L7, October 28, 2022 at Regent

Josh had become my concert buddy, and it was good to have someone to drag me out of the house. WIth anyone, it could just be another night out, but with Josh it was another companion, for shows I might not have bothered with (even if I knew the group), and with someone who knew what he was talking about with music. He had mentioned the L7 shows earlier in the year when we were working together, and I had it on my calendar, then on the day of the show he had offered the ticket to someone else but they couldn’t go, so I was back in, though I could have been fine whether I had gone or not (as there would be other shows). Even though I had seen L7 twice already post-reunion, it was always good to see them and drink some beer (though only one for me). They might have crested their wave with Bricks Are Heavy, so that should have been the prize for seeing them on this tour when they played the whole thing, but that album didn’t get me so much besides for some angry riot chicks, and they were generally going to play “Shitlist” any night anyway. I was much bigger on The Beauty Process, when they finally went beyond pissy babes and into hard-charging forces of nature, and finally after seeing them as much as I had they got to it (even if the two weren’t my favorite tracks from the album). They sounded fine, going over riffs they had established long before they had to roll them out again after they got back together, plenty loud if that’s a matter beyond turning up amps, but making up for the same snarling from their (and our) youth, refining their sound if they had sacrificed as much in intensity. And those songs had aged well, barely fitting in the grunge scene for being the rare girls but standing out for it, and only using the mainstream as an oddity by slipping in for bigger crowds than they would have pulled at any other time (including now). They always stood on their own -- because they had to, if they were going to do it -- but they survived it all, enough to get back together, to throw it down yet again, no matter what their (or our) age.

L7’s set-list:
“Wargasm"
"Scrap"
"Pretend We're Dead"
"Diet Pill"
"Everglade"
"Slide"
"One More Thing"
"Mr. Integrity"
"Monster"
"Shitlist"
"This Ain’t Pleasure"
"Andres"
"Fuel My Fire"
"Shove"
"Stadium West"
"Non-Existent Patricia"
"Fighting the Crave"
"War With You"
"Drama"
"American Society" (Eddie and the Subtitles cover)
"Suffragette City" (David Bowie cover)

"Fast and Frightening"

The Kills, August 13, 2018 at the Regent

Jen had another extra ticket for a concert, and if I wasn’t working then I was at home and usually good for a weekday show. I was a fan of The Kills, though I didn’t go much beyond seeing them at a festival and liking the stuff that they also knew was worth playing. I also hadn’t been to the Regent for a show; it's good for a mid-size venue, but a little too easy to get packed for a popular act. We got a good parking spot around the corner (also a perk for a weeknight show), and got there to settle for a spot in the back (though Jen isn’t one to fight to get close, and I don't care enough to do more than go with flow), in time for “Black Balloon,” missing the older stuff at the beginning that we probably saw at a past festival anyway (and also opener Saul Williams, who had headlined the Troubadour once and was now opening in a club, but the mix of styles and genres would have been interesting). It takes some confidence to go from older to newer in a set (unless it's just to use the familiar stuff to hook the audience enough to get them to pay attention to the new material), relying on new stuff to carry the climax of the show, but it’s not like they had hits that anyone was holding out for, and their newer stuff (off Ash & Ice, which came out two years before, so this had been a long tour) was strong enough to sound great without it having to chart as pop music somewhere. And they could still pull a crowd for a show, and maybe even could have without Mossheart’s heightened public profile for an association with Jack White (which left Hince with either resentment or time off). As far as two-person bands with a prowling front-woman and a dude on guitar, I might have taken Sleigh Bells for the live show, if only for the volume and more neo-gothiness than scuzzy NYC vibe, but the Kills could translate whatever they did with production to a live setting, even if the rhythm was canned. We also didn’t get as much (or any) off No Wow as I would have liked, but they had already gotten 13 years and three albums (not counting The Dead Weather and solo work) past it, and I thought I could do without them for a bit, so I couldn’t complain. I also hadn’t gotten obsessed by “Future Starts Slow” until well after that, and it had already become an old track they'd cycled out, so I couldn’t know what I was missing, and it was all still what could be expected from their show, unpacked and expanded from the usual festival.

The Kills’ set-list:

“Heart of a Dog“

“U.R.A. Fever“

“Kissy Kissy“

“Hard Habit to Break“

“Black Balloon“

“Baby Says“

“Tape Song“

“Echo Home“

“Sour Cherry“

“Doing It to Death“

“Whirling Eye“

“List of Demands“ (Saul Williams cover) (with Saul Williams)

“Pots and Pans“

“Monkey 23“

“That Love“

“Siberian Nights“

“Steppin' Razor“ (Joe Higgs cover)

“Fried My Little Brains“