[from Memphis] This whole thing was one of my more crazy
decisions. Other people vacation, outside of work and family travel, right? I
decided to release it from secrecy after work-writing for 20 hours this
weekend. Gonerfest, a music festival in Memphis by the label Goner Records, has
been on my radar for five years? I know Gonerfest through the band Lost Sounds
first, which my logs show I’ve obsessed over for 10 years. My dedication to the
label, though, is because every band they sign is perfect, and every band they
sign doesn’t sound exactly like the other band, not even at all. I made a list
so I wouldn’t sound stupid if I ran into the label owner Eric Friedl, whom I
fully expected and hoped to run into (expect more on him): Lost Sounds, Digital
Leather, No Bunny, Ex-Cult, Angry Angles, Bad Times, King Kahn, Oblivians,
Final Solutions, Blind Shake, Ty Segall, Reatards. I fell into a weird pool of
women devotees in Houston. I run across their sets at SXSW. But, in basic, Dara
does what Dara wants nowadays and so Dara decided she was going to Gonerfest
for the first time ever this year. Although, Dara skipped the Thursday shows
because Dara’s not that brave. I never used to notice PMS but I do now and it’d
been a stiff week – it lifted on Thursday, like a take-that-exit sign. But then
my flights were screwed the screw up so I didn’t arrive at my hotel until 3am
on Friday morning. I weathered the flight delays like someone who knew she didn’t
deserve flights in the first place. I walked into the Memphis airport at 1:30a,
first time in that airport, and was enchanted both by my rebellious self and by
being back in my beloved South. Air weirdly warm for October. The loud whir of
cicadas. The empty airport churning out an endless playlist of Elvis, Cash,
soul music, etc etc. I never rent cars and had called several times to make
sure my rental (there’s a delta blues road trip tacked on here too) was still
in place despite later arrival – oh yes oh yes, they said – but, oh no oh no,
was how it happened - I was one of three people in the airport and there wasn’t
ain’t nobody at the car rental desk. The lyft took 20 minutes to get there (because
Memphis had done gone to sleep) but initiated one of the best parts of my trip –
conversations with the Lyft drivers. This one, a black man, launched right into,
at 2am in the morning, how I ought to get myself to the civil rights museum,
how he witnessed black people being denied a proper education with those Used textbooks
with other kids names in them. I had not told him what I do for work. I ought
to go to the Stax Museum too. And was I traveling alone? Well, now. Gonerfest
is a proper music-devotee festival that runs from early afternoon into the
early hours of the morning. I was still fielding work stuff, and so by the next
morning, I was exhausted and crazed and trying to nap – which I’m no good at. But
my crazy mania for what I was about to do propelled me from bed to the
afternoon set of Gonerfest at some Memphis brewery. This was my musical mecca,
god’s land, as far as music is concerned. I’m not much of a groupie, but I was
feeling some groupieness. And I couldn’t stop being enchanted by everything
southern: everything was a little slowed down, everyone talked to you with
eyes-connected, personal, nice. Memphis is probably more poor than Austin. It’s
definitely a lot more southern than Austin. The crowd was punkish but mellow
punk – I noticed Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard shirts – the age range was wide.
Rock just smells different in the South, better J. This band was straightforward garage punk, with an
overtone of old-time psychedelia. A little bit of Velvet Underground. Likeable.
Everyone but the drummer stood out, as is the plight of drummers, but the guy
with indescribably extensive facial hair really stood out and definitely made
me think I’d seen him before. Vocals were outstanding. I thought I heard
Misfits but that might have been exhausted delirium. The fan girl in me was
ecstatic that the quality of the set-up (sound etc) and the quality of the band
was exactly what I’d expect of Gonerfest.
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