Having never technically cancelled, just rescheduled a lot, The King Khan & BBQ Show arrive in Scotland, their first stop being Broadcast before moving onto Edinburgh the following night.
The Jackhammers are the support for the Scottish shows and they hit the stage a tad late as their guitarist, and one of Glasgow’s premier rock’n’roll DJs was prepping Taylor Hawkins’s after party in Edinburgh.
The Jackhammers play a solid set of punk rock songs with slick transitions and segues into each strikingly different tune.
Drum kit cleared The King Khan & BBQ Show walk on playing a Poison Ivy Cramps stomp riff.
Khan’s attire is a Courtney Love maternity dress with blonde bob wig and shades, Mark Sultan in a fetish baby jumper, matching artificial blonde barnet and lone ranger mask.
Sitting like a fat obese child smashing Gibson and bass drum Sultan, a bit louder than Khan to begin with, has the beat going and the dual vocals gets everyone to rock’n’roll with them and not against them.
‘Fist Fight’ is the first tune that the crowd are mouthing, followed by the Sultan led 50s type ballad ‘I’ll Be Loving You’ from their 2009 album Invisible Girl.
His voice is forceful making the listener believe they are getting his best, the soul of those 1950s howlers is channelled, at the point in time when rnb came closest to rnr.
Khan solos whilst Sultan dashes off, we’re told he has the runs, but it transpires he was telling someone off for walking back stage.
A Johnny Thunders cover follows, as the audience are encouraged to clap or head butt each other, it makes the same sound supposedly.
‘Along Again’, from this year’s album, is met with a female audience member saying out loud “this is the best thing ever”; they have open dialogue with an audience that has certainly been waiting to see them, potentially since the Spaceshit days.
It highlights the enduring quality of nostalgia in a way, but live the primal set up of performers who are still very much in love with rock’n’roll display the miles that the Chuck Berry riff still holds.
Words: Paul Choi
