[Memphis, TN]: I retreated to the patio before the sore Lovesores were
done. It’s a good patio – nice mix of people - rife with pot & tobacco
smoke – a surprising lot of Indians that night (from India Indians). I was
pleased with myself because, feeling fractious and beleagured, I’d stopped at a
Mexican restaurant nearby before the show. I had been fretting that they
wouldn’t have what I needed but the universe took pity on me. Tex Mex Queso was
on their special temporary menu. It wasn’t great but it was queso. And now I
was tired and pleasantly aloof. After a thorough people-watching sweep of the
patio, I headed back into the fray. More disappointment. The band, the one I
was there to see, was as boring as the one before. Tame button up shirts and
jeans. Wedding rings. “Memphis!” I cursed in my head. People in the crowd kept
inappropriately brushing up against me as they walked by. I was fractious. I
got to wondering why I was there anyways. Lost Sounds… Jay Reatard… Goner
Records… Gonerfest… Jack Oblivian… ERIC FRIEDL. How had I forgot?! The person I
stalked, to my degradation and embarrassment, at Gonerfest 2018 was in this
band!! Right? Google confirmed this! But I still couldn’t remember if the
person on stage resembled the person I kept running into last fall. My love for
the Friedl is a superficial one, the closest I get to fandom. He was mostly
bland on stage. At age 40-something, he’s still a teenager, little lip snarls –
he’s the band member who brings the punk: Ramones, maybe some southern CA
skatepunk. But, once Jack Oblivian (the band member whose made a bit of a name
for himself) switched from drums to lead vocals, Friedl lightened up and
started cracking smiles and goofing around. Jack, a distinctive looking person
with a Scott H Biram sound, was as good with the crowd as he was with Friedl. The
three have been a band since the 1990s – they’re faithful and loyal, despite
limited success – more indication of those southern values I sort of miss.
Friedl consistently laid low on the stage, letting Jack and Greg reign high.
Even though he's the one who runs the record label and organizes the major
festival. And then I remembered the sets at Gonerfest 2018, a mostly white- and
male-centric music festival, that NONETHELESS featured young nervous girls and
black rappers, and I came to the glorious recognition that Friedl’s a supporter
of others, and he’s more political than his music might indicate. So he moved
back to the top of my list of people to stalk. So, relative to the Lovesores, and
now totally biased (but not), The Oblivians were a blessing to the ear. They
were rowdier, raunchier, tighter, darker. I could see where they maybe
influenced Jay. All three sing. Friedl was on guitar the whole set. Greg
started on guitar with Jack on drums. Greg’s got a frenetic energy and and
lends the band its heavy foundation in the delta blues. He told us how he
wanted to play like Lighting Hopkins when he was learning guitar and he played
a song he’d written to sound like Larry Williams. Greg’s serious but once he
went to the drums for Jack to come play guitar and sing his songs, the vibe
changed. Lots of interaction with the crowd, lots of spoken lyrics. And a bunch
of dumb 1½ minute songs. Which they fully acknowledged and just made funnier. Even
I laughed and I have no sense of humor. Jack called Friedl’s macho “Cannonball”
song “Bowlingball.” There was the ‘waking up in a police car’ song. There was
the pillpoppin song that sounded like the Modern Lover’s “Roadrunner.” I can reference
these songs this briefly because they were literally this brief. The
pillpopping song had a Part II that was just the same song repeated. The
general hilarity concluded with them telling us they were giving us their best because
it as their last day of their tour, on this second day of their tour, and there
were tote bags available for purchase in the back.
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