#14: "Kick" by INXS

#14—One of the best live bands
I ever had the pleasure to see.

Best song: Need You Tonight/Mediate
Notable tracks: New Sensation, Devil Inside, Never Tear Us Apart, Mystify
Released: 1987
Chart peak: #3 (U.S. Billboard 200)
Popularity: 6X Platinum
Chosen over: Listen Like Thieves

I first heard INXS on MTV (where else?) with the title track from their fifth album, Listen Like Thieves. I thought it was okay, but my taste in music in high school really didn't extend much further than pop/rock and hair bands, and INXS was just a little too...alternative for me.

By fall of 1987, I had a full year of college under my belt, as well as more than a year away from the place I grew up (which I heartily recommend for everyone—even if you come back eventually to your home town, get out for a while), my tastes in practically everything were starting to expand, and with the release of Kick, INXS fully stormed both airwaves and MTV with one of the most memorable albums of my collection.

Part of my affinity for this album is due to the fact that I saw INXS live twice on the Kick tour, first in Columbia that fall, then again in St. Louis in the spring. Both shows were simply amazing. If you were never fortunate enough to see lead singer Michael Hutchence perform live, then you missed out on witnessing one of the most energetic and charismatic performers of the eighties.

As a matter of fact, the whole band was a giant burst of energy. Their shows were perpetual motion; you couldn't help but just dance and sing along with them. This was a band that was having an absolute blast performing live, and that energy rubbed off on everybody. I left both shows just buzzing with energy; they were palpably electric. I was so sad to hear many years later of Hutchence's death (in 1997); the band has tried to persevere with different singers, but there's just no way to recapture someone with that much vitality.

The songs are all terrific, each of them mainstays of MTV's heavy rotation as well as both rock and alternative radio stations throughout Missouri. All four singles—"New Sensation," "Never Tear Us Apart," "Devil Inside," and "Need You Tonight"—all made it to the Billboard top ten in the U.S., with "Need You Tonight" hitting #1. It's video—which inclues an homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"—had audiences buzzing for weeks. Both the beauty and the sadness of music is how it captures a moment that, all too often, cannot be recaptured. I hope that Michael is resting in peace—his life was a bright, bright light.

You're one of my kind...