The King Khan & BBQ Show

• The King Khan & BBQ Show is the most revered band in their scene, and there are many reasons why. It all started in 2003, BBQ visiting King Khan, and jamming out their black magick in his Nazi-bunker rehearsal space. Songs flowed endlessly like blood from a cancerous abcess. They took it easy, honing their craft, playing sporadically to crowds outraged by their incredible sound and nasty live show. Orgiastic, anarchic, hypnotic and personal are the shows to this day. Blow-jobs and blood, pick-ups and puke, dancing and laughing. Two guys. Mark Sultan (BBQ), smashing snare, bass drum and tambourine with his bare feet, molesting his guitar and singing like a possessed angel. He is often cited as having one of the finest voices (think Sam Cooke) and greatest songcraft in the world. The other, King Khan, is nearing legendary status for his advanced nuttiness and unpredictability, as well as top-notch showmanship and musicianship. He spins and howls like a freak while belting it out on his guitar like a masher. What does it all sound like? It sounds like five men. Really. And it is very difficult to peg the sound. It really is a cross-section of amazing bands, places and energies. This is soul. This is punk. This is psychedelic. And who do you think started this whole sock-hop/doo-wop revival? Sultan and Khan. This is the Death Cult. This is ROCK’N’ROLL. The show? A mess. Tear-jerking love songs, punkers, improvised riot-starters, dance-floor shakers, sing-along stompers, wild rockers – you name it. They always drench the crowd in raw energy, and they’re always the last ones dancing and drinking at the bar. They are international antiheroes and rock’n’roll ambassadors of the highest calibre. They’ve toured from Europe to Brazil to Israel to outer space and beyond, because they are two spiritual, intelligent icons on a very specific mission. It is obvious that they are true blood-brothers of the telepathic order. Yin and yang. Complete opposites. Real, real tight. And very capable comics. The two were even asked to co-host their own show in Canada.
  
  King Khan has officially conquered the US with his other band, The Shrines. But it truly was The King Khan & BBQ Show that paved the way, through many tours, much publicity and a league of hardcore fans – from youngsters to oldsters alike, their crowds sing along incessantly and let their freak-flags fly in joyous solidarity when they hit the stage, clamouring like entranced dervishes to be a part of a growing phenomenon. Combining ‘one of the best live shows in the world’, a very unique sound and some of the best songs penned today, The King Khan & BBQ Show has earned the respect of their peers and music fans in general. They are an awesomely surreal site to behold; a stunning music machine, playing incredible original hits that never end. Just ask Jon Spencer or The Black Lips or Bradford Cox – they have all covered songs by Sultan and Khan, as have many others. Apparently, there is even a ‘songs of The King Khan & BBQ Show’ university course offered somewhere in Tokyo. A cartoon pilot of these lovable saps is also in the works. So is a movie appearance. Be ready for the upcoming onslaught. Give into their spell and live forever.