‘Who is Black Pistol Fire?’ People will say to me, when I tell them I’ve just been to one of the greatest rock and roll shows ever. ‘Who is Black Pistol Fire?!’ I’ll say back, because I feel like everyone should know. Everyone should know, but they don’t. And that’s a great shame.
The Toronto-via-Austin twosome is made up of Kevin McKeown – on guitar and vocals – and Eric Owen on drums. The story is that they’ve been friends since kindergarten, and then they grew up to play rock and roll together; how cool is that? I had seen them once before at The Drake Hotel and I had been completely blown away by them then, so I went in to this show at Lee’s Palace knowing what to expect. Or so I thought.
But, as all the best live bands will, they caught me off guard again, and they completely blew my face off. Black Pistol Fire has to be, easily, one of the most energetic, enthusiastic, full throttle rock and roll bands I’ve ever seen. The chemistry between the two is palpable; the improvisation is electric, and the songs are so damn cool.
There’s something about it, something about feeling the energy coming off the stage, feeling the passion; there’s nothing like it. Kevin McKeown never stopped moving – he was stomping, he was throwing flying kicks, he was jumping on top of Eric Owen’s bass drum, and at one point he even came right off the stage and played from the floor. There are two of them! Two! Being able to perform at the level they do musically, and being able to pull off the kind of show that they do – I mean, I don’t know how they do it. It’s awesome.
Hanni El Khatib, who headlined, didn’t put on the show Black Pistol Fire had, but then again, who could follow them? No band I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.
Hanni El Khatib’s last album, ‘Head In The Dirt,’ was produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach; it’s safe to say the San Francisco native has got some push behind him. His song-writing is sharp, he’s a hell of a guitar player, and he’s versatile. He’s not the showman or the performer that Kevin McKeown is, but he didn’t disappoint or anything.
The highlight of the night, from a performance point of view, had to be when Hanni came off the stage and played from the crowd, as McKeown had. The only difference this time was that someone from the crowd came up next to Hanni and stuck a joint in his mouth, and Hanni seemed to get right into that. And then he handed it back to the gracious stranger from the crowd, who, ever so righteously, passed it off to someone else.
How rock and roll could one night get?
Hanni El Khatib’s new album, Moonlight, is set to come out later this year, and I’m looking very much forward to it, and to his return to Toronto.
Oh, and Black Pistol Fire? Could you play here every week?
