Where I Begin Talking about Memphis Concrète 2019!

Memphis Concrète was a goddamn blast. Some things went wrong and some things went beyond right. So first thing's first, I've gotta talk about the fact that I fucking played trombone on stage with Matmos. Yeah, read that last sentence again, I'm having a hard time processing it as well. But yes, it happened. For one song, I joined Matmos on stage and played trombone. What the hell else is there to talk about? I guess everything so now I can back up a little bit.

I think I last posted on Friday so I'll back up to there. Went up to Crosstown to make sure the projection stuff was good. It was very good that I did because I spent almost all the day resolving issues. I mean, most of that time was spent sitting around waiting, but that's okay. Crosstown let us use a projector but it wasn't going to work. You could only correct the keystone vertically and not horizontally and we had to set it off to the side. Eventually Luís brought his, but it took him much longer than expected so I sat around waiting for a long time. I did eat some food downstairs at Farm Burger (that later made me sick, but whatever). Earlier Jacques and I set up the screen he'd bought (buying one was cheaper or about the same price as renting one for one day and we needed two days). But we got the screen all set up and it was perfectly sized and as big as the stage. Yay. After got the projector got it set up and that was good. Took awhile to figure out the keystone adjustment 'cuz of how far to the side it was, but we got it done (I mean, not absolutely perfect of course but very close and only barely noticeable).

What else? Later that night was the official pre-show kickoff thing "Ineffable Cohesion" that Linda Heck put together. Linda started off with kind of a dj thing as Infanta Silhouette. Belly Full of Stars was next and great as always. Then Leslie Deere, great to see her back. Next was Cable Salad who is Rhendi, Leslie's...cousin? I think, she did projections for Leslie at Memphis Concrète last year. She's newly doing music and she did a thing with radio through delay and it was really fuckin' awesome (except at one point this Phil Collins song came through the radio and I've had it fucking WEDGED in my brain since!). Next was Eve Maret. And last was Dream Chambers. Anyway, all ladies from Nashville coming down here to play a show and it was really great and an awesome way to kick off before the festival began. Well, I'm going to move on to another post for day-of!

A Little More Memphis Concrète

Of course I woke up early on Saturday. Pretty sure I woke up early every day. I got up to Crosstown to begin setting up some stuff at least. I was the first one there. Got a text from Martin of Matmos, he made a comment about the Concourse reminding him of Logan's Run (I said wait until you see the carousel). But ended up he was downstairs with Max Eilbacher and Duncan Moore eating (or having just eaten) avocado toast. We sat and chatted a bit. In the midst of the Logan's Run talk the soundtrack came up and I identified Jerry Goldsmith as the composer so Martin's all like, look at you waiting to drop that name out. I just like that soundtrack a lot! Sorry for throwing out dumb minutiae, but I'm just going over the bits that stick out in my mind at least. It was kind of a cool hanging out, and I was only marginally awkward. Then back upstairs to get ready. Things went very smoothly setting up. A lot of it, especially with the sound, was already done ahead of time earlier in the week by the pros who actually do that stuff (Kyle, Colin, and Luís).

Then the music started. Everything was just awesome, of course. Started off with those randomly paired collaborative sets. Mike Honeycutt + bihl and then Belly Full of Stars + Noiserpuss. They were really damn good! I say. Then we had Tron going in the atrium. That was Argiflex and Careful Handling and they did a damn bang-up pro job. I'm not surprised though. There was a good crowd for that. It was a pay-what-you-can event semi-separate from the festival. During this time Matmos was doing their soundcheck. That went smoothly and relatively quickly. They were surprised we'd set up quadraphonic sound. They said everyone always just ignores that. But they requested, we looked into it, and we provided. They really didn't expect it and weren't prepared for it. Drew was like, we just need to do this and this, and was very excited for it, but Martin was like we are not going to fuck up this show for that, we're not prepared just NO! They argued and then said they'd discuss it later, Martin clearly won. But we had front and rear speakers (at least in stereo) and the sound was great and it still had a very nice effect. Just after their soundcheck, Martin asked if we knew any trumpet players. Was trying to think, but didn't really. Then he kinda was like, well, anyone who has a trumpet and can at least play badly on it. I was like, uh, I have a trombone that I can play badly. And he's like get it and join us on stage. And I'm like, woah, what the fuck is happening? Naturally I dash home (didn't even realize until later that my driver's license was with the security guard 'cuz they require it when you check out a dolly, oops, didn't even think I was driving with out it!). Almost thought I wasn't going to find the mouthpiece, I hadn't played it in so long. I could still make sound, though with less variety and much more effort. But I found the mouthpiece and dragged the dusty thing up there. I think Max was doing his soundcheck. That took a bit of time, longer than Matmos's which I wasn't expecting, but whatever. MPX brought a drummer too so that was a bit of a set up. Only bringing up 'cuz we started to get a little behind on time for a bit after the movie. It wasn't too bad and we caught up later, but it had me, the dude who's anal about time, getting a bit nervous. I put it out of my mind 'cuz we were good but it took a little time. I'm rambling and very tired and it's late and I didn't give myself enough time to do all these posts. I was so tired and lazy all day I mostly just lay in bed all day barely bothering to move. I'll continue all this shit later. Sorry to suspend the "action"! I hope I remember stuff. My brain's not too sharp at the moment anyhow.