Photos: The King Khan & BBQ Show at the Teragram Ballroom

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The King Khan & BBQ Show (Photo by Noes From Vivace)

The King Khan & BBQ Show arrived at a sold-out Teragram Ballroom on Saturday night to feed appetites for the outlandish. And despite the seemingly abrupt end to the 75-minute show, everyone went home satiated.

The two-piece (Arish Khan and Mark Sultan) kept the set-up simple. A backdrop that was hung from a curtain rod. BBQ’s bass drum had a ripped front. Two bricks kept the drums from sliding. As for fashion, King Khan’s wardrobe was an amusing mixture of ’70s disco, wild frontier, medieval dungeon master (or kinky sex dungeon) and tribal. A few shakes of his ass emphasized the importance of ’70s disco. BBQ kept his fashion to just a simple mix of ’70s disco and a more definite leaning towards kinky sex dungeon style with a shirt showing some nipple action.

The band showed their irreverent humor from the start, by dedicating their first song to Chuck Berry’s anus. Their psychedelic-infused song “Illuminations” was a song for everyone in the audience that was on medication. The slowed-down ballad “Why Don’t You Lie?” was a shout out to all the witches. Interspersed with their irreverent humor were occasional touches of political and social commentary with the band stating, “We’re from Canada. We don’t believe in your bullshit,” while at another time asking the audience to “put your phones up your ass and dance.”

With the whiff of marijuana spread throughout the venue, the band gave in to the temptation just prior to their “I don’t give a fuck” lyrics of “Zombies.” Noticing someone at the front with a joint, King Khan asked for the joint and being a good bandmate shared it with BBQ.

For an encore, King Khan came back out and did a punk rock version of “The Voice.” Four individuals from the audience were allowed to come up and sing while King Khan played guitar. All of them were able to show off their punk vocals for about five seconds before everything fell apart. The first contestant admitted, “I suck. I suck.”

The Night Times opened up the night with a ’50s garage-rock sound that quickly won over the audience. It wasn’t long before the audience was chanting for the drummer, “Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!” She deserved the chants. She was playing those drums so hard that the drum tech had to come out a couple times to reset the mics and bring out a sandbag. One has to give props to the guitarist who found the time to comb his hair mid-set. As for the lead singer, a drinking game needs to be made based on how many times his hat falls off his head during their set — basically, one drink per song. And marijuana was the theme of the night, “Oh fucking shit, I’m stoned. You want to go out and smoke some weed?”

The King Khan & BBQ Show play a sold-out show tonight at the Constellation Room.

Photos and recap by Notes From Vivace