At the behest of my good friend, Weekly photographer Marcella Volpintesta, I headed over to Exhibition Hall during last year’s Bumbershoot to check out Kill Hannah. The Chicago quintet took the stage with plenty of smoke, purple lights, eyeliner, hair product, and nü-goth attitude, and I was all prepared to unleash some serious haterade on some lame Hot Topic rock. To my absolute shock, they were actually pretty kickass– maybe a bit overslick and melodramatic in spots, but musically spot-on, touching on that whole dark My Chemical Romance/AFI goth-emo-punk thing but adding nice touches of guitar noise that wouldn’t be outta place on a Jesus and Mary Chain album and addictive, danceable synth sequences straight from the Depeche Mode/New Order playbook. And then, to cap it all off, ex-Guns ‘n Roses bassist Duff McKagan came out to join the band on a cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.” Duff probably won’t show this time, but Kill Hannah should be able to hold your attention– and very possibly win over your skeptical heart– just fine on their own.

Fri., July 25, 7 p.m., 2008