Khan You Dig It?

King Khan and the Shrines w/ Mark Sultan
930 Club
4/29/09

Once again Sacklunch writes a very belated review of a show, what a surprise...

Anyway, we all ventured out to check out King Khan for a late performance at the 930 Club. I had heard from a friend, let's call him Donald Malice, that we should definitely get there early to check out Mark Sultan (aka BBQ), because, well, he is worth checking out. Good call. I think he usually plays by himself, but tonight it was a three-way, but instead of lube and condoms, it was a bassist and an extra guitarist. Mr. BBQ plays pretty stripped down garage/blues/lo-fi rock, or whatever you want to call it. I dug the sound. Some tunes were better than others, and I think he suffered a bit by playing in such a large, fairly empty room. Also, I found the extra guitarist to be somewhat superfluous, though he did shred a fair amount on the closing song. Would love to see this dude again in a smaller, more intimate setting. Perhaps the BC Backstage, DC9, or at that imaginary party where I invite all of the friends that I don't really have...In any case, good opener. I also enjoyed the fact that late shows at the 930 Club tend to be sparsely populated, thus giving me plenty of room to wander about like a drifter (or M. Kapiloff).

King Khan came on around 11:30 PM and by then, the room was respectfully about 1/2 full. I had heard some stories that KK shows tend to get a little crazy, so I was anticipating the worst/best. However, Mr. Khan and his Shrines were very well behaved the entire night and busted out some very good, danceable, foot-tapping, head-bobbing garage soul. Here are my notes from the show:

1. There are like 12 people of stage, all of whom were not necessarily blessed in the looks department. Definitely a qualifier for ugliest band currently touring today. That being said, this could open up an interesting topic. What is the ugliest band (both past and present)? Please leave your comments in the, uh, comments....

2. Potsy and I did a fair amount of texting during the show. I have to say that I have become quite adept at text messaging as a mode of communication. Thank you iPhone. Mostly, the texts had to do with doppelgangers:

Chris Kattan on keyboards
John Norris (MTV news) on guitar
2 homeless guys on percussion
Gabe Kaplan on sax
Hitler sans stache on sax
Etc....

3. I thought the show was good, but became a little one-note/derivative over time. However, I kept expecting someone to pull a Jame Gumb, so that kept me on my toes.

4. And finally, Ahmed the blind guy was in attendance. Shocking. I seriously think that guy goes more shows than Donald Malice.

SXSW: Day Three

Jumbo Slice drags his kid out to SXSW

Day Three of SXSW 2009. I skipped the Friday day parties so I was rested and ready for the evening. I started out at my friend Callie's (a.k.a. Show Lush) house. She hosts great backyard shows and for SXSW she was featuring Salvador Duran. It began early so my wife and daughter joined the party. Duran is a Tucson based flamenco guitarist who has toured with bands such as Calexico and Iron and Wine. His music incorporates many styles but much is based on traditional Mexican folk music. He plays guitar while his feet provide percussion via a wooden stomping box. I didn't understand what he was singing about but it didn't matter. It was a mesmerizing performance that amazed all in attendance but perhaps none more than my daughter. She was super squirmy all evening but the moment Salvador started singing with that beautiful voice she was as still as a statue enraptured by his music.

Future of the Left

After a quick dinner at Whole Foods I met a certain Going Out Guru for Future of the Left. As I said in on Twitter, "Future of the Left is fierce, funny, funky, but mostly really pissed off." I saw a lot of good bands at SXSW but Future of the Left was the best. The stage was above the crowd with the bar serving as a moat. The venue normally hosts burlesque shows so it was a odd to see a bunch of angry Scots Welsh guys ripping through songs. By the end of the set I was kicking myself for not seeing them earlier in the day.

Next up was a quick meeting with some friends at another bar. A band called Casiokids was onstage and it was the complete antithesis of the intensity we just experienced. Nonetheless the place was packed with lots of dancing hotties so the band was doing something right. After one beer we were back on 6th Street heading to see Kurt Vile.

Kurt Vile

All I knew about Kurt Vile was that he was a member of The War on Drugs, the Philadelphia band that released the excellent Wagonwheel Blues album last year. At this particular show was the head honcho from Matador Records, one of the labels vying to sign Vile. If having a label executive there bothered him it didn't show. He operated without a set list and his banter to the crowd was pretty bland. However, when he was playing it was clear the kid has something special. Based on what I heard that night, I wouldn't be surprised if five years from now I'm bragging about seeing Kurt Vile perform to a room of less than 20 people, before he hit it big.

Major Stars

Next up was Major Stars from Boston. Wow this is an unattractive band. Good thing they can rock. They played some crazy psychedelic and heavy shit. It was a little jammy, a little sloppy, but overall they put on an entertaining show. Then we skipped over to Emo's for the final bands of the night. I caught a few songs by Crystals Stilts before switching to the other stage to see a band I've wanted to see for some time: King Khan and the Shrines.

"Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me. I'd fuck me hard."

This review is already way too long so I'll keep this brief. King Khan did his best James Brown impression and about halfway through the set one of The Shrines did his best Jame Gum Gumb ("Buffalo Bill") impression. It made me throw up in my mouth a little so I figured I'd share it with all of you. Enjoy.

Tomorrow: Day Four of SXSW and my final recap.