Image by Karen Sterling
Kaki King and her guitars triumph in Manhattan
April 9, 2008, at Bowery Ballroom
By Katy Henriksen
Published: April 11th, 2008 | 11:05am
With a guitar change between nearly every song in an epic set of close to two hours, the sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom was a sort-of hometown gig for Kaki King. Although she admitted to not having a NYC address for over a year now, she recounted to the boisterous audience about her time as an employee at the nearby Mercury Lounge, where she sold tickets to shows at all the Bowery Presents venues. “I was the catcher on the soft ball team,” she exclaimed.
Although she was brimming with bubbly banter throughout, both with the audience and her band, the performance was decidedly all about her plucking, shredding, and strumming her massive collection of guitars to perform most of her fourth album, Dreaming of Revenge (Velour). She didn’t need a fancy outfit — a three-quarter–sleeved black shirt and jeans — or much, if any make-up, nor any sort of stage antics. Watching her furiously pluck and press with both hands on the upper part of the neck of her elegant, large-bodied, black acoustic was spellbinding.
In certain moments, as in “Sad American” and “So Much For So Little,” she flipped her left hand and pressed strings from above rather than underneath. These intricate bluegrass and classical guitar–inspired pickings were paired with full-on electric thrashing as in “Pull Me Out,” that culminated in the final song of the night, a cover of a song by the German punk band Bubonics. What a way to close the night out, with King rapidly screaming the chorus, “Tattoo on your back,” as she shredded.
What defined the night was a skillful balance between the duality at play in King’s music. Equal parts acoustic and electric, stylistically King could shift effortlessly between shoegaze, rhythmic flamenco, angular prog rock, embellishing it all with baroque flourishes.
Not known for her powerful vocals, King’s live delivery proved at times more visceral and also more delicate. Like her guitar playing, she could switch between a dreamy, languid nearly whisper, to a heavy charged rasp. Whether delicately plucking alone or thrashing wildly with the full force of her band — drums, bass, keyboards, and effects — King performed with a velocity and exuberance and just didn’t want to get off the stage.
Issue #35
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