Torture King Delights Crowd With Freak Show Entertainment
Last Thursday, I caught something you normally can’t see in an Inland Northwest nightclub: a freak show.
On loan from the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, the Torture King dropped by the Northern Corner last Thursday to guzzle down a couple of swords, chomp on a few lightbulbs and ram spikes into his face.
After he took the stage, it didn’t take us long to figure out how he got his name.
With pleasure, he mutilated his body. And the crowd, except for those who dashed to the restroom, absolutely loved it.
Watching the Torture King punish his insides and outside was an experience as grotesque as it was unbelievable.
The Torture King, assisted by a pirate-ship refugee and boisterous emcee in a bad suit, made people with extensive body piercings seem merely unimpressive and downright wimpy. He was a human pin cushion, driving spikes and needles into his elastic flesh. He gobbled lightbulbs and danced on shards of broken glass without so much as scraping his feet.
The show reached its disgusting height when the king of pain swallowed five feet of dental floss. Big deal, right? He then made a small incision in his abdomen with a scalpel and pulled the red floss out of his stomach with a pair of forceps.
However, according to a friend who was also there that night, the Torture King didn’t cut deep enough to pull a thin piece of floss out of his gut. Even if he did reach his stomach, it would be almost impossible to locate the floss. She should know; she has assisted a veterinarian through several surgeries.
Even if it was phony, it was still intriguing to watch him perform surgery on himself.
Everything else the Torture King did was brutally real. He reclined on a bed of swords. His silent assistant then used a sledgehammer to pulverize a cinder block on the Torture King’s chest. That was real.
One of the brightest moments of the night - literally - occurred when the Mr. Torture took an electric charge with one hand and lit a fluorescent lightbulb lodged in his mouth.
Following the show of physical maiming, I met with The Torture King backstage and asked him one simple question: How do you feel?
“I feel swell,” he said, before disappearing into the bathroom to remove the dozens of needles piercing his chest.
Funk from the Mothership
Dr. Wonderbred, a.k.a. Daniel Spills, didn’t realize what the consequences of giving his band, the Super Sonic Soul Pimps, an alien persona would be. (The Super Sonic Soul Pimps play Outback Jack’s on Saturday night.)
As you might recall - I wrote about the funky galactic combo prior to an appearance here last spring - Dr. Bred is a mad scientist and the rest of his band is made up of his halfalien, half-human sons.
Huh?
According to his story, Dr. Bred conducted several breeding experiments, including crossbreeding an alien female with a human male. This resulted in the birth of Intellijamus, Otto E. Roticize and Taboo.
Because the human father died during breeding, Dr. Bred inherited the three offspring as his sons.
Together, the four formed a band and fabricated a top secret master plan, which, once implemented, would have effects of global proportion.
That was all fine until a bunch of UFO buffs and Trekkies got hold of the band’s story in cyberspace.
“It almost turned into Dungeons and Dragons once it got loose on the Internet,” says Spills. “People developed this highly complex story, which is the great part about it. It became so complicated that sometimes I even got confused.”
But it got to be a bit much.
Spills isn’t going to abandon the alien gimmick; he’s just going to tone it down a bit so that the band can focus on more important things, like its music.
Between gigs, the Super Sonic Soul Pimps are building a studio in urban Seattle to record a follow-up to their splendid self-titled debut. The band hopes to have a new album available before the year is out.
Also, a handful of major labels is courting the band. If all goes well, major-label cash might enable Spills to start conducting more experiments.
The Plants and Flourish open at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $4. Bring your ID.
Noise at Ichabod’s
Ichabod’s will be booming this weekend - sonically, that is.
Tonight, Las Vegas punkers Catapult will rock the foundation with Big Comb and Lopez.
Catapult dabbles in quirky punk. It also has a fondness for annihilating Boston songs. The band’s twisted rendition of “More Than a Feeling” would bring tears to the eyes of the song’s creators. If that’s not enough, the band is preparing an album consisting entirely of Boston songs.
Big Comb and Wenatchee’s Lopez will be heading out on a two-week tour of the West Coast with Fatty Lumpkin. The tour is tentatively named Broke and Going Broker.
Music starts at 10 p.m. The cover is $3. Bring ID.
On Saturday, Moral Crux will join Quitters Inc., the Flies and the Sissies for a rocking show at Ichabod’s North.
Moral Crux has several new EPs available on various independents. The group has also added some fresh blood into the band, hiring a new bassist, Matt Funkin. And it’s talking to indie label of the moment Lookout.
The cover is $4. Bring ID. Music starts at 9:30 p.m.
Local note
Wylie and the Wild West Show have signed to Rounder Records, one of the most respected and financially sound independent labels in the business. Frontman Wylie Gustafson lives in LaCrosse, Wash.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Nightwatch pick Best Bets at area clubs: TONIGHT: Catapult, Big Comb and Lopez at Ichabod’s North SATURDAY: Super Sonic Soul Pimps, Plants and Flourish at Outback Jack’s; Moral Crux, the Flies, Quitters Inch and the Sissies at Ichabod’s North