Where have all the cool kids gone?

Here's a bit of a bizarre sequel to that Kajagoogoo post of last week.

Back when I was more of a regular contributor to the ILX Music boards, I used to frequently spar with estimable rock writer Chuck Eddy (he of "Stairway to Hell" fame) over the dubious merits of Maryland proto-hair metal band Kix. Chuck considered them unsung pioneers (or something). I didn't necessarily have anything against them, but I still failed to see why he rated them so highly. I actually saw Kix play in 1988 or so, opening for the fleetingly reunited Dead Boys at one of their annual Christmas shows at The Ritz. Again, they were fine, but nothing to write home about. Allmusic.com contends that Bret Michaels of those upstarts in Poison shamelessly ripped off all his stage moves from Kix frontman Steve Whiteman. Even if that's true, is that really something to champion?

In any case, why am I discussing all this now? Well, it turns out the indefatigable Kix are still touring today (albeit after a breakup, some attrition and the inevitable spate of reunions), and I had to write up a little blurb about their upcoming show at B.B. King's Blues Bar on 42nd street in July for The New Yorker. In doing so, I unearthed the video from 1983 below. Much like the video I cited last week by the strenuously lamentable Kajagoogoo, the clip for "Cool Kids" by Kix is notable not for its musical merits (if there are any), but rather for the fact that it seems to have been shot entirely in SoHo.

In the opening segment, the band is depicted inexplicably holding court in the parking lot on the eastern side of Wooster Street (you can see Rene's "I Am The Best Artist" mural on the wall behind them). Later,the Kix boys and a gaggle of excitable acolytes are seen cavorting about West Broadway.

While never really a hotbed of hair-metal or hard rock in any era of recent memory, SoHo today is, of course, just a big outdoor shopping mall. The afore-cited mural that graced the wall of that parking lot was permanently painted over a few years back. These streets that Kix and Kajagogoo once respectively strutted around are still vaguely recognizable, but I wouldn't hold my breath expecting either ensemble to reprise their cameos on same any time soon. The cool kids, it seems, have fled the neighborhood.