On Saturday, a bunch of us went to see King Khan & BBQ Show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. There was a little confusion. The man who is King Khan has two alter egos, one a straight ahead punk rocker (with strains of doo wop) that he does as a two-man band. This is King Khan & BBQ Show.Then there is King Khan and the Shrines which is a full on garage/funk/Bollywood band with horns and the whole bit. We were under the impression (well, I was under the impression) that we were off to see the Shrines but we ended up seeing the BBQ Show. Not that that was all that bad -- but I expected a little more depraved insanity from the King who seemed rather subdued in Brooklyn.
Who is King Khan? He is the baddest ass rock'n'roller in existence on the planet these days. He's an awesome vocalist, a little bit like James Brown crossed with Prince; he's not afraid to wear women's underwear, Bollywood villian costumes, and dracula capes, and he will rock your world. He also has one of the tightest funk bands in existence (the Shrines), with musicians who have played with Tina Turner, Bo Diddley, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder. I hope to see them in concert one day.
King Khan is of Indian origin, raised in Canada, and apparently now lives in Germany. Various tracks from King Khan and the Shrines' recent e.p.'s, singles, and albums have been collected in a U.S. compilation album, The Supreme Genius of King Khan.
See some awesome pictures from his now-legendary performance at the Pitchforkmedia festival in Chicago this past summer here.
And one of my favorite songs by him:
King Khan and the Shrines -- Torture [mp3]
5 comments:
Hey I was in your Space Race class. What did you think of the title of my research paper - "Smoke on Apollo, Fire in the Sky"?
I think that's a pretty good title. I presume it was about the Apollo 1 fire?
Yeah. Gus Grissom meets Deep Purple.
I just bought "The Supreme Genius of King Khan" for one of my friends. It's tradition that every christmas I buy this friend a music CD that's come out within the year and from a musician/band he's never heard of. Well, I thought that wasn't going to happen this year, but after listening to KK I just knew he'd dig it, so thanks...
His live show is pretty crazy and definitely worth it. He's totally unafraid to share the glory of his bodily shortcomings with the audience. Like if Elvis was Chris Farley in underwear.
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