The King Khan And BBQ Show at Mad Planet
The raucous duo gets out-crazed by its over-served audience
What is a performance by the King Khan And BBQ Show if not an opportunity for free-floating insanity and threats of blacked-out, drunk-ass violence? If that’s the standard for success, then Tuesday’s night show at Mad Planet sailed through the finish line with flying colors. But while the garage-rock duo delivered the naughty, hedonistic anarchy it's known for—the hour-long concert seemed to be on the verge of collapse pretty much from the start—something seemed a little off.
Maybe it was the drugged-out idiot (who can only be described as “an incredibly annoying and more decrepit-looking Mark Borchardt") who kept wanting to come on stage and seemed to be slowly sucking the enthusiasm out of the normally good-natured Khan. Maybe these guys are just ready for this tour to be over already after getting busted by badge-wielding “mustache beasts” in Kentucky last month. Whatever it is, the band’s first Milwaukee show in two years had a slightly sour tinge to it.
This is where the King Khan And BBQ Show’s reputation for spectacle sometimes plays against it—people that come just to show off how royally fucked up they are think they’re as much a part of the show as the flamboyant showmen on stage. They’re not—seriously, you’re not—which was painfully apparent when two lobotomized ladies wandered up from the audience and helped kill the momentum of the syrup-coated R&B stomper “Waddlin’ Around,” one of the band’s best songs. The group ended up restarting the song—Khan killed time while BBQ got his guitar back in order with an apparently improvised song called “I Like To Masturbate”—but you could detect growing weariness from the ridiculously dressed gentlemen at the eye of the storm.
On the upside, even on an off night the King Khan And BBQ Show is never less than a goofy blast. While BBQ kept things anchored behind his sub-primitive drum kit as he alternated between ’50s doo-wop vocal runs and deep-throated, guttural howls, Khan prowled the stage in a lovely gold dress and blonde wig, preaching the always-timely gospel of sex-drenched rock ‘n’ roll. Even as he tossed nasty glances at the crowd that suggested he’d rather hit some audience members in the face with his guitar rather than play for them, he still had the engaging presence of a born star.
If King Khan And BBQ Show appeared to be playing among smoldering embers, perhaps it’s because opening band Those Darlins burned the house down in a show-stealing performance. Promising early on to “bring the pussy” if “you bring the dick” (in the song “Funstix Party"), the pride of Murfreesboro, Tenn., oozed sex appeal and tough-chick scrappiness in equal doses. At end of the hard-charging “Wild One,” baritone ukulele player Nikki Darlin surveyed a so-so reaction from the crowd and testily asked, “Is that all you fucking assholes have in you?” Fortunately, the band quickly won the audience over on its maiden voyage to Milwaukee, rocking out like a cowpunk Runaways on “DUI Or Die” and a great cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Lonesome Cowboy Bill.”
