Last Night: King Khan (Shrines) vs. King Khan (Almighty Defenders)

Last night, Khan opened the show at Great American Music Hall with his duo The King Khan & BBQ Show, then headlined again as part of the Almighty Defenders a band that blends the two-piece with the Black Lips--as a man who looked curiously like the Bimbo's "brother" stood politely in line for beers at the bar dressed like every other dude at the show. 

There were many other differences between the Shrines and the Almighty performances. We judge one Khan act against the other below. 

Defenders: The Almighty Defenders gig had two opening acts. The first, King Khan & BBQ Show, had Khan and BBQ (Mark Sultan) playing guitars and singing raw '50s-style ballads. BBQ also played the drums. Their set was cut slightly short when BBQ decided the sound wasn't right or some crap and stormed off stage in a huff.

Next up was the Black Lips, one of the best garage rock acts on the circuit, a fact proved again last night. How good are they? As the band told us from the stage, so good they're being "sent to Iraq." To tour. So the good people of that country can watch Cole Alexander swallow his own loogies. And so they can see how riled up the Lips can get the crowd when the band launches into "Bad Kids," the biggest crowd pleaser in a show full of 'em (bad kids and crowd pleasers, that is). 

Shrines: One of the Shrines' saxophonists stripped from the waist down and gave himself a "mangina" on stage when the band launched into "I Wanna Be a Girl." He displayed his tucking ability while lying in repose, until two scowling bouncers hurriedly escorted him offstage.  Khan appeared for the encore stripped down to nut-hugging panties decorated with a big gold triangle.

Defenders: None. The musicians remained fully clothed. The Almighty Defenders arrived on stage in flowing white religious robes with purple lining and crosses sewn over their hearts. [Update: It's clear from the comments below that this "dude" missed plenty of naked man parts, urination, a near concussion, and other displays of Garage Groups Gone Wild. Lesson learned: it ain't over til the big dude farts into the microphone.]

Shrines: The Bimbo's show was wild. People were crowd surfing often--to which Khan implored them to "stop acting all grunge. I want you to be out there finger banging each other instead"--and dancing up a storm. The frenzied rock 'n' soul music (and amount of booze being consumed) unleashed some devils inside. The bathroom attendant sat in the back of the ladies' lounge by the end of the night, throwing her feet up on a stool and bitching to a friend that the Khan crowd was the "worst, sloppiest, most terribly-behaved crowd I've seen in a long time."

Defenders: None. Of course, there's no attendant at Great American. But generally the crowd last night seemed subdued. Only the first couple rows of fans were even dancing much throughout the night. Although during the Black Lips set, a guy and girl jumped on stage and danced with Alexander. It was hard to tell if they were buddies of the band or if they were pulling a White House party crasher move.