Music • Kill
Hannah performed May 10 at the Galaxy
Theatre in Santa Ana. Matthew Wilkinson/Online
Forty-Niner
Kill
Hannah promotes new album on U.S. tour
By Matthew Wilkinson
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Mat Devine sits outside of the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana staring at a blank
piece of paper. His band Kill Hannah has finished a brand new record and he’s
trying to design a new logo for it.
The former Art Institute of Chicago student starts to make a few freehand sketches
before looking up to speak to me. We talk about the importance of the decision
as we leave the noisy backstage to go sit in my car, after all, this design
will appear on the CD, T-shirts and posters for years to come.
“
It’s hard with our band name because it says ‘kill’ in it,
but we don’t want it to look tough because we aren’t strictly a
heavy band,” he says. “A lot of people base their opinion on a
band’s name and how it’s written.”
The band’s name is his fault. He named it after a short, bizarre relationship
with a girl named Hannah which resulted in his first heartbreak. Had he known
the name was going to stick for over 10 years, he might have thought it out
more.
Kill Hannah is one of the hottest bands from Chicago. Its 2003 album “For
Never and Ever” has been embraced by scenesters as one of the best indie-rock
albums around, if you can even call it that.
Describing the band’s sound proves to be a challenge for Devine, who
lists the Cure’s “Wish” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Machina” as
his two all-time favorite records.
“
Our sound is kind of like a hybrid of other stuff that really affected me when
I was growing up,” Devine said. “Bands like the Cure and Psychedelic
Furs have influenced us in a huge way, but we can be far more aggressive than
either of those two bands. So it’s kind of an updated, more aggressive,
Americanized version of bands from that era, the Smiths, the Cure, Depeche
Mode, I think you can hear all of their elements in our sound.”
Devine formed the band in 1994 when he was in art school. He had written some
songs and took anybody who wanted to play music with him. The group released
its first EP in 1996, but nobody remains from that line up except for Devine.
So he found more talented and more committed musicians throughout Chicago and
the line up became solid in 2000.
Guitarists Dan Wiese and Jonathan Radtke, bassist Greg Corner and drummer Garrett
Hammond filled in the slots. Once that was set, the band took to the streets.
“
We started talking to people one-on-one,” Devine said. “We walked
around the streets of Chicago introducing ourselves to complete strangers,
asking them to please come to our show. For every 3,000 flyers we’d hand
out, for every promise that we’d get, may be two people would show up.
It was such a slow build but it really humbled us.”
It humbled the band members so much they are known to stay hours after shows
chatting with fans. They are still known to talk to people on the street, and
pass out flyers. They don’t want to take success for granted.
The fan base Kill Hannah has established is very loyal. Devine refers to themselves
as a “lifestyle” band, a band that has a very loyal following no
matter whether it is on “TRL” or hot in the press. Even on its
current tour the band has been able to play to 400+ fans a night with no promotion
whatsoever.
Devine compares its live show closer to Skid Row than the Cure, but when Kill
Hannah took the stage at the Galaxy it looked closer to the latter. Every member
of the band has his hair and make-up done and is decked out in Diesel clothing.
It could be one of the prettiest bands around.
The 10-song set kicked off with old favorites “Boys and Girls” and “They
Can’t Save Us Now” before debuting the new song “Lips Like
Morphine,” which is the new default song on the bands MySpace page.
Kill Hannah’s stage show is one of the most visually entertaining I’ve
ever seen. All the guitars are equipped with white lights on the bottom that
mesmerize you as they rock back and forth. The guitars also have laser lights
attached to the top, so at select times during the set, green lasers shoot
across the room. Lots of fog help the lights stand out.
Devine’s soft spoken singing voice sounds almost feminine. Several of
my friends have mistaken it for Shirley Manson of Garbage or even Terri Nunn
from’80s band Berlin.
“
10 More Minutes With You” was next, followed by new song “Black
Poison Blood.” They even pulled out an older song,
“Nerve Gas,” from 1999’s independently released “American
Jet Set.”
“
Race the Dream” set up another new song called “Love You to Death.” They
finished off with singles “Unwanted” and “Kennedy.”
The band’s stage presence, along with the energy in both new and old
songs, makes it impossible for you not to dance along with the music. There
were a lot more than 400 people at this show, and the room was filled with
energy. For having a lot of electronic effects on its CD, the band sounded
very good live.
After this tour, Kill Hannah will support Mindless Self Indulgence for five
to six weeks. Its new album, “Until There’s Nothing Left of Us,” is
scheduled for a July 25 release.
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