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ateolfOkay, so I'm still at this long fundraiser concert. I think that aside from the people who work or volunteer for the venue, I was the only person who stayed for the whole thing, start to end. It was mostly small groups of people coming for each section they were there for. Next came the bands. First it was more of a rock set. There was this "punk" band. And the singer started off by saying they were "punk econo" which he said meant they have a lot of words. I was all, cool, maybe that's like a Minutemen kinda thing. I was hoping I could get into it but then they really weren't very punk at all (one song kinda had a Rockets to Russia sound and that's okay). Mostly they sounded like "Ballroom Blitz" meets John Cougar Mellencamp (at his more rockin') with some more distortion (not heavy distortion, but maybe like Green Day level distortion, though they didn't even sound as punk as Green Day, it was just kinda like 80s hard rock with a dash of new wave and heartland rock in the sound). Oh, and how he said there were a lot of words...not that this really matters, but there was very much a normal amount of words for a rock band...normal verse-chorus and stuff and each had a very normal amount of words for any band that has vocals...only bring this up as a point of confusion as to why he'd use that as the big descriptor of their music. He was trying to tie it in with the poetry readings we'd just heard, sure, but, well, anyway. Also, before they started he said there will be screaming but he's not screaming at us he's screaming with us. Once again, there was absolutely no screaming. There was a lot of pretty standard melodic singing. Anyway, the band would mostly be forgettable except for how they described themselves being very much at odds with what they delivered. The next band was setting up and I was amused to see the keyboard player wearing a King Diamond shirt. Then they're setting up and kinda soundchecking and I'm hearing some stuff that sounds kinda spacey or krauty and I'm thinking this could be good, but they go full on into whatever I imagine Wilco sounds like or The War on Drugs or whatever. I'll just say it was very much Not-My-Thing, big roots rock sound. Towards the end of their set, they got into what I guess one would call "boogie rock" (when late 70s Southern rock bands felt they had to move towards disco to sell records) so it's more of the same with galloping octave bass and some disco drum beats. Maybe less bad than their other stuff but not good.
Okay, now we get to the last part of the night! I'd just been sitting on this wooden pew for hours (okay, a few bathroom breaks but mostly just sitting there) and now it's becoming worth it all! Charles Rivera started things off and he started with electric piano (he's this guy that kept being mentioned throughout the night by all the levels of performers, he seems to be pretty involved with the venue and the music scene all over). This was very free/space/fusion jazz and cool. He played a few more instruments too like saxophone. Then he was joined by someone on synth to become the band Kink Head. They had three people on stage reading this sci-fi screenplay called The Exhibition so it was like this avant garde theater thing and they did lots of drones and weird sounds with weird acting. At one point Charles played bass clarinet and that's an awesome instrument! It was really cool and fun and made for a nice end to the night. I should have mentioned earlier that when I arrived I picked up a Woodbine Chamber t-shirt. Cool!
Oh, though now is where the weird and unsettling thing of the trip happened. I was coming home from that back to the hotel and getting downtown, about to cross over the bridge and I see a firetruck's lights coming up behind me so I stop at the intersection to give it room to pass and then it stops right next to me. Then a couple cop cars come up from the other street and stop right in front of me so I'm literally boxed in. First I'd been preoccupied by the emergency vehicles so I didn't notice that what looked like people just crossing the street on the crosswalk almost right next to me were not actually crossing the street but gathered around a man who was lying on the street at the crosswalk. So there'd been some kind of accident shortly before I'd arrived. I couldn't really figure out what exactly happened as I wasn't trying to but it was right there next to me while I was stuck. There was also a motorcycle propped up at the side of the road. There was also a guy who was kind of wandering around the area sometimes just standing by sometimes talking to people or the police. At one point he got into the cop car by himself though in the front passenger seat. So I'm not sure if the guy was hit by a motorcycle, hit by car (maybe the motorcycle was someone who stopped), was on the motorcycle and was hit by someone or ran into something (it didn't look damaged, but I didn't even notice it for a while). And the guy that got into the cop car, not sure if he was being arrested (why would he get into the front instead of the back?) or if he knew the other person. After not too long an ambulance arrived and the guy was put onto a stretcher. The troubling thing is that after he was loaded in, the ambulance didn't leave. So I may have seen a dead person, which is pretty upsetting. It looked like they'd put a respirator on him, but maybe that's just protocol? Someone swept the road around there (didn't seem like there was a lot to sweep) and then I was on my way after about maybe fifteen minutes. So yeah, a pretty weird and unsettling end to the night and I had a little trouble sleeping.
I did manage to sleep in a long time so I was able to get some rest for the show day. I again didn't have too much to do beforehand. Mary Beth wanted me to get even more coffee (it's her favorite and we don't get the chance to get it often!) and I was more than happy to oblige! I went back and got more. I also went and grabbed some lunch. I wasn't intending to get barbecue again but was looking for a good sandwich place. Well, I found a sandwich place that also had barbecue called Morris' Deli and like the name says, it's mostly a deli, well...that's also in a convenience store and liquor store. I felt this is a good sign...places that are recommended for their food that also happen to have sprung from a convenience store (or hell even a liquor store) do so because, often, the food is fucking good. And I got there and there was a good line of people waiting. I mean, that's the number one tell of course. And in a small, weird place, fuck yeah. I'd seen they have a lamb and pork barbecue sandwich and that's something unusual that I can't normally get! HOLY FUCK! This sandwich was so fucking good! So so fucking good! I was expecting maybe shredded lamb and pork but it was all ground together and greasy and with onion and pickles and I was in heaven for a few minutes eating it in my car. I'd luckily gotten two 'cuz I thought maybe I'd want one for dinner since I'd be at the show a while but they're really small sandwiches (cheap too so it makes sense) so it was good I got two. Really made up for the subpar barbecue the day before. Man, kinda would have been worth the trip for that alone had there not been other awesome stuff going on. I had a little time to kill and it was back to the hotel and I ended up finishing reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was not good. Actually, I thought I might have a bunch to say about it but buried in all this trip talking it doesn't make a lot of sense to get into. I may right a review later and re-share it here, but yeah, not gonna consider myself a Tom Robbins fan.
Okay, back onto the subject! Back to Woodbine and I got there early to be able to set up and practice at least a little bit since I hadn't touched my stuff in days. Okay, then after a little bit Louisville Experimental Music Nights started! ("Nights" is plural but it's only a one night show, but I guess there was one last year, so that makes it plural if it happens more than once!) I met a few people I don't know. Exchanged merch with Wayne Robert Thomas and he gave me his collaboration cd: Thomas / Kaufmann-Buhler: I Remained a Stranger to the Birds. Oh, it's on Somnimage and I happened to have been wearing one of my Post Doom Romance shirts (I had left planning to wear the 2025 Memphis Concrète shirt at the show, as I usually feel too self-conscious to wear my own kind of shirt around town, but then while in Louisville I felt self-conscious about wearing it on stage of all places, I'd debated it before too, so ultimately decided against it and wore the MC shirt the day before and my PDR shirt to the show...I know, I know, nobody cares about that level of detail, well fuck it!). Okay, I'll get into this show more in my next post!
Okay, now we get to the last part of the night! I'd just been sitting on this wooden pew for hours (okay, a few bathroom breaks but mostly just sitting there) and now it's becoming worth it all! Charles Rivera started things off and he started with electric piano (he's this guy that kept being mentioned throughout the night by all the levels of performers, he seems to be pretty involved with the venue and the music scene all over). This was very free/space/fusion jazz and cool. He played a few more instruments too like saxophone. Then he was joined by someone on synth to become the band Kink Head. They had three people on stage reading this sci-fi screenplay called The Exhibition so it was like this avant garde theater thing and they did lots of drones and weird sounds with weird acting. At one point Charles played bass clarinet and that's an awesome instrument! It was really cool and fun and made for a nice end to the night. I should have mentioned earlier that when I arrived I picked up a Woodbine Chamber t-shirt. Cool!
Oh, though now is where the weird and unsettling thing of the trip happened. I was coming home from that back to the hotel and getting downtown, about to cross over the bridge and I see a firetruck's lights coming up behind me so I stop at the intersection to give it room to pass and then it stops right next to me. Then a couple cop cars come up from the other street and stop right in front of me so I'm literally boxed in. First I'd been preoccupied by the emergency vehicles so I didn't notice that what looked like people just crossing the street on the crosswalk almost right next to me were not actually crossing the street but gathered around a man who was lying on the street at the crosswalk. So there'd been some kind of accident shortly before I'd arrived. I couldn't really figure out what exactly happened as I wasn't trying to but it was right there next to me while I was stuck. There was also a motorcycle propped up at the side of the road. There was also a guy who was kind of wandering around the area sometimes just standing by sometimes talking to people or the police. At one point he got into the cop car by himself though in the front passenger seat. So I'm not sure if the guy was hit by a motorcycle, hit by car (maybe the motorcycle was someone who stopped), was on the motorcycle and was hit by someone or ran into something (it didn't look damaged, but I didn't even notice it for a while). And the guy that got into the cop car, not sure if he was being arrested (why would he get into the front instead of the back?) or if he knew the other person. After not too long an ambulance arrived and the guy was put onto a stretcher. The troubling thing is that after he was loaded in, the ambulance didn't leave. So I may have seen a dead person, which is pretty upsetting. It looked like they'd put a respirator on him, but maybe that's just protocol? Someone swept the road around there (didn't seem like there was a lot to sweep) and then I was on my way after about maybe fifteen minutes. So yeah, a pretty weird and unsettling end to the night and I had a little trouble sleeping.
I did manage to sleep in a long time so I was able to get some rest for the show day. I again didn't have too much to do beforehand. Mary Beth wanted me to get even more coffee (it's her favorite and we don't get the chance to get it often!) and I was more than happy to oblige! I went back and got more. I also went and grabbed some lunch. I wasn't intending to get barbecue again but was looking for a good sandwich place. Well, I found a sandwich place that also had barbecue called Morris' Deli and like the name says, it's mostly a deli, well...that's also in a convenience store and liquor store. I felt this is a good sign...places that are recommended for their food that also happen to have sprung from a convenience store (or hell even a liquor store) do so because, often, the food is fucking good. And I got there and there was a good line of people waiting. I mean, that's the number one tell of course. And in a small, weird place, fuck yeah. I'd seen they have a lamb and pork barbecue sandwich and that's something unusual that I can't normally get! HOLY FUCK! This sandwich was so fucking good! So so fucking good! I was expecting maybe shredded lamb and pork but it was all ground together and greasy and with onion and pickles and I was in heaven for a few minutes eating it in my car. I'd luckily gotten two 'cuz I thought maybe I'd want one for dinner since I'd be at the show a while but they're really small sandwiches (cheap too so it makes sense) so it was good I got two. Really made up for the subpar barbecue the day before. Man, kinda would have been worth the trip for that alone had there not been other awesome stuff going on. I had a little time to kill and it was back to the hotel and I ended up finishing reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was not good. Actually, I thought I might have a bunch to say about it but buried in all this trip talking it doesn't make a lot of sense to get into. I may right a review later and re-share it here, but yeah, not gonna consider myself a Tom Robbins fan.
Okay, back onto the subject! Back to Woodbine and I got there early to be able to set up and practice at least a little bit since I hadn't touched my stuff in days. Okay, then after a little bit Louisville Experimental Music Nights started! ("Nights" is plural but it's only a one night show, but I guess there was one last year, so that makes it plural if it happens more than once!) I met a few people I don't know. Exchanged merch with Wayne Robert Thomas and he gave me his collaboration cd: Thomas / Kaufmann-Buhler: I Remained a Stranger to the Birds. Oh, it's on Somnimage and I happened to have been wearing one of my Post Doom Romance shirts (I had left planning to wear the 2025 Memphis Concrète shirt at the show, as I usually feel too self-conscious to wear my own kind of shirt around town, but then while in Louisville I felt self-conscious about wearing it on stage of all places, I'd debated it before too, so ultimately decided against it and wore the MC shirt the day before and my PDR shirt to the show...I know, I know, nobody cares about that level of detail, well fuck it!). Okay, I'll get into this show more in my next post!
