King Tuff frontman, Kyle Thomas, was rolling some crazy eyes under his ‘Vermont’ black cap covering his long hair, while delivering a solid set of rock songs with his band of three guitarists and a drummer, making everyone dancing and moving at the Satellite on Sunday night.
There were a few kicks in the air, some jumping, some straightforward rocking-uplifting rhythms and of course a lot of head banging, even some back rolling in the crowd. The music was reminiscent of some 70s rock, without the glam and with a touch of irony and especially a lot of fun.
There was a complete enjoyable rawness in this garage power-rock, and the four guitars/bass were the real deal, playful and pleasant, answering to each other to produce this exhilarating sound. I could be wrong, but I think I recognized one of the guys from this Fullerton surf-pop band, Audacity, playing one of these guitars.
I did not know anything about King Tuff, as it is the case for many others I get to see, but Kyle Thomas also happens to be in the heavy metal revivalist band Witch (which also features Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Macis), the freakish-folk band Feathers, and Happy Birthday,… man, this guy must be busy!
Thomas was literally wearing one of his songs, ‘Sun Medallion’, a sort of psychedelic power tune, around his neck, and all the explosive tunes had some catchy hooks at one point or another. One song had even a Strokes-like atmosphere but King tuff was never working in any nostalgia business, the music was fresh like a primal urge that makes you fall in love with rock' n' roll all over again.