Khandemonium

I try to make a habit of seeing King Khan and Mark Sultan whenever either man makes a trip through town, since either independently or together they always put on a great show. It's only been half a year since they performed as a duo at Babylon. Things have been increasingly fired up at their shows, so when Khan rolled into town with both Sultan and His Sensational Shrines on hand, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that the audience would go bonkers.

The Sunday Sinners kicked things off with a killer set. I've actually seen a few of these folks before: Guitarist Jordan also slings his axe for The Mystery Girls, and I saw him when he performed at Mavericks on a bill with The Weapons of Mass Seduction and BBQ. Ottawans have seen organist Work With Me Annie a couple of times as she once did time in a band called Les Sexareenos (which come to think of it also included BBQ). Unfortunately you can't see Annie in thse shots, since she and her Farfisa are tucked away on the other side of the stage (also out of view, drummer Chantale). What we have here is Jordan, Jenna and Kieran. Jenna has a super voice, and I think anyone who enjoyed The Detroit Cobras would find them irrestible as well.



Next up came Mark Sultan, another guy I've seen plenty of times before, performing with The Spaceshits, with King Khan (also an ex-Spaceshit), in Les Sexareenos and of course as BBQ. For this show he let things get a little crazy, speeding up and slowing down and babbling gibberish between tunes.



King Khan and His Sensational Shrines put on a really hot show. As for the crowd, they were already keyed up, tolerating a lengthy soundcheck and setup, and flipping their collective lid when Khan and The Shrines finally swung into things. Khan took the stage wearing a blue plastic helmet he quickly doffed. While he and his band got their mojo working the audience surged and heaved - and indulged in a little surfing, despite a posted ban upon such behaviour.



Things may have gotten a little too hectic at the end, when one crowd surfer launched himself into the crowd at shoulder level and landed on a particularly diminutive woman near the front row. Dude, you're supposed to try for altitude.

• Show reminder: White Whale Records is celebrating five years with Tusks, The Mohawk Lodge, Octoberman and Poorfolk at Babylon; if I weren't working tonight I'd almost certainly be down at The Dominion watching C'mon and Pride Tiger tonight; Mr. Plow, Doug Hell, Four Stroke, Jon Creeden and Pull The Trigger are performing at Cafe Dekcuf; Sun's Command and Kris and Dave are preforming at Woody's on the Elgin Strip. Michael Munnik and Whale Tooth are at Zaphod's. Our Kingdom, Crash, Violated Rot, Kimaris, Paradigm Divide and Elypsis play Mavericks. Nudie and The Turks hit Irene's. Melwood Cutlery plays The Elmdale House.