Audio By Carbonatix
Phoenix may not be known for a huge Eurobeat scene, but that hasn’t stopped the cool kiddies of The Kohl Heart from blazing a snotty trail of New Wavery through the cookie-cutter communities of the Valley of the Sun. Formerly known as XOXOXO, the band — singer Rachel Taylor, bass and synth monger Ben Funke, guitarist Zach Funke, and drummer Randy Leasure — plays debaucherous, sexed-up dance-pop that’s a lip-curling mix between Berlin and XrayOk. Songs like “Easier Said Than Done” and “Kiss of Death” roil with ecstatic nü-ro sensibility that will have you flipping up the collar on your Izod shirt fer sure; that is, if anyone out there still wears one. Now that The Kohl Heart has roots in both P-town and the Bay Area, a local show doesn’t happen but once every blue moon, but this Halloween weekend the stars have aligned. And as if swaying to Taylor’s pouting-chic attitude wasn’t enough, the festivities will include soft-core horror fun from The Vault of Spooky, a blitzkrieg of avant-tarde theater that will feature live performances of “Dial ‘D’ for the Dead People Calling You on the Telephone,” “Blind Date . . . With a Werewolf” and “Who’s the Zombie?!” If you’re lucky, there might even be cupcakes.
