King Khan & the Shrines / Gentleman Jesse & his Men / LiveFastDie at the Bell House

18th October 2010

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King Khan & the Shrines / Gentleman Jesse & his Men / LiveFastDie at the Bell House

LiveFastDie gettin’ all Ramones on yo’ ass.

Lost a guitar strap, but kept it goin’ like a pro. You should’ve seen the band teamwork utilized to get the strap back on. Brought a tear to my eye.

Not sure what the deal with the party shirt/Jersey beanie/mustache/sunglasses combo is about, but … I guess I’m fer it?

I arrived at the Bell House late, I’m sure well into the first set, but still managed to catch LiveFastDie blast out about a dozen songs. My first thought upon seeing the group of Jay Reatard-lookin’ dudes One-Two-Three-Four!’ing through cut after cut of Ramones tunes was that there wasn’t much going on here. But I realized after every song ended with about a minute and a half of faux-facemelting guitar noodles that there really was some second-order aesthetics going on. The group was making fun of guitar acrobatics, making fun of rock music in general, and the result was some abrasive Voidoidsian noise that was honestly pretty funny. Solid.

Gentleman Jesse and ~~the Attractions~~ his Men.

Goof-a-loof.

Gentleman Jesse and his Men pulled together janglin’ guitars; treble-y organ sound; tight, pounding drums; and sweet gang vocals to create a catchy set of pop songs that sort of ran backwards through time. By the end of their set, they were playing roots rock, but when it began, Jesse was clearly Elvis Costello-ing around the stage. The five-piece was tight as all hell, with, as far as I could tell, not a single stumble. Definitely one to watch out for, and as Jesse mentioned a couple times, the Atlanta crew will be coming back to the city for CMJ this week, so if you’re doing that thing, you might wanna check them out.

Lead guitarist Till Tim gettin’ ready to introduce the King.

A new dancer and a sweet-ass hat.

The ballin’est horn section in all the nations.

After much free-jazz noise-fanfare from the powerful horn, guitar, percussion, and synth combo that is the Shrines, King Khan took the stage wearing a five-feathered fedora and began to knock out some heavily rockin’ soul music. It sounded gnarly and everything, but the crowd was still a little subdued. You might have thought something was wrong, but the truth is you just don’t dance ‘til Khan tells you. And when he does, you fuckin’ get down. As the second number started, Khan ordered the crowd eruption, and from that point forward, things only got increasingly insane. The horn section was tight as is possible, and the whole band were nailing the falsetto pieces hard. The whole band was truly in top condition, and when they blasted through songs like “Land of the Freaks” at maddening speeds, it served only to knock home the fact that this band is unparalleled in funk and garage sound. Khan closed out the lowdown and dirty performance of a new song, “Bite My Tongue,” by shouting out “I’m the son of a bad muthafucka,” and he proved it time and time again. Near the end of the set, Khan delivered more orders to the crowd. “Everybody freak the fuck out!” he screamed, and everybody did. By the time the encore came around, Khan relinquished his control of the crowd, and they took to the stage. It was absolute chaos, with more than 25 people on stage dancing, picking up members of the horn section on their shoulders, and generally being insane. Looking into the often expressionless face of King Khan, it wouldn’t be obvious that the guy has the ability to command a crowd to do whatever he pleases, but after witnessing his skill in taking them from a fairly subdued audience to a riotous gang of psychopaths was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a long while.

Thanks to Liisa for taking all these photos, and hit the jump for some more. Check out her blog: Solving World Peace.