Jinjer, Kittie @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 26/2/2025

Jinjer is feeling, a movement, not a band that just plays tracks and away you go. They are a band that you drift into your own subconscious for, letting the spirit of the words and music take over you. Meditative, revealing, honest. Then when you watch them perform live, this is all enhanced ten fold.

The Ukrainians are back in Adelaide – bringing legendary metallers Kittie with them – and the queue that is lined up for the show, hours before any band is on, tells you that this is not any old show, it’s a gathering.

I’ll get it out here now and then it’s done. Yes, there is a heavy female presence both on and off stage, however the presence that is much heavier here than that is the riffs of Kittie’s guitars and the vocal roar of Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk

Kittie, back on Aussie soil for the first time in fourteen years, are aggressive, hard and heavy. Full of head-banging riffs, venomous choruses and drumming of machine like ferocity and precision, they run rampant through their set.

I will confess I lost track over the years of the band from their mid 90’s angsty attitude of metal to now, however it made for a greater surprise. They were, as the kids say, sick.

Led by Morgan Lander’s drive up front, fuelled by sister Mercedes vigorous drumming,, they run through some oldies and a few newbies throughout the set.

Fire opens up, a ‘what you lookin’ for at?’ groove of a track before swinging into I’ve Failed You and Cut Throat. They are chaos and power.

Ultimately Vultures, Brackish and We Are The Lamb close out, to a crowd that cheered, sang and in some cases, reminisced of their teenage years.

The headliners are not a band of straight-ahead rock, or bouncing crowds, they are the thinking fans band. Complex musical structures juxtaposed with contrasting vocal styles; they are a band that you feel. A band that is more of a lucid state of mind than 4×4 rock band.

Opening with Just Another and Sit Stay Roll Over, the band sound massive. They lock into position, the foundation for Tatiana to move with a stealth yet inflamed explosion of vocals.

The razor guitars of Ramon Ibramkhalilov match the frantic drumming of Vladi Ulasevich during Fast Draw and when that drop happens, it’s magical.

Whether it is the room lit green for Green Serpent and the schizophrenic swings of Retrospection, Jinjer are note perfect and on time like a Swiss watch.

Tatiana does seem to have some in ear monitor issues, however she does not let that detract from the performance, in fact you could say the frustration adds to the vocals on Someone’s Daughter they are so visceral.

A nice touch of the lyrics on screen for ‘Kafka’ before the band, led by the genie dressed Tatiana, hit the home stretch of Perennial, Rogue and the you tube sensation Pisces, which gets a rogue crowd surfer floating the sea of swaying bodies blissfully enchanted by Jinjer.

For Jinjer is an experience, an emotion, a chance for you to think outside the square. To the lucky few in Adelaide tonight, it was exhilarating.

Live Review By Iain McCallum