Lo Flux Media is very excited to welcome guest contributor Caroline Anne of Artpunk Photography! Below is a review and photo gallery of Kid Leather's performance at The Central Saloon on January 19th.
Words and pictures by Caroline Anne, Artpunk Photography
On the eve of the super blood wolf moon eclipse, Kid Leather rocked the supermoon of historic musical venues, The Central Saloon. (The venue located in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood, has hosted musical icons such as Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden on its stage. Championing local music for over 125 years, one can just look along the walls to see posters of Seattle’s musical past.)
Formed in 2013, Kid Leather is the noise punk brainchild of Chris Cool (formerly of Atomic Bride) on vox, guitar and synth, with longtime friend and Coldwater, MI native, Branden Minniear on drums / samples and Spoono Ghiefardi on bass.
Kid Leather opened their 9 song set with “Just a Chick Flick” and “Roller King” off their latest EP, “Soft Machine” (released April 2017) before thrashing their way into several new songs.
While, I have seen videos of Kid Leather over the years, this was my first time seeing them perform live. When Cool spoke it was crystal and the quality of sound was almost too polished for a punk band. There was an air of confidence with their stage presence that was fun, not cocky. Evident on “Copacetic” when Cool raised his guitar, almost ceremoniously, to the ceiling before repeating the lyrics “I haven’t lost my cool.”
There was a kindred choreography between the trio. Ghiefardi danced freely about stage, adding high flying kicks into the air, but stopped frequently to head bang along with Minniear and at one point playing alongside Cool on the floor, both of them not missing a beat.
My favorite new song was the last of the evening, “Pop Contest”, where Minniear’s drumming played like a ferocious hummingbird, that at times seemed to outmatch my shutter speed.
Kid Leather finished recording their first full length album in December of last year and I highly recommend checking out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/kidleather66/ for updates on it’s release.
Kid Leather plays The Blue Moon tavern, next month, Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 9 PM.
Check ‘em out!