Trips

Damn! I gots a lotta to catch up in. I'll probably forget most of it, but let's see what I get. Almost a week ago was Sunday. Sunday is the start of the trips. So around noon Mary Beth and I pick up Josh and Molly from their place to head up to Nashville. The trip went very well. Never travelled with Josh and Molly before, but we had a good time together, I think. The drive up went mostly alright except for a bad traffic jam somewhere in there. Okay, so we get to Nashville in the afternoon. First place we went was this restaurant called Fido's, around the corner from the Bellcourt (movie theater we went to earlier this year). The food was pretty good. We wandered around the little strip for a minute. Then we went to Grimey's. I got some cds: Xiu Xiu: Nina, Half Japanese: Our Solar System, Tycho: Awake, The Dead C: Armed Courage, Earth: Hex: or Printing in the Infernal Method, and Antologia de Música Electrónica Portuguesa. Then I think we checked in at the hotel and then out to do some stuff. We went to the cocktail bar The Patterson House. After there we walked over to Two Bits, the barcade Mary Beth and I went to on our last trip. I had more fun there this time. Played some shuffleboard with Josh. We also got one of the tables that has old systems (SNES and N64). The game selections were not very good, but we played some fightin' and wrastlin' and Mario Kart. Also played Crystal Castles on their many-games machine. Had never played it before and it was pretty darn awesome. There had been a lot of drinking and when we got back to the hotel, in the parking lot, Molly puked. And it was very endearing, in a weird way I guess.

Okay, now the next day. We start off to get breakfast or lunch or whatever at Arnold's. We weren't ready yet for the food, so we went next door to this guitar place. They have a Sunn bass amp I kinda want if I ever have income again. Okay, so back next door and we had some good southern cookin' cafeteria style. After that is when I think we went to the other record store The Groove. I think we got there as they were just opening, some of the lights weren't on. I had a bad feeling at first because the guy was playing Alice in Chains on the overhead (yeah, I used to have Dirt and hearing all those songs, especially the non-radio ones, was bringing back waves of not necessarily wanted nostalgia). But after some lookin' I found good stuff (mostly used, a couple new): Xiu Xiu: Always, Bowery Electric: Lushlife, Autechre: Peel Session, Gastr del Sol: The Serpentine Similar, Warp20 (Recreated), Tangerine Dream: Underwater Sunlight, and Tangerine Dream: Lily on the Beach (also Steve Reich's Drumming which I'd forgotten was on the box set as there artwork's all blank white, at least it was cheap; technically I guess I already have the Autechre, though I didn't forget, it's just the ONLY thing in the ep collection I didn't already have when it came out, not counting the songs impossible to get elsewhere, just had to fill that hole since it was cheap). Okay, now we hit a point where we didn't just know what to do. Driving around earlier, I had noticed a museum downtown that'd looked interesting: Frist Center for the Visual Arts. So we wandered our way back to find it. I did get a little bit lost making my way back, but in the process of wending our way back around we saw someone shooting herion on the side of the street in broad daylight. That was something. Haven't even seen that in all the BIG cities I've been to. Nashville wins at something, I guess. The museum was pretty cool. They had an exhibit on animation so there were lots of things to watch. Upstairs there was an art exhibit, something along the lines of Realism to Surrealism or something like that. It had some nice stuff. The most fun, though, was their interactive thing where you could make art. Mary Beth and I made watercolors first. I made a print! I mad a short little bit of animation too. At this point back to the hotel before going out again. We had dinner at Pharmacy before the show.

Okay, now let's get to the show! We got to the Exit/In a bit early, but there was still a line (longer than the last show to which we were later). But it was fine, we didn't get right to the stage though. We had an alright standing spot kinda nearby though. It was all well and good but at some point this girl forces her way between Molly and Josh. Then she's all moving around all bumpy-like. The worst thing was the smell. She stank. Really bad. After Xiu Xiu she left and I thought we were through with her, but then she came back to the other side. She was up on the end of the stage, a bit away from me, but for some reason she still managed to move around enough to keep bumping into me. At one point, kinda early on, I held her arm and told her to stop moving or something like that (while Swans were playing, so it was pretty loud). After that song she apologized for invading my personal space. She sonded sarcastic though. Then during the next song she kept doing it again, this time I told her to fuck off. The bumping seemed to subside. Also I ended up getting farther away (though later some guy started doing the same thing, though he didn't bump into me as bad and he didn't smell bad). Okay, I'll get some more details in another post as this is reaching a long length.

Enter, Rock

Okay, now let's get to the music of the show! Mostly not too much that I didn't report from last time. Xiu Xiu's set was the same type of harsh electronic drone. There were definitely differences in the details, but the overall feel, including the continual, steady high-pitch tone, was the same. At one point early on he barked like a dog, that was different. It was again really good. Josh didn't like it, he said he likes his music to do more. I thought it did a lot, but changing notes wasn't one of them and I know most people have a different concept of what music is than I do (i.e. it's changing notes, which to me is only one of many components music can have). Swans played the same set at they had in St. Louis (MAYBE one song towards the end was switched, couldn't remember exactly but it probably was the same, maybe sometime I'll check setlists online to see). One main difference was in the mood. You may recall my saying that the last show was the crankiest I'd seen Michael Gira, well this show was the opposite! Also with the bass player. Apparently something was going wrong with the bassist's amp (I mean, you could hear him just fine, heard someone later say the effects loop wasn't working so you could hear bass but no effects...not that his playing is heavily processed...). Anyway, he stops the show to try to change amps and this kills the show for a long period of time. This also happens twice, after the next song too. So there was a lot of dead time. But for part of that Michael had a small amount of banter, even joking with the audience. At one point he asked "Johnny Cash didn't really play here did he?" (The venue has walls covered with a bunch of the acts that had played there). When people shouted to let him know that he had in fact played the very place, he seemed impressed and played and sang a little bit of "I Walk the Line." So it was kinda neat that the equipment "malfunction" afforded us the opportunity to see a playful side of Michael Gira, but it did really kill a good bit of the momentum for a while. But when it got going again, they recovered it. And as it went on, it had moments that topped the previous show. Some of those louder bits really reached the transcendent levels of those first Swans shows and removed my physchical self completely from the stinky people bumping into me. So it was really interesting to see those two shows back to back and experience the differences in spite of how similar they were. After the show I picked up the To Be Kind tour shirt in the correct size this time. Nearby while I was waiting to get to the merch booth, some people were talking about the show. One older (well, maybe my age) guy said it was "transcendent." The younger guy he was with said it was "impressive." Then the older guy got indignant and argued with him saying he was young and as life went on he'd know how rare it was for THAT to happen. Internally, I agreed with him. I got my stuff and went outside to see a text from Mary Beth that they were inside and upstairs. Since the show was over, I decided to brave the "no reentry" signs. The bouncer stopped me at first but I argued just a little bit about my friends being inside and needing to get them (I mean, the show was OVER) and he relented pretty quickly.

Okay, back to the hotel to sleep. We pretty much headed straight out in the morning after eating hotel food breakfast. We dropped Josh and Molly off and went back by our place. Did a little cat cleanup and feeding and a small amount of getting ready before heading RIGHT back out on the road again for the much longer trip to Austin. We also switched cars (took my car for the first part and Mary Beth's for the longer drive). Getting out of Memphis was a huge hassle. Traffic over the main bridge was extremely backed up. I noticed it before we got on the exit towards the mess (and not very close to the bridge, a mile or maybe two away). So I took a different route, checked traffic patterns on my phone, and made it to the old bridge. So there was a little bit of a delay in getting out of the city. Also crappy in our start was the amount of construction. It was really backed up and we had a bit of a delay deeper into Arkansas around Forest City. So we didn't make good time but we got into Austin before midnight. Oh, maybe an hour or less before arriving a fucking cop pulled me over. He got to the car and said something that sounded real bullshit about the plastic border around license plates in Texas but oh, then he saw we were from Tennessee so it was okay and let us go. At least nothing came of it, but it all felt pretty suspect. After making it in we went to the Draught House Pub and then crashed back at the hotel.

Alright, now it's the next day. First thing is we get breakfast tacos at Juan in a Million. The migas taco was outstanding. Okay, we tried to keep it light to get to the next place: La Barbecue at its new location. Last year we got there a little after opening with not much wait. This year we got there a little BEFORE and waited close to an hour and a half in the hot sun. Had we known it'd be like that this time we probably wouldn't've gone, but the food was really awesome. This brisket's still just as good. So it did have a little moment of divinity. Afterwards we had the ritual where I dropped off Mary Beth at Rio Rita's and I went to Switched On! I got to play a frickin' Korg PS-3300, wasn't able to patch it or anything, but it was still fun to play. I also played an Oberheim OB-Xa. They didn't have the modules I was really looking for (a Make Noise René...lacking that an Intellijel Metropolis...sequencers was what I was after!), but I played around and got a few smaller things, more utility-oriented for my eurorack. I got two Pittsburgh modules: Dual VCA and a Midi 2. I also got a Malekko Switch. Now I may need to completely redo my modular's layout. But it should be fun to re-arrange and plan. While I was there, the guys were playing Hardcore Devo, getting ready for the show too! And before I left I saw an EML ElectroComp 200. Ooh, I had to play that before I walked away. It wasn't plugged in so I asked if I could play it, then someone took it down and moved it elsewhere to hook it up. I didn't know it'd be so much work, but it was really fun to play. It had a kind've unique, dirty sound. Also its control/layout scheme was a little unorthodox for synths and that was fun to mess with. Okay, so now I'm picking Mary Beth up and we head downtown. We first go to this art museum: The Contemporary Austin Jones Center. Their exhibit was related to the body. There was some good stuff there. Definitely contemporary art in its feel. They had Matthew Barney photographs that were really good. After this place we went to Peche, a bar we'd been to last time that Mary Beth really liked. Ooh, we're almost to Devo. Time for a new post.

D-E-V-O in T-E-X-A-S

Now it's late in the afternoon and we're walking in downtown Austin to see Devo! We're a little early and not many people are waiting. At least at the side of the building we're on. Finally they let us come up to stand in another line to get in upstairs. While waiting and the bouncer guy's being a dick, I picked up some shirts: one for the Hardcore tour and one for Bob 2: 1952-2014. We got in and got a pretty good spot right by the stage, though off to the side (almost in front of Mark's synths). Devo were the only ones who played. The show was good. They took a chronological storytelling approach to the whole thing. They started off with the earlier material and the pretext they were playing in the basement (the stage set was made to resemble a basement). They opened with "Mechanical Man" which was awesome. Though they leaned towards the jokier stuff in this era. Their playing was a bit reserved and they seemed not terribly into it. I'm sure this was on purpose, while they were "in the basement" they were even sitting in chairs. But as time progressed they got more and more energetic. At one point a package arrived with their jumpsuits so they changed into them (the janitor coveralls from the period). They leaned towards the rockin' and more familiar stuff from Hardcore and they even cheated just a little bit when they played "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Gut Feeling." but it was allowable because, yeah, it was pretty awesome. The highlight song-wise was "Ono." It fuckin' ruled. During "Jocko Homo" Mark did some audience interaction with the mic and when he climbed off the stage, the first time he went over the barrier he crawled right on top of Mary Beth! It was awesome. She shrieked and ducked down. The first encore song was "U Got Me Bugged" which is my favorite from Hardcore, but since it's all synth it was a karaoke version with Mark singing over it as Booji Boy. It was a glaring omission that they didn't do "Uglatto," but it was pretty awesome all said and done. I think now I'd go see Devo even if they weren't touring for Hardcore, even if it was for some lame new album. I wouldn't travel as far, but no matter what, it'd be a damn fun show. Oh, some more random bits. Guy next to us changing into a jumpsuit before they played. During the banter when Devo first came on stage, they threw packs of defunct cigarette brands into the audience. Not sure what they really were that they threw, but it was entertaining and all.

Okay, we're gonna leave the venue and that experience and, since it's still very early, go do some stuff. We first went to this bar that's in this little offshoot area near downtown called The Blackheart. Then we went to get food at Kerbey Lane Cafe. We went to the original one that we'd been to before, but it had just closed. It's only open 24 hours some days. So we went to the one on Lamar way south. We had some awesome food. Maine Root on tap, damn good.

The next day in Austin! Wednesday to be exact. We start off with kolaches at Kolache Creations. We were actually trying to find this one Tacodeli location, but it didn't seem to exist and we ate at one back down on Lamar. Then to this liquor store for Mary Beth to find stuff. Oh crap, and on the way somewhere in there we stopped off at an H.E.B. It was pretty awesome. We snagged a bunch of soda and barbecue sauce. A whirlwind of running around doing cool stuff. Now we're back on the southern side to go to End of an Ear. It did not disappoint. Well, this cd is ending so I'll get into what I picked up in my next post. I'm SURE the suspense is killing you.

Explosions in the Sky

My acquisitions at End of an Ear: The Body: I Shall Die Here, Merzbow: Ikebukuro Dada, SPK: Field Report, Jacques Lejeune: Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985, Conrad Schnitzler: Silver, Agitation Free: Last, James Brown: The Payback, Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1, and Stereolab: Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (I also picked up Gastr del Sol's Mirror Repair which I'd forgotten I had, it was used and cheap so whatever). Then we went to this other liquor store, which is a novelty for us 'cuz it's huge and also has like a grocery store in it, at least more extensive than what you'd find in a liquor store over here. I did get some cane sugar Dr. Pepper (Dublin doesn't do it anymore, but someone does, did get some Dublin sodas the day before at H.E.B.). Now up north to Taco More for that fucking incredible goat soup again. Also, that was still just as good as ever. Time to head downtown to watch a movie! First some drinks somewhere nearby, then to walk to the Alamo Draft House. The only rain this trip was while we were walking a few blocks from our parking spot to the place. Anyway, we went to see THX 1138 with a band called Conveyor playing a live soundtrack to it. Mary Beth had never seen it before and I'm happy that she loved it so much. The band was good too. Actually, they played a lot less than I was expecting. There were long portions where it was just the movie or at least what they were playing blended at a low level and wasn't noticeable. They did rock out hard during the chase sequence at the end and it was pretty cool. Especially the effect of how they stopped when the car stopped and then jumped back into their motorik rockin' when it started again. Oh, and it was choice how they started the whole thing right when they bust out of the door as the cops are comin' in. It was fun to see it on a big screen. I always like seeing great movies in a theater. Afterwards we commisserated on the whole, "so that was actually George Lucas!?" thing. What next? The day before we'd seen a place called 'The Violet Crown" that intrigued Mary Beth on the way it looked. So I looked it up and saw that it was a movie theater. So we'd planned to go there to see another movie. Why not? Well, it turns out that was something else called The Violet Hour. We realized the place we'd seen was a bar. So we went there instead, but it was lame. What to do instead? Back to the Draught House Pub. Okay, and that was our last night in Austin.

We're about to leave and head back home. We wanted to go to this drive through kolaches place, but it was closed. We picked up biscuits from this food truck called Biscuits + Groovy, the biscuits were fuckin' awesome. Okay, so now we're heading out. In the late morning/early afternoon traffic was a little congested, moving but kinda crowded. It was the fourth of July. After Dallas or so and it was getting into later afternoon the roads were very clear. So we were driving while people were actually doing stuff so it worked out nice that way. Around Dallas we stopped at a Whataburger. It was pretty good for fast food, not incredible, but a fun roadside novelty. The timing was pretty great, because dusk was arriving as we were approaching West Memphis. So we got to see some fireworks as we arrived. There were some big ones right by us on the interstate a little past Danny Thomas. The only downside was arriving home. Neighbors started shooting off a HUGE bounty in the parking lot just as we were getting out of the car. They were loud as fuck and really upset Mary Beth. But we got inside and I finished unloading and doing all the hey-we-just-got-home crap. Cleaned. Gave the cats some love. Drank some soda. A pretty great succession of trips, I thought. Now it's Saturday. Alright!