Chicks on Speed, Critikill
Beachland Ballroom
Monday, April 16

In homemade patent leather ensembles, accessorized with toilet paper and
mod white boots, Chicks on Speed
are the new poster girls for Eurotrash. They don’t play instruments, but
they do lug out slide projectors,
computer-controlled video clips, a gadgety minidisc setup and scores of
props for a show that’s part
performance art and part rave. Their sound touches on most current forms
of electronica, but their half-sung,
half-shouted vocals give everything a punkish new-wave edge.

Unfortunately, the Chicks’ European Community electronics didn’t get on
well with the electrical and PA systems
at the Beachland, and long breaks between songs were needed to fiddle with
wires and adapters. Kiki Moorse
and Melissa Logan also looked stiff and uncomfortable until the problems
were resolved. But once they joined
Alex Murray-Leslie dancing and throwing toilet paper, the show came
together fabulously. Their tongue-in-cheek
concept and sound are clever — perhaps too clever for some audience
members. One huddle of dark,
long-haired boys struggled visibly over whether it would be cool to mock
the girls, dressed in ragged leather
scraps held together by gaffer’s tape, as they sang, "Can I have a taste
of your ice cream/can I lick the crumbs
from your table?"

Critikill was as good a match for the headliner as could possibly be found
locally. Their blend of industrial
samples, bluesy vocals and gothic electronica were deliberately arty
enough not to seem out of place, but after a
strong start, the songs developed too slowly and dragged on forever with
little variation. — Heather Bra (Cleveland Free Times: Music: Being There)