Kaki King - 9:30 Club - April 12th, 2008

To those obnoxious people who came fashionably late, decided to stand right in front of me on the side balcony and obviously couldn't give a whit for Kaki King, go fuck yourself; I was inordinately happy to find a better spot right in front of you shortly afterwards so I could see Kaki's wicked fucking fingers go to work. Perhaps you are why DC is the worst fucking city in the world. Otherwise, this is very simple: Kaki was not the main feature; therefore, she was sandwiched between some forgettably loud band and the featured act Nada Surf, who apparently came out with a hit song at some point many years ago. Whatever. She was fucking brilliant. In a kind of interesting way, short of a few people who recognized and cheered her when she came out, she struck most methinks as a roadie tuning the real Kaki's guitar, or some reluctant house announcer.

Then, "Bone Chaos In The Castle." I don't think anyone expected to see, let alone hear, what this modern day guitar god was unleashing upon us. I mean, she didn't ease us into anything; she decided to explode in our faces. Eventually, her bandmates came out and joined in and so the show began. Her description of "2 O'Clock" as 'deceptively mellow' was interesting considering, just like on the album, she played an easy ballad and then her fingers jettisoned back and forth along the fretboard in nuclear combustion. Usually between songs, she said a few words, casually remarking that she hadn't had a break for forty days and that she'd experienced all the highs and lows she'd ever had in her life -- 'like fucking Biblical shit.' It was great. Especially the last song, which Kaki told us was a cover of The Bubonix, a German metal band. A German metal band! Seeing her and her band shred and scream bordered on almost stupefying insanity. All in all, a B+. Everything was great except for the fact that it lasted only an hour.

Unlike previous shows, I was too dumbstruck by what I was seeing and hearing to jot anything down, so my memory is a bit fuzzy on the setlist.

Setlist:
Bone Chaos In the Castle
Life Being What It Is
Pull Me Out Alive
So Much For So Little
Saving Days In A Frozen Head
Yellowcake
Montreal
2 O'Clock
Fashion Tattoo (Bubonix cover)