Yes, Tav Falco is back with the current Spanish version of The Panther Burns touring to promote last year's Command Performance LP and his two current books, Ghosts Behind The Sun: Splendor, Enigma & Death and An Iconography Of Chance: 99 Photos Of The Evanescent South.
I arrived just as support act James Leg (AKA John Wesley Myers) from The Black Diamond Heavies and Left Lane Cruiser was starting his set. Although I've reviewed at least one Left Lane Cruiser album I'm in solid guess work territory for the song titles. Anyway he's performing as a duo with a drummer and plays a Fender Rhodes Piano and I guess a Hammond Organ on top of each other and saturated in reverb to create this solid wall of riff-based blues mania as he howls at us about being right on time in a deep southern wail like Jim Jones Revue being fronted by Tom Waits. Which is handy as I've just spotted erstwhile Jim Jones Revue Guitar god Rupert Orton over by the sound desk.
Next up is the barnstorming Drink It Away as we are drowned in the monster riff piano blues like James thinks he is Albert Ammons with amplifiers and 5 pints of whiskey driving home his need for more whiskey to sooth his soul. Obviously this massive drunk is just warming up as he starts howling about how He Got Drunk There as the barrelhouse piano and organ just keeps attacking out brains.
Inevitably for someone with this sort of massive drink problem he is soon Fighting With Her: a sort of bruising booze and riff-drenched bar room brawl of a song that leads into him pleading For Her Love which considering the treatment she is likely to get is a tall order. From my point of view, meanwhile, this full pelt pummelling is starting to get a touch repetitive.
Well he's had another argument and is pleading and howling and yelling at her to Go the hell away from him and all his alcohol-fuelled angst comes on he needs to get the Dirty Spliff Blues he used to have (what, last year?) with Left Lane Cruiser. At least that way he'll not be suffering from having Got No Shoes which is up next to fry our minds with another monster riff.
He closes the set with Meet Me Tonight: another blues-y riff monster that helps to make it seem like as a solo act he is a bit of a one trick pony but damn it's a pretty fine trick he has. Whatever, he's well worth seeing just for the power and intensity of the performance.
In between the acts they had a certain Mr Boz Boorer on the wheels of steel playing classic rock & roll and he also doubled up on some roadie duties.
The Panther Burns came on and opened up with an nice long version of Green Onions, which was laid back and driven by the keyboards and guitar. Tav Falco waited in the wings and they made sure everything sounded right which, as they were all playing the right vintage instruments and using the right customized amps, wasn't too difficult.
Tav then sashayed across the stage in a very snazzy suit and strapped on his trusty guitar and launched into Funnel Of Love, the old Wanda Jackson classic and we knew we were deep into the real roots of Rock & Roll. The sleazy essence of the song was there in the tempo and the lyrics and of course in Tav's hand movements so you knew exactly which funnel he means. It is of course way better and sleazier than Cyndi Lauper's version.
Next up was a nice laid back version of Break Away; the old Irma Thomas classic in case you thought Tav was channelling George Ezra for some reason. We then got the first history lesson of the evening with About Marie Luveau, the Memphis Voodoo queen. It was swampy and sinful as Tav delved into the fleshpots and the exploits of Marie Luveau.
The band then took a trip Down In San Antone that as ever was played seemingly just off key; ever so slightly behind the beat or just out of tune but of course as ever always perfectly in the Key and Tune of Tav Falco.
Then my notes become even more of a scrawl than normal so I'll just say the next two songs, like the rest of the set, sounded spot on and marked the difference between the current Panther Burns and the 1980's versions I first saw that were anything but tight like these guys, Then again, back in the day they were drinking cough medicine by the bottle and rolling around the stage by this point in the set instead of knocking out pin sharp rhythms with no note out of place.
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Garden Of The Medicis sounded great; all cool French inflections as the story in the song unfolds and the piano player seems to play while sitting stock still trying to see through his shades. I think Tav then made his first advert for the Command Performance album before he sang He'll Have To Go. This rumbled through the Lexington like a slow train coming round the bend.
Me and My Chauffeur Blues also from Command Performance was next to get this swinging, sultry Rock & Roll treatment after being dedicated to Memphis Minnie of course. Then Tav gave a shout out to anyone who has ended up behind bars before he slowed down Johnny Cash's San Quentin Blues to a good rumble of a song to remember why you don't wanna go to jail.
We were back in France for the Ballad Of The Rue De La Lune which had just a slight tango edge as they glided through it. We then took a couple of trips to Asia with differing levels of accuracy. First up was Lady From Shanghai: a classic tale of the old days of Jazz clubs and speaks in that old port, before Alex Chilton's as ever brilliant and wonderfully inaccurate Bangkok: a song Tav has been playing since the days when Alex was a member of the Panther Burns himself.
Paris is still very much in Tav's heart. They run through Mona Lisa as if they are all waltzing together and as most of the audience are dancing by this point it seems about perfect. Tav then dedicates Lotus Blossom to all the opium lovers and it is a delicious dark tune to make me want to smoke a pipe of opium.
They upped the pace on Jungle Fever that had plenty of shimmy and shake to it in true Charlie Feathers style before Tav started to sing about the Master Of Chaos and all the tricks he has up his sleeve, which when you sound as slick as this, is plenty.
Tav gave us a long rambling spoken word intro into what I think was Memphis Ramble and it was a good tour around the town he called home for 17 years and also a good chance to plug the books although I was expecting Tav to ask us all if any of us knew Campbell Kensinger as that is a recurring theme in Ghosts Behind The Sun. Still they left the stage to huge applause, regardless.
They soon came back for an encore which opened with an Instrumental to allow Tav to dance across the stage before they took it back to My Mind's Messed Around that sounded pretty damn perfect. The Man In Black kept us all dancing along nicely and then they closed with a deeply political song about the state of the world today courtesy of the quite remarkable Whistleblower. It could almost be subtitled the Ed Snowden blues and although Ed isn't mentioned in the lyrics he is one of the song's inspirations. It was a great way to end another great Panther Burns show. Even if they had run late enough that Rupert had to cut the microphone before Tav could thank us properly and Boz couldn't play any more records but that's late night London for you.
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