King Tuff - Star Theater, Portland OR - June 3, 2018



[Vermont] I think (I will not use the stupid asterisk before and after the word for emphasis, I don’t know why, my obstinance doesn’t even make sense to me sometimes) King Tuff was The Thing at one SXSW … and I never saw them … and yet their recorded material never really made me a fan. Nonetheless, I bought the ticket for this show because I recognized their name … but mostly I ran across something saying they were linked to Hunx & His Punx (a glory of homoerotic (actually, straight homosexual) punk n’ roll whom I have seen a couple times and love recorded or live). So I came in sort of blind, which I guess I like to some extent. The crowd Was In for this band. Singing along to the first really mellow nearly-spoken song. I was just sort of flummoxed by them. It’s a portly guy in a weird suit with a glittery hat, two females who could be twins (one metal, one punk) on guitar and bass, a black drummer, and some person on keyboards. At his second song, I got sort of excited because his voice was so familiar, and I was thinking oh yes he is in Hunx!… but then I realized I recognized his voice because one of his songs made it on my favorites-mix, which is something, of course, in my world :)  Now, I can’t even figure out how the two bands are tied outside of being friends… Ultimately, King Tuff had this classic-rock soul-rock sound—mostly Fleetwood Mac. Maybe garage pop. On the whole, I am not engaged by them. Their case wasn’t helped by the fact that every time the person in front of me threw his head back to sip his beer his mop of happy curly hair hit my face. I just couldn’t relate to these people’s rampant enthusiasm.
Regardless, the lyrics to the King Tuff song I like are excellent:
Everything you do is always the same
You're lost in the woods inside of your brain
Wonder why is love such a foolish game
Yeah, why is love so full of sun and rain?
Sun and rain

But still you wanna go back to the times you had
Down in the swamp of love
Before your troubled heart went mad
Down in the swamp of love…



26 days til deadline.

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