On Wednesday May 31, 2023, I received a last minute email to cover the SOLD OUT My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco California. I responded right back emphatically, YES! I have covered them a few times in the past and they always put on a great show.
Right after my last client at my day job, I raced home and grabbed my camera bag that fortunately, was all ready to go. With my bag in hand, I raced my way to San Francisco. Well, sort of. I made it about 5 miles and was at a dead stop. Road construction had the traffic at a crawl for another several miles. Once the traffic cleared, I made it to The Great American Music Hall in record time. I got checked in and unpacked my gear only missing the first song or two of the opener. Tonight, Kanga and Adult. were opening for them and they were a great fit.
Kanga was up first. This solo artist brought her own flavor of post-apocalyptic underground pop sounds mixed with driving dance beats. The audience was dancing away, and she was having a blast on stage. When the set ended, the audience was begging for more, a crowd favorite for sure.
Kanga is:
Kanga – Everything
Setlist:
No Setlist Available
Up next was Adult.. Yes, the name ends in a period. This high energy duo had the audience guessing as Nicola stretched packing tape across the stage. Then she attached a microphone to it and just like that, it became an instrument for the first song. As she worked the front of the stage running her hands along the tape, her partner, Adam was banging away on the electronic drums.
All through the set Nicola was switching between one and two microphones to add the echo effect to the vocals. At the end of the set, she jumped out into the crowd and sang along with the people. Once they left the stage, the crowd started yelling for just one more.
Adult. is:
Nicola Kuperus – Vocals
Adam Lee Miller -Drum Machine, Synthesizer
Setlist:
No Setlist Available
When My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult hit the stage, it was like a breath of fresh air. It was great to see Groovie Mann back on stage appearing in good health. As many may know, he had a health scare a week ago and was hospitalized with a serious staph infection. This was his first show back and he looked, and sounded, great.
Opening with “Burning Dirt” the crowd exploded and didn’t settle down until the end of the first part of the set. Groovie even mentioned at one point he was back from the dead. This brought a roar of applause from the audience. As they worked through their hit filled set, the crowd ate it up. After 14 songs, they left the stage for a short break to the chants of one more song. When they came back out, they did an instrumental version of “Final Blindness”. When they hit the next song, Groovie came back out and finished up the last 4 songs of the set.
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult is:
Groovie Mann – Vocals
Buzz McCoy – Synthesizer
Mimi Starr – Bass
Justin Thyme – Drums
Setlist:
1). Burning Dirt
2). A Daisy Chain 4 Satan
3). Do you Fear (For Your Child)
4). Rivers of Blood. Years of Darkness
5). The Days of Swine and Roses
6). Ride The Mindway
7).Leathersex
8). ‘Cuz It’s Hot
9). The Velvet Edge
10). Badlife
11). After The Flesh
12). Apollo 69
13). Blondes With Lobotomy Eyes
14). And This Is What The Devil Does
Encore:
15). Final Blindness (no Groovie Mann)
16). Dope Doll Jungle
17). Radio Silicon
18). Sex on Wheelz
19). Shock of Point 6
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult is always a great show and ALWAYS poses a challenge to photograph. due to crazy lighting, strobe lights and intense fog. It never detours me from the challenge though and I will continue to attend and photograph their shows as much as I can.
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Photographer of about 10 years, I have been shooting concerts for about 8 of those years. I started to get serious about concert photography about 6 or 7 years ago and now try to shoot as many as I can. I shoot mostly rock but, have done some country and big band stuff. I love music and since I am nowhere close to being a musician, this is a way I can be a small part of what, in the words of Henry Rollins, “gets me through the highs, the lows and everything in between”.
