Sweet on Meat

We Love BBQ

Comments (0) By Jamie Laughlin Thursday, Nov 1 2007

BBQ’s fridge is empty. He’s multitasking at home in Montreal: hacking up smoke from a night of partying, talking with us on the phone, and mixing a batch of Kraft macaroni and cheese with all butter, ´cause he’s outta milk. He’s also trying to prioritize an alarmingly lengthy to-do list before leaving tomorrow on a 39-gig tour with his tag-team act of detonation: the King Kahn and BBQ Show. He’s got a lot on his plate. He’s a bit baffled at where to begin. “It looks like somebody dropped a Velveeta bomb on it,” he says, making sense of his gelatinous breakfast. “It’s a level of creaminess that doesn’t exist in the natural world.”

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BBQ, who goes by a barrage of other monikers, the most mortal of which is Mark Sultan, has known his co-conspirator King Kahn since their adolescent days, playing together in the garage-punk, riot-sparking group the Spaceshits. “Our sets would culminate in violence, or food fights, or someone’s mom would get a cream pie in the face,” recalls Sultan. “That’s how young we were. People’s parents would be at the show, and afterwards you would have to explain why your penis was being gnawed on by, ya know, some guys on stage.” Now, as King Kahn and BBQ, they’re both a little older, possibly a bit wiser, and definitely wreaking an unprecedented amount of joyous havoc wherever they travel.

To understand what this band is, you first have to appreciate the splendor of its components. Imagine two men, one tall and dark, wearing a Tina Turner-inspired sequin micro-mini and a fuchsia bob wig; he spins and convulses while shredding through psyched-out, doo-wop-heavy guitar licks and howling like Little Richard during a full moon after freebasing powdered Crystal Light – that’s the King. Behind him lurks a Canadian dressed as a sultan; he’s playing a drum set/tambourine combo with his feet, bass with his hands, and harmonizing – That’s BBQ. Together, they are a rock ´n’ roll revival, a much needed breeze of beer-soaked air, and a potential night in police custody – and they’re playing Churchill’s Pub (5501 NE Second Ave., Miami) at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. “I want everyone to come out and see us and have a fun time and shake their asses and look at us be clowns,” Sultan/BBQ says. “But not like back when you were young and you’d see a clown at the park and at first you’d get excited, but then you get creeped out because you know he’s more than likely bad news.” Tickets cost a meager $8. Sharing the bill are local rock slayers the Jacuzzi Boys, the Brad Leo Administration, the Electric Bunnies, Stay Hitt, and the Remnants. Visit www.newartschool.net.
Fri., Nov. 2, 2007