechnics when a couple of their road crew fired off party poppers during the intro of the very bouncy What I Always Wanted. Kittie aren’t about flashy guitars and explosions, they walked on with guitars and walked off with the same ones, and in between delivered an onslaught. As much fun as I was having it was clear that everyone else lucky enough to see them tonight was having just as much fun, as were Kittie. Morgan joked with the crowd between songs commenting on a shoe that was being waved in front of her face and how some guy tried to steal the set list to which she stood on his foot – although I doubt it hurt as she wore socks throughout the gig.
I could go on and on about how good they were tonight. Maybe I liked them for the wrong reasons, I now love them for the right reasons. Get over yourself and get into Kittie. They don’t rock, they’re too metal to just rock, they come into your town and deliver 10 rounds of Mike Tyson and leave you wanting more. *****
The lights dim and Kingdom Come (the intro track on their latest In The Black release) plays over the PA. Suddenly the lights raise and 4 tattooed girls playing flying V guitars and 5 string bass’s mosh in front of your very eyes. You wouldn’t want to call these girls a ‘girl band’ and I will now no longer use that analogy or they WILL kick my ass. They tear through their opening track My Plague before seamlessly continuing into the mighty Cut Throat and Oracle with no stopping for breath. This looks like a line-up that has played together their whole lives. They are in tune with one another, a tight nit group, a premiership winning team, playing off each other and having fun doing it. They are as professional in their sound and ability as any well respected metal band. Morgan is on fire tonight. It’s completely surprising to see such a small girl creating such a screaming vocal range but as effortlessly as she makes the vicious screaming throat vocals look she also belts out clean crisp high notes with the same amount of ease. Her guitar ability is impressive too and trust me if you don’t know Kittie, their new material is no slouch. Lead guitarist Tara is impressive in her guitar skills going from heavy distorted riffs to technical solos with effortless precision. Mercedes doesn’t put a beat wrong all night, keeping them all glued together whilst also adding some doom vocals to accompany her sister. And as for the newest cat in the band Ivy, she looks to be having a complete blast on stage, playing off Tara and Morgan and moshing around the stage with her mass of hair windmilling all over the place. They’ve come to prove a point... and they’ve proved it, with a smile on their face and a bucket load of metal. The rest of their set is relentless, a freight train of distorted metal with a set list of Flowers of Flesh and Blood, Never Again, Pussy Sugar, Burning Bridges, Breath, Forgive and Forget, This Too Shall Pass and Sorrow I know. They even brought their very own pyrotechnics when a couple of their road crew fired off party poppers during the intro of the very bouncy What I Always Wanted. Kittie aren’t about flashy guitars and explosions, they walked on with guitars and walked off with the same ones, and in between delivered an onslaught. As much fun as I was having it was clear that everyone else lucky enough to see them tonight was having just as much fun, as were Kittie. Morgan joked with the crowd between songs commenting on a shoe that was being waved in front of her face and how some guy tried to steal the set list to which she stood on his foot – although I doubt it hurt as she wore socks throughout the gig.
I could go on and on about how good they were tonight. Maybe I liked them for the wrong reasons, I now love them for the right reasons. Get over yourself and get into Kittie. They don’t rock, they’re too metal to just rock, they come into your town and deliver 10 rounds of Mike Tyson and leave you wanting more. *****
I saw Kittie tonight, who wants to touch me... I SAID WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME!
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