I first caught Those Darlins in 2012, opening for Best Coast at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. I had never heard the band before but I was immediately drawn in and blown away by its killer songs and captivating singers. Despite its namesake, Those Darlins’ songs are far more sinister than sweet. The Murfreesboro-turned-Nashville band makes scorching hot country-fried, punked-up rockers, and its fantastic 2013 album, Blur The Line, oozes with lip-curling charisma and hair-raising guitar lines, and choruses that can get a crowd swaying, whiskey in hand.
But it’s live where Those Darlins, and especially its magnetic singers and guitarists, Jessi Zazu and Nikki Kvarnes, truly shine. Zazu, in particular, is a force of nature — channeling the the fearsome theatrics of Iggy Pop, the intensity of Joan Jett and the best classic rock moves of Jagger — as she dramatically prowls the stage. She’s also got a terrifyingly great piercing death stare, which she employs on the bangers like “Optimist”
And in booze-soaked, bluesy ballads like “That Man,” she delivers knife-twisting lines like “I got my share of men, I don’t want none of them / You’ll be my only friend, maybe you’ll like me then,” with a Lou Reed-esque deadpan and a Southern twang.
Elsewhere, Kvarnes’ songs, like the single “In The Wilderness,” fall more firmly into arena-sized ‘80s radio rock, a making fascinating stylistic juxtaposition between its two main voices. Still, after three records brimming with killer songs, and with countless shows under its belt, Those Darlins have become one of the must-see live acts around.