The Panther Burns, Headwinds at the Bunkhouse, Tuesday May 14, 2019

It had been four years since the last appearance of the unapproachable Panther Burns in Las Vegas and it was well past time for another plantation-fryin' celebration of the mighty Memphis master of cool!

A last minute cancellation opened the doors for local combo Headwinds to start the evening. Featuring local musician-about-town Cromm Fallon (this young man is in and/or fronts too many bands to mention) on bass, this three piece is a lo-fi / emo / shoe-gaze /noise-punk group with distorted guitar, simple poundin' drums, and some nice bass runs. For me, the songs were a bit too rudimentary and without enough hooks to grab me and other than Cromm, there was no real style or presentation. Maybe they just weren't the right band for this show and would fit in better on a different bill. Or maybe I'm just too old!

One thing that the Panther Burns have in spades, though, is style and right from the start, Tav's three piece backing band laid down a stylish groove with a cover of "Apache" while Falco watched from the wings. An excellent rhythm section (with bassist Giuseppe playing a violin-shaped Hofner to go with Tav's trademark guitar) locked in behind some perfect guitar tones'n'licks from Mario and led into "Smokestack Lightning" for Falco's approach to the stage. Tav picked up his guitar (a replacement Hofner, as he was robbed as the tour was about to start) and joined in with some searin' licks and a fine beatnik/poetic monologue. This melded into "Oh, How She Dances", the side-show barker spiel from the record intact and a fantastic swing from drummer Riccardo. The set had quite a bit of variety, with a number of tunes from their latest record, Cabaret of Daggers, as well as plenty from his huge catalog. Voodoo tunes like "Is It True What They Say About Marie Laveau" mixed with old school, romantic dance croons and poppy, comparatively fairly straight-forward rock songs. Loved the dynamics of "Give Me Old Fashioned Morphine" (somewhat based on "Old Fashioned Religion"), the cover of Memphis Minnie's "Me and My Chauffeur Blues" was spot on, Alex Chilton's "Bangkok" was a nice homage to the co-founder of the Burns and Charlie Feathers' Jungle Fever" built into a fun instrumental with a funky bass solo. Another instrumental ("Sleepwalk", if I remember correctly) allowed Tav to stroll through the club (embarrassingly mostly empty - Vegas really has no respect for living legends) and he came back for the closing tour de force, an anti-Trump rant about the "New World Order".

Throughout the set Tav never failed to entertain, whether he was emoting the lyrics of a song, or splicing some vicious, off-kilter guitar, or combing his hair (a performance in itself), or showing off his fabulous dance moves. The band was one of the best I've seen him with (although that's difficult to say, as he has had some amazing players over the years), and they grooved appropriately with him throughout the night, following his lead and giving him the perfect backing. This combo is nowhere near as clamorous as some that he has had, but they can perform many different styles, which is excellent for the man's set these days - a combination of rockabilly, country, soul, blues, cabaret and old-fashioned rock'n'roll.

Las Vegas has been lucky enough to get some truly superior shows coming through our humble town this year (probably one of the better years for touring acts since we moved out here) but the locals had better start showing up for these amazing performances or even more groups will skip our city on their tours. That said, it was great to see the local rock'n'rollers who did come out for this event and especially our old friend Carmen who came all the way from LA for a dose of the Burns! In any case, thank you to the Bunkhouse for this mind-altering night!