Bristol punk rock - Kiss me, Killer
Riot grrl femme fatales
It’s taken us a while but we’re finally playing Exeter at the famous Cavern club on 15 May. The gig, entitled, All in Riot Grrrl, will feature some of the best in punk rock from the West Country, including Bristol legends Drunken Butterfly and Bath’s top feminist anti-folk exponent, Yonic.
Tickets are available for a mere £4, on sale at The Cavern Club and from this website: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/437086
There’s also a Facebook event page here.
As a band we should never eat quality pies before a gig… The first time we ate some lovely Welsh pubgrub pies before a show and played to a couple of people with, um, a band that wasn’t really a good fit. On St Patrick’s Day we scoffed some of Bristol’s famed Pieminister products… and the PA blew up just a couple of songs into our set. Still, it wasn’t all that bad as we had a fun-packed Irish holiday all the same.
Punka Presents is a new series of gigs put on by Bristol’s Punka crew, who are tearing it up on Bristol’s LGBT nightlife scene. Promoter Stu had put in loads of effort putting the word out about the gig, which took place at The Trap venue below St Nick’s Market. With celebrated drag superstar Ruby Rawbone acting as compare the stage was set for a gig that went far beyond the humdrum run of the mill.
Local act Monocle were the first band on the bill and warmed up The Trap with some sonic pyrotechnics fronted by powerful female vocals from the energetic Becky. The were followed by Chang, who are getting a lot of attention with a musical mix that’s both absorbing and explosive in equal measure with involving grooves blending elements of neo-grunge, noise-rock and post-rock. It’s definitely a band to see if you like your rock music fresh.
Kiss Me, Killer had their photo taken by a chap called Marco Bardusco-Brazier, who’s making a documentary about the aforementioned Ruby Rawbone before we took off for pie and mash. Marco’s Instagram account can be found here and very colourful it is too.
Notably, it was the first gig featuring deputy rhythm guitarist, Cooper Rose. Sadly, our lovely Cat had had to jet off to sunnier climes with work (and will soon be travelling again around Central America – alright for some). Cooper, or Coops as she’s often known, plays with our friends The Menstrual Cramps who are causing a stir across the UK with their feminism ‘n humour infused songs and have developed rapidly into an unstoppable live force. When not making videos for the Menstruals and DIY-recording with Logic Pro X, Cooper also performs with London’s unbelievably cool Bad Sidekick project. She also has one of those proper Instagram accounts with great poses, style, followers and whatnot. Northern and vegan, she chose Pieminister’s animal-free Kevin pie, which I think she very much enjoyed. I think we all enjoyed our pies. Pieminster know what they’re doing I think.
Everything was going swimmingly and the band was in a positive, party vibe mood for St Patrick’s Day, even though we had to feign our own terrible Irish accents in the absence of authentic Irish punk girl, Cat: ‘KESS ME, KELLER!’
We powered into Beware! EP favourite From the Inside and gave Rat Race a hammering before we realised something was up… Had Holly blanked in her lyrics for recently-written tune, Sliding Into My DMs? No, it was the mic, no, it was ALL the mics. Yep, the PA had failed completely… blown up… kaput… no funciona… muy jodido… t’be sure, t’be sure…
While Mr Soundman fiddled frantically with his equipment we bravely tried to fill the space with some improvised material, eventually easing into a completely new genre we made up on the spot – anarchojazz pornopunk – which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Vampiros Lesbos OST. Eeeking this twangy, sleazy wahwah-infused jam out as long as possible, and attempting a super-quiet version of our song Snooker so Holly could be heard without a mic, it was time to knock it on the head and call it a night…
Cheri Clouds managed to get some good shots of us, even if we weren’t on stage for very long:
Punka’s lovely Stu was deeply apologetic about the technical hitch, just one of those things, but was keen to have us back ASAP. And, yes, we’ll be playing another Punka Presents in June. Watch this space, people… Watch this space… We love Punka. They’re fabulous.
We’re thrilled to be playing the first Punka Presents show at The Trap, Bristol 17 March
Punka’s celebrating female fronted indie/rock music and we’ll be playing incredible Bristol-based bands with badass grrrrls front and centre.
The gig will also star ‘the deliciously dark humoured and unstoppably fabulous Bristol Drag Queen called RUBY RAWBONE’ who will be ‘serving you some twisted glamour dripping with sass to boot.’
As well as Kiss Me, Killer you can catch the incendiary Chang and the awesome Monocle.
The Trap can be found downstairs at The Crown Pub, All Saints Lane, BS11JH. Doors open at 7.30pm.
For the updates and latest on the gig see here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1783192461754930/
Kiss Me, Killer’s drummer, AJ is part of the team putting on a Queer Science Fiction Exhibition ‘Aliens of the Art World’ in Bristol and is seeking funding.
We’re a queer collective of aliens who make out of this world art & performance, working across several mediums. Our collective consists of painters, illustrators, performance artists, sculptures, prop & set makers, costume designs, poets and filmmaker. We’re on a mission to create our own home planet, our own galaxy, our own new constellations crammed into one room – specifically Centrespace Gallery in Bristol from 29th March – 5th April 2018.
There are loads of cool rewards so if you can help with a donation click here: https://gogetfunding.com/queer-science-fiction-exhibition/
Kiss Me, Killer got 2018 up and running with two explosive gigs across the Severn Bridge, taking in Le Pub, Newport and The Moon, Cardiff, with with Welsh ska punk heroes 6foot7.
The Moon gig on 21 January saw the band play as part of the Welsh capital’s Free for All Festival and shared the bill with Oldham’s The Crashmats. The Moon is a great little venue and although the Sunday evening crowd was small those who’d braved the rain were treated to a blistering night of high-octane punk rock thrills.
The Crashmats played a storming set until their guitarist broke a string on his Les Paul. No matter, I stepped in by offering the pink ‘Barbie’ Gordon Smith GS1 that, when plugging it, sounded twice as loud, clear and potent. Never judge a small powder pink guitar by its looks. That axe is a monster.
The Newport gig on 6 January was the perfect way to put Christmas to bed and as well as ska punk thrills from 6foot7, local band Hippodrome served up some post-punky neo-psychadelia that I found vaguely reminiscent of The Brian Jonestown massacre and which is no bad thing. It was out first outing at Le Pub, which moved from another location a while back, and it a first class place to catch some live music, which great value grub and plenty of nice beers on tap, great sound, and plenty of space.Go see gigs there.
Both gig featured a brand new Kiss Me, Killer song about hypermanic hypersexuality. In typical KMK style it’s mixes it up with post-punk intro, thundering old skool hardcore, the odd psych touch and our first ‘breakdown’.
Thank to Cheri for the fab photos as always. Hope to see you at one of the forthcoming gigs.