Kaki King
Higher Ground - South Burlington, VT
Monday, May 16, 2005
By expressing her personal emotions in a very powerful and profound way, Kaki Kingís
style is purely unique. Her playing could be described as controlled chaos, with
a hint of inward bliss, as both sadness and wonder fill the spaces within her compositions.
She has truly developed her own style that is reminiscent of what it would sound
like if Leo Kottke had a crush on Victor Wooten. By manically tapping and slapping
out the rhythms on the body of her guitar, and then delicately finger picking her
strings, Kaki King creates true juxtaposition.
The seated show at Higher Ground was heartfelt, as King played tunes from both of
her albums, along with a few new ones. There was one point where King was delicately
rubbing the top of her guitar, and you could close your eyes and think you were hearing
a drummer slowly slithering across the snare with brushes. She even broke out a baritone
guitar for a couple songs, which gave the sound of a bass and standard guitar playing
simultaneously.
Highlights for the evening included the songs ěMagazineî and ěHappy As A Dead Pig
In The Sunshine,î in which the title of the latter, she explained as meaning "giddy."
King even jokingly sang a couple verses of Def Leppard's 80ís hit ěPhotograph.î Afterwards,
she told stories about how she enjoys playing Def Leppard and Blondie songs in her
spare time, which drew a round of laughs from the audience. It was during this dialogue,
which King explained how she grew up listening to pop music and strives to write
pop, which elicited even more laughter from the audience. During the last song of
the evening, she brought out her lap slide guitar and quoted the famous Santo &
Johnny song ěSleepwalk,î serving as a blissful cap to the night indeed. |
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