In case you’re a technophone (or rather, a techo-music-phobe), here’s a band that uses drum machines but never sounds synthetic. The Kills are all about raw, powerful, grungy blues rock with a bit of a dance beat. The White Stripes and PJ Harvey filtered through an electronic grid. Or something like that. Whatever it is, I like it, especially when I see the Kills in concert, as I did last night (May 9) at Metro. It’s just two musicians, singer/sometimes-guitarist Alison Mosshart and guitarist/sometimes-singer Jamie Hince. They play off each other like they’re both grabbing an electrical wire and jumping back from the shocks.
I was unfamiliar with the opening act, Telepathe, which was more on the electronic-pop end of the spectrum. I enjoyed their set, though few of the melodies leapt out at me.