Tav Falco's Panther Burns
Tav Falco's Panther Burns
Broadcast, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
With the result that there was barely room to twirl a nipple tassle, the faithful turned out in force to see one of the keepers of the flame of Memphis rock'n'roll strut his stuff.
Where once Panther Burns included fellow citizens Alex Chilton and Jim Dickinson, Falco's current residence in Vienna means a band of French and Italian musicians, but they still all look and sound the part, from a Neil Gaiman-esque bassist to a sleazy chap playing a keyboard the length of a panloaf. That included a bikini-clad drummer whose first task was to shimmy slinkily around the mainman as he introduced the evening as freak show of vaudeville delights.
If it turned out partly that, including a demonstration of the tango dancing skills that Falco teaches to earn a crust in Mittel-Europe these days, in partnership with another female member of his company, it is just as much a rock'n'roll show, with enough of his early stuff to keep the customers well satisfied.
More recent songs attempt to update the formula by riffing on the vicissitudes of Wall Street Traders and the like, and it would be fair to say that none of them stuck in the mind for long beyond their duration, but classics like Mona Lisa were delivered with a style and panache that none of today's young garage-rock pretenders could even approximate.
That goes too for the latest incarnation of Michael Rooney's Primevals, local heroes who have been fellow travellers for almost as long, and whose supporting programme started with 80s set-opener Eternal Hotfire and included vintage favourites Prairie Chain, Saint Jack and Blues at my Door.
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