In den Sümpfen Alabamas existiert etwas beunruhigend Lautes. Der Punk Blues.
Aus dem Mississippi Delta kommen die Immortal Lee County Killers zum ersten Mal
nach Europa, und machen dabei Station in der ARGEkultur.
Die härteste und schnellste zwei Mann Band des Südens lässt Jon
Spencer und Jack White (White Stripes) richtig alt aussehen.
Gitarrist und Band Leader Chet „the Cheetah“ Weise jagt seine Gitarre
durch drei Verstärker und schleudert dabei seine Texte in Saal, während
Drummer Mr. JRR Tokien (aka Tokien One) immer schneller und schneller sein Instrument
verprügelt.
Inspiriert von John Lee Hooker bringen sie den Blues auf ein neues Level, unbändig,
voller Energie – ein Konzert wie ein Hurrikan.
An Interview („The New York Press“, by Jennifer Maerz):
Jennifer Maerz
The first time I saw the Killers play live was at the Vegas Shakedown.
That was a pretty amazing show – it was over 110 degrees in that little club
and everyone was hot and tired and you guys took over the whole event in just
one set.
Chet Weise
Well, I guess first I've gotta tell you that the Tokien One is the new drummer for the Killers.
Jennifer Maerz
So you're no longer with the Boss …
Tokien One
Oh, I'm the boss, baby.
Chet Weise
He's the new boss. That was Doug [„the Boss“ Sherrard] who played the Shakedown and that was his last show. The Tokien One has played four shows with the Killers, but we played together in the Quadrajets for years. But yeah, the Shakedown was fun. I was disappointed that some bands canceled and quite a few folks that I know didn't come to the show 'cause of the terrorist stuff. It was understandable but disappointing too.
Tokien One
Lots of bands are canceling tours and stuff and that just don't need to happen. People need to step up to the plate. It's entertainment and our job as professional entertainers is to go out there night in and night out and make people forget about their shitty little lives. If we can make them forget about their shitty little lives for, you know, 10 minutes, then we've done our job.
Jennifer Maerz
Chet, watching you play is crazy because you get totally possessed by the music. When I saw you in Vegas you were like an electrified sweatrag with a guitar.
Chet Weise
Playing is kind of my therapy. I don't think I'd be alive today if it wasn't for playing music. I don't lose my shit offstage very much because I lose it onstage. [Laughs]
Jennifer Maerz
Before you started playing music you were losing your shit a lot?
Chet Weise
can't remember when I wasn't playing music. Growing up in Memphis helped me out a lot 'cause I used to go downtown and see the blues performers and they used to let me?when I was 14 or 15 years old?come into the blues bars and serve me liquor and I'd watch, like, Albert King and that left quite an impression on me. And if there's any record that really got me going it was probably a record by John Lee Hooker called Lonesome Mood. They've repackaged John Lee Hooker so much that now I think the record's called If You Miss 'Im, I Got 'Im.
Jennifer Maerz
How'd you start going down to the blues bars in the first place?
Chet Weise
Good question. I guess I was trying to find something different to do. I actually grew up in a suburb called Germantown?pretty typical upper-middle-class boring stuff. So going down to Beale St. and seeing all those street parties and music was quite exciting.
Jennifer Maerz
What do you think about all these current bands mixing punk and the blues, bands like the White Stripes and the King Brothers and in some ways Delta 72?
Chet Weise
We're the only band that matters! The other bands are just jumping on the Killers' bandwagon. We emit electricity and entertainment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, seven days a week, and that's including leap year too. We're king shit of fuck mountain. Why would anybody want to fuck with us?
Jennifer Maerz
I like that attitude. You've only played with the band a couple times and already you're the best.
Tokien One
It's real simple for El Cheetah and El Tokien to pull this off 'cause all those other bands that you mentioned, they're not from the South. They don't have any idea.
Chet Weise
Delta 72 has more of the Philadelphia soul kind of sound and the White Stripes, I really like their records too, but they're a lot different from what we do. It's more country-blues-oriented and a little louder, messier, dirtier. The White Stripes are kinda like Motown and we're kinda like Stax. I think the punk blues that's going on now is going full circle, where the music's ended up back where it started and it's stripped down?like the White Stripes are a two-piece, the Soledad Brothers are a two-piece, we're a two-piece.
Tokien One
We're the best two-piece, by the way, if I did not say that before. We're the best damn two-piece the world has ever seen.
Jennifer Maerz
Different bands have their different takes on the blues, but what I love about the Killers is that your songs are some of the fastest and craziest.
Chet Weise
I think the speed comes from being in the South and listening to, like, Mississippi Fred McDowell and some of the people from the hill country. They really get things moving as far as their tempos go and that's something that I've been really into.
Tokien One
The Tokien One has come to the conclusion that people, whether they like to admit it or not, like their rock 'n' roll music like they like their sex?they like it fast and they like it hard.
Chet Weise
But just like sex, every once in a while we'll throw in a good gospel ballad just to switch positions [laughs]. The next record that me and the Tokien One are gonna do, it's gonna be pretty rocked out but we are also gonna put in some acoustic stuff, some gospel stuff, an Otis Redding song and maybe a Washington Phillips song. We'll probably slow this next one down for a couple of tunes.
Jennifer Maerz
Now, Tokien One, I know Jerry Lee Lewis has been kind of the patron saint for the Killers. Are you a fan of the man as well?
Tokien One
The Tokien One likes the Killer. We see eye to eye on a lot of things. The other night the Tokien One went down to Beale St. and he looked over and Jerry Lee was just dancing on the ivories and he looked over and said, 'Tokien one, you, too, have great balls of fire!'“
