There can be only one

The Immortal Lee County Killers put on a typically amazing show, more than making up for the unfortunate absence of Thee Shams. R.L. Burnside's Going Down South and a Jerry Lee Lewis- Pink Floyd medley came near the end of the show, along with an a cappela version of Leadbelly's Ain't Goin' Down To the Well No More courtesy of J.R. (who also sang a couple of other tunes, including Bob Dylan's Don't Think Twice It's All Right and his own composition about Mick Jagger's moves). Sonic Angel and tunes dedicated to folks like Robert Johnson and cool drivers also featured.

Cheetah sings the blues, Tolku the Drifter drums, and my camera flash eradicates their backdrop projection.



The Rev. John Wesley Meyers ... so that's what he looks like under the hair!



The Drifter preps for his lounge act.



Great jumpin' cats!



Smoking fingers.



Some one-handed drumming from Tennessee's biggest Trailer Park Boys fan.



And that scintillating backdrop.



It doesn't seem so long since their show at Irene's during Bluesfest (also great, of course) ... that's because they're so memorable, I guess.

• Show reminder: Rhume, The John Henrys and The Empiricals help CKCU celebrate its 30th anniversary. The Pop Shove Its return, along with The Double Pumpers and Paperjack at Babylon.

Radio, radio

I had planned to post on The Immortal Lee County Killers' excellent Monday show, but while I have enough photos to round out a post, the fact is there's a bunch of stuff still at the photo lab so you're just going to have to wait. As a teaser, here's a picture of Chetley "Cheetah" Weise in mid-blues-karate-kick jump.



Also at the developers: Hot Glads action, hot Fleshtones action, and even hot girl-on-girl action! And now on to the real business at hand: CKCU's 30th anniversary. The Black Keys, soul-shouter Nathaniel Mayer, local garage crunchers Weapons of Mass Seduction and back porch magi The Golden Famile will perform at Barrymore's in celebration of this momentous event (on Saturday, rock-pop mavericks Rhume, country rockers The John Henrys and sophisticated stars of surf and screen The Empiricals will also celebrate said anniversary). Happy birthday, CKCU!

• Show reminder: Didn't buy a ticket to CKCU's 30th? Fortunately, there are other gigs about town ... I've seen some listings declare that Shalabi Effect and Daiquiri are playing Avant Garde Bar next week(?), but the weight of opinion- including the AvGab's own website - seems to lean toward a Nov. 18 date. That's tonight!

Kill, kill, kill!

The Immortal Lee County Killers are now in incarnation No. 3, with the band now sporting an organist, the Rev. John Wesley Mars (Jeff Goodwin), Chet Weise and Toko the Drifter. Their scrappy electric blues is a tad less feral than I remember from their last show at the Dominion (before I was taking photos ... these guys should visit more often), but it still had a lot of bite. And they also had a lightshow this time, which my flash-abetted pictures totally fail to convey. Oh well. The pictures :

Weise is bathed in the blue glow of the light show.



Toko doesn't need to see his drums to hit them.



The new guy, Jeff Goodwin on organ. Yes, it's had to see what he looks like with all that way ... just imagine Dave Martindale with darker hair and you'll get the idea ... he even has the same mustache!



Toko makes a heartfelt plea for alcohol.



Toko and Weise.



No group photo because of that darn post (I second The Double Pumpers' idea to get an I-beam into Irene's to replace all those @#$! posts!) ... but I do have a rock jump photo!



A great show, and a pretty good turnout for a Sunday night.