King Khan

How do you describe psychedelic funk? I think you have to be witness to King Khan and the Shrines' stage act to gain a full understanding but let me open the door a crack for you...

Sun Ra and his 8 person entourage prepared to dominate the Middle East just shy of midnight last week. This Canadian bred (although you wouldn't speculate from his appearance or the lack of "ay"s in his speech) vocalist and comic set the precedence for the sold-out show with his pimp cane, black nylon cape and bejeweled headpiece as he molested the mic with the commencement of the opening number. He was accompanied by a pair of young probable Berklee-descendant trumpists who could harldy contain their amusement, a spellbound organist in competition for most perspiring grunge rocker who raised and manipulated his instrument for all to hail, a black guy dawning a pirate hat and a silly grin plastered to his face tucked in the corner of the stage, a long silver haired (accented with a purplish hue) drummer straight out of One Flew Over the Coo Coo's Nest who held post sans expression, a guitarist who resembled a spooky owl (I wonder if his occipital lobe is proportionate in size to his eye sockets), an Asian trophy cheerleader adorned with sequence and pom-poms, master of the "ooh-ahh" faces a mother makes whilst coaxing her baby to smile, and lastly, a lean fella wearing an over-sized costume chicken head ready to rumble with Sun Ra (or whomever he may trip over due to the displaced eye cut-outs).

As Marc Stuart commented, the product of this ensemble was analogous to a soundtrack for a 70's car chase movie (Smokey and the Bandit perhaps). Sun Ra hypnotized the audience with any given song: the interactive throng of listeners were forking over dollar bills to be burned on stage while reciting "here's to welfare", answering a gospel call with "ya, ya yas" and chanting "ass ass titties titties" in unison with their leader. Meanwhile, members of the band dove off stage, showered nearby heads with beer, sang through Freddie Cougar-esk masks and threw down with the hybrid chicken-man. Sun Ra concludes one of the chicken fights with, "You're a f'n chicken..I'm a human being" with the inflection and deliverance not unlike Mitch Hedberg (sure to get a smirk out of anyone). As Thursday's early morning hours crept up on us, Sun Ra held stage in his undies; time to depart.

Sweat hung in the air. Bodies rocked in sync. Raw, exuberant, distasteful, offensive...and highly recommended.