Artists: King Khan & BBQ Show, Dum Dum Girls, Downbeat 5
Location: Middle East Downstairs, Cambrdige
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Rating: A +

Downbeat 5 –
Glen: I don’t really know how to describe them. For starters, I was standing right in front of the lead guitarist and he really knew what he was doing. He had some great solos. Definitely, they mixed some components of “southern” rock, country-rock, and garage. The lead singer and rhythm guitarist, she reminded me of Debbie Harry. During their set all I could think of was the song “One Way or Another.” So yeah, just listen to that and you’ll get a pretty good idea.

Chris: Country rockers, I suppose. The lead singer/guitarist was really sexy blonde and rocked out! One of the best guitar strummers I’ve ever seen! It doesn’t seem like I’ll hear them again, but I enjoyed their energetic performance.

Dum Dum Girls –
Glen: Hey guess what! The Dum Dum Girls (which I found out is only the front-woman Dee Dee) played the same lo-fi set as they did the night before in Northampton. So I’m going to say the same thing: They are smarter than they look! Okay, I stole that one from King. They really rocked out with their psychedelic Jefferson Airplane-esque sound. They built their vocal repertoire off of this old sound and it flat out works. My favorite part of their set was when they jammed the chords of “Don’t Talk To Me.” “Just button your lips…DON’T TALK TO ME.” The utterly amazing girly harmonies make me love their version better than G.G’s or No Age’s or whoever’s. Edit: I still like the bass player, but she is sort of motionless. Haha.

Chris: The sexiness continues! Very sexy in their all black wardrobes. Musically, however, for some reason, they didn’t connect with me. Perhaps because I was anticipating one of my favorite bands hitting the stage next. But, like Glen, I dug their cover of GG’s “Don’t Talk to Me,” (which seems to be a popular cover these days) and I liked the new feminine light they brought to the tune, though I prefer the original.

King Khan & BBQ Show:
Glen: Yeah! They came out and like the night before did a little warm-up (as you can see in the video below) before diving right into “Fish Fight.” Then “Hold Me Tight.” But hold on…the crowd was actually freaking out. Moshing, dancing, and screaming abound, the atmosphere was altogether different from what I experienced at the Iron Horse. This was some serious concert. People knew that greatness was on the stage. Then what? No technical difficulties! Hell no. None of that shit. Mark and King practiced for twenty minutes earlier that evening (even though the tour manager said “hours”…I’ll take BBQ’s word for it) to make sure shit wouldn’t happen. So yeah. “Invisible Girl,” “Tastebuds,” and “I’ll Be Loving You” off of Invisible Girl. “Treat Me Like A Dog,” “I’ll Never Belong,” “Zombies,” “Dock It #8,” “Too Much In Love,” “Into The Snow,” and the encore “Why Don’t You Lie” off of What’s For Dinner? “Waddlin’ Around,” “Love You So,” “Pig Pig,” “Mind Body and Soul,” “Shake Real Low,” as well as the previous two mentioned at the beginning were the tunes played off of their LP.

Chris: Fuck yeah! As seen below, they opened with a long, but worthwhile instrumental, while King did the duck walk a la rock and roller Chuck Berry. Following the instrumental, they blasted into two fiery rockers with “Fish Fight” and “Zombies” (not HMT lol). Then they slid into the soft, sensual “Into the Snow,” this was somewhat awkward considering the fast paced first two numbers and then this sensitive, love song. Glen already listed off the other classics they amazignly performed for the remainder of the evening. I was highly pleased that they played my favorite, “Too Much in Love.” “Shake Real Low” was a wise closer and everyone abided by the title, espeically some real fine hunnies on stage! Overall, a good mix up of soulful, doo woppy ballads, fast, moshing, punk rockers, and in between. So, this enters the echelon of amazing concerts, ranking number four in my all time favorites. Though, I will note, I prefer KKBS over Jay Reatard, who headlined my third favorite show, but that concert was better overall. In other words, KKBS is my third favorite live band, after the Black Lips and King’s other band, the Shrines. I mean, you know if you see a concert where an entire room of adults are screaming, “tastebuds on your cunt, so you can lick my booty from the front!” it has to be special.

Chris and Glen