Reviews
Mimi Barks / Kite Thief
The Junction, Plymouth - 11th September 2026
Words : Richard Hayward
Photographs : Keith Conlin Photography
“ICH BIN EIN BERLINER”
Urban legend has it that when JFK uttered those immortal words, many Germans interpreted them as “I am a jam doughnut" Okay… we’ll wait while you Google.
Just how true that story is we have no idea, but what we do know is that tonight, we are joined by the phenomenon that is Mimi Barks.
A German-born artist who discovered her true identity and her musical inspiration in the parts of Berlin that high street travel agents will never tell you about. Now based in Los Angeles, Barks is one of the most innovative and daring music artists on the scene today, and as her latest UK tour stops off at The Junction in Plymouth tonight, FROM THE PIT is ready and waiting for her.
As die-hard music fans, we all like to believe that our icons actually live their entire lives as the entities they portray on stage. I mean… surely Corpsegrinder doesn’t stop headbanging just because he’s eating his morning Cheerios?
Well, sadly I’m here to tell you that most of the time, what you see on stage, stays on stage… except… in the case of a few rare individuals who genuinely devote their life to their art, and whose art has simultaneously shaped them into who they are today.
Mimi Barks is one such artist, and since releasing her debut EP Enter the Void in 2019, she’s followed up with three more album releases - Deadgirl (2022), This is Doom Trap (2024) and Dreamstate of Fear (2026).
Barks’ chosen stomping ground is what she herself christened “doom trap”, an extreme fusion of aggressive hip-hop and trap beats with a mixture of harsh and clean vocals, with the heavy guitar sounds of industrial metal and hardcore punk.
Deeply rooted in Berlin’s debauchery-ridden and dangerous underground fetish club scene, Barks has probably seen pretty much everything that life’s seedy underbelly has to offer, and in true musician style, she’s absorbed every bit of it, grinding it mercilessly into her own DNA.
The result is an artist who revels in the darker and more depraved aspects of the human experience.
Tonight, it’s Plymouth’s turn to host this fascinating display of savage artistry, and as the tracked intro plays, there’s a collective sharp intake of breath as Barks walks out of the underworld and on to the stage.
Clad in a metal-spiked gimp balaclava, thigh-length leather boots and black PVC and latex essentials, she steps up on to the riser behind centre mic and, within seconds, we’re so deep in 808 territory I feel I should be racking a Glock and rolling up a fiver. All we need now is some huge guy with gold chains and a baseball bat guarding the door, and The Junction’s transformation into an Atlanta trap house will be complete.
Like many solo artists, Barks collaborates with session and touring musicians in order to deliver the goods to her adoring fans. This tour sees her joined by three incredibly talented individuals - Claire Genoud on guitar, Ivan Panella on drums and Sarah Dechaene on keys and playback.
Panella is the band’s rock-solid powerhouse, and he hits those drums like he’s trying to put out a fire! Genoud plays the guitar with a deceptive air of grace which belies her true power and dexterity, and Dechaene pulls double duty as keyboard sorceress and playback engineer, seamlessly blending all sorts of special effects and sound bites into the live performance.
Kicking off with “Dreamstate of Hell”, the opening song from Dreamstate of Fear, the rap vocal paints a chilling picture of an alternative lifestyle in a dark world that most people will never get to visit, but in which Barks spent her formative years. Moments later, that chill turns positively sub-zero, as she unleashes a series of harsh metal screams that give us all full-body goosebumps and turn our bone marrow to ice water. Occasional touches of auto-tune give her voice that weirdly robotic lilt, conjuring up mental images of a post-apocalyptic Cher, dressed in a latex catsuit and singing “Believe” whilst draped around a stripping pole in some dark, smoke-filled “pay to view” dungeon.
We’re into “Ophelia” and off comes the gimp headwear, revealing Barks’ long blonde, orange-tipped hair, which takes on a life of its own, floating and writhing Medusa-like in the breeze from a fan beneath the riser. It’s a spectacular sight and the photographer inside me is screaming, “Shoot now!
Shoot now!”
Thankfully I know Keith has it covered - he’s already crouching in front of the wedges; lens aimed with laser precision straight at Barks’ face. I’m wondering if the shot will also capture that “dead eye” contact lens she has in her right eye… yeah... I’m sure it will.
Several songs later and I’m still waiting for the lighting rig to go up in flames, as Barks’ supernaturally dark aura seems to suck the light right out of the air. Fuelled by rage and anger, she spits out her venomous lyrics with such a terrifying degree of passion and hatred, it makes you want to duck behind something solid. Then suddenly, she drops into a gentle and soothing voice that beckons you to come closer again.
One minute it’s, “Get out of my f***ing face before I bust a cap in your ass!”, and the next it’s, “Oh please come back, did I scare you?” It’s a fascinating thing to witness and the crowd is totally mesmerised, if slightly petrified.
Five songs to go and as far as we know, we’re all still alive. However, as the band launches into “Back Off”, what appears to be a body wrapped in bin bags is thrown into the raging pit. Whoever is in the bags is lucky they’re already dead, because the crowd immediately goes into a feeding frenzy,
stamping on the “body” and ripping the bags apart like a bunch of crazed psychos!
At no point during a Mimi Barks gig do you ever really feel safe, especially when she steps over the monitors and into the crowd… which she just has. The song is “Wormgirl” and we’re all thinking, “Oh oh, someone’s in for it now!” Turns out the entire pit is “in for it now” as it’s time for the old “crouch down and jump up” routine. I’m immediately reminded of happier times when my back, knees and ankles used to work, so I slowly edge behind a convenient pillar to avoid that dead-eye stare.
Okay, we’d better wrap this up before the police arrive, and what better way to do so than with the incredible “Big Ass Chains”? If you fancy checking out the lyrics, I suggest you first put the kids outside and change the locks. Midway through the song, Barks, who is already injured and wearing a brace on her left knee, beckons the crowd to come right up to the edge of the stage. They do, so she turns around to face the drum kit, pauses for a split-second, and then falls backwards off the stage into the pit.
It’s a gutsy move, and one that I’ve personally seen go horribly wrong for other artists on a number of occasions. Thankfully, our pit crew are well up to the task and she delivers the last part of the song whilst crowd-surfing on her back, and not from a hospital bed.
So, if your budget really won’t stretch to a bulletproof vest and twenty 8-balls, why not just cancel that weekend in Detroit and buy a ticket for the next Mimi Barks show instead? It’s definitely the safer
option… well… probably!
Unfortunately, hours after the Plymouth show Mimi posted this on social media
We here at the Pit wish her a healthy and speedy recovery and hope to see her back on a stage in the future.
Opening for Mimi Barks would be a daunting task for anyone, but thankfully we’ve found a band that’s infinitely capable of doing just that.
Kite Thief are a female-fronted, five-piece pop-metal and alt-rock band who I’ve seen several times over the last few years, most recently in their home town of Bristol in late 2025.
Even then, I already knew they were something special, but what I’m seeing right here, right now, is blowing my mind on a completely different level. This band really has come on in huge leaps and bounds and has already received air time on national radio and played a bunch of festivals, including most recently, Till Fest in Leipzig, Germany in 2026.
Opening with their latest single “Choke”, we immediately get to see just how much power the drums of Zac Lever and bass of Henry Stone can generate, and it’s truly visceral!
Stone cuts a great look with a mass of long coiled dreads piled on the back of his head, and black kendo-style hakama bottoms.
Blessed with a gently knowing smile that never leaves his face, he gives the impression of having discovered the secret to perfect inner serenity. Throw in that beast of a fan-fretted five-string bass he has hanging around his neck, and you have the perfect cool image for any occasion.
Kite Thief’s guitar cover comes courtesy of Max Harris and Josh Bailey, who look so alike it’s hard to believe they’re not brothers. With fifteen strings and two beards between them, the pair create a great sound that has tremendous depth and constitutes the meat and bones of every song the band plays.
They both come across as fairly unassuming blokes, but my god, they know how to play! There’s no showboating, wide stances or flash-bang “widdly-diddly” stuff going on here, as that would totally clash with the band’s overall style. Instead, the Ego Fairy is having a night off and probably getting completely wrecked at the bar even as we speak.
Vocalist Elin Allan is a real gem with multiple sparkling facets. She has metal in her veins, yet when she’s not two-stepping, headbanging and blasting out the harsh screams, her vocal tone and mannerisms can take on a beautifully coquettish air. With a fantastic repertoire of facial expressions, dance moves and poses, she knows exactly how to keep the crowd totally transfixed.
The band’s 2025 song “Bite” starts with a synth intro on track and provides Allan with the perfect chance to show off her pop diva voice and hip gyrations, before flashing her eyes and diving into a vocal passage that starts as a rap, progresses through a bit of fry screaming, and ends in a full blooded false chord metal growl. Err… versatile much?
As we’ve all been good boys and girls, we’re treated to two currently unreleased songs, “Grateful” and “Control”. Both are satisfyingly heavy with a really solid groove, making them eminently danceable, moshable and even two-step-able. If these two songs are anything to go by, the next Kite Thief EP is
going to be superb so watch this space.
To wrap up this stunning set, Kite Thief play us out with two songs from their 2023 EP Ambiviolent, namely, “Judge Judy & Executioner” and “The Tide”.
Both are highly energetic songs that see the whole band rocking out big-time. By now, the temperature on stage is somewhere north of a hundred degrees, while in the pit, the moshers are paddling around in a sea of sweat. Just in case anyone isn’t
quite hot enough though, Bailey grabs his sacrificial six-string and leaps into the pit to lead the crowd in a “Jump! Jump! Jump!” moment, as the rest of the band bounces up and down on stage.
It’s almost impossible to stick a label on this band. They really do straddle the line that runs through metal, pop, alt-rock and probably a few other genres that only appeared this week. Whatever your taste though, if you like a good heavy groove, intelligent material and a brilliant show by terrific musicians, you need to get yourself down to the next Kite Thief gig.
