Kaki King @ Theater of Living Arts
Standing right in the front of the Theatre of Living Arts, I scope out the audience and see Tegan & Sara shirts everywhere I look. I laugh to myself, and then turn to see the opening band, the Good Problems, and see a cello and violin. I think to myself, “’Oh this might be interesting.” Well, I wasn’t completely wrong. This band was a six-piece southern folk rock type band. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The lead singer and acoustic guitarist made a nice joke about looking like Justin Bieber, which was funny, until you noticed it was true… Then again, it’s cool now for girls to have the haircut of a sixteen-year-old boy. But anyway, back to the music; first opening act, not bad. Second opening act, An Horse, fantastic. An Horse is a two-piece Australian indie band. Though their music is very simplistic, they can play it well. Their entire set turned into a sound check with songs spit out here and there. During their song “Scared As Fuck”, Damon’s floor tom kept moving, so that called for some duct tape. But all in all, they sounded great. With both opening acts done, all there was left was what everyone was waiting for, Kaki King.
Right when Kaki King’s drummer, Jordan Perlson, walked on to the stage, everyone started cheering. But it wasn’t until Kaki came out that everyone really went wild. They started off by playing a song off her new album, Junior, called “Falling Day.” This already got everyone moving; the new album has a heavier feel than Kaki’s previous songs. After they finished that song Kaki started off my personal favorite, “Playing with Pink Noise.” The album version of the song doesn’t even begin to show how talented Kaki King is. Between the fret-tapping and use of harmonics, this song alone can be an entire album and I would buy it. Besides Kaki’s unfathomable guitar playing, and the drummer’s intensity, there was also Dan; he was playing the Electronic Valve Instrument, which Kaki described as looking rather “phallic.” This seemed to be the theme for the night. In between each song, there was a nice bickering of Kaki ripping on people in the audience and her phallus holding band member. Well, there were more like three themes: scrotums, phallus, and Justin Bieber, as Kaki also described herself as resembling the sixteen-year-old. But when Kaki wasn’t cracking jokes and talking about “scroti,” as she put it, she was playing fluently and ineffably.
In the middle of the set, the band exited the stage leaving Kaki alone to play. Honestly, there are no possible words to describe my experience watching her play live. Her techniques of mixed fret tapping, delay, slap, and loop set the atmosphere into a deep, overwhelming feel. Once the rest of the band re-entered the stage, they played two songs off the new album. During one of the songs, “Everything Has An End, Even Sadness,” the drums were perfect with the mock of an echo on the downbeat of the snare hit.
As Kaki and her crew walked off stage after the final set, the crowd cheered her back for an encore. She brings her lap steel and a chair, and she hooks it into her loop pedal. Kaki tells everyone in the audience that they are going to have to dance to this one and proceeds to play another personal favorite, “Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers.” Kaki loops the harmonics, the “bass” line, the slide, and then gets everyone clapping. As she finishes looping everything, she jumps into the crowd. As she finds random fans to dance with, confetti is falling from the ceiling and everyone is still clapping. She then climbs back onto the stage picks up the lap steel, plays a few chords and throws it on the ground. One of the greatest shows I’ve seen. If I can suggest one person to go and see before you die, it would be her.
