Sunday morning Dan and I woke up at ungodly hour of 10:30 so we could make it to Al Green's church on time. We managed to shower, get packed up and checked out by 11 and 20 minutes later we were at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in South Memphis to see and hear the Reverend Al Green. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but his replacement was very worthy. We thought we were late but fortunately people were still settling in and the reverend was welcoming all the guests (mostly fellow hungover Oblivians fans). Unfortunately we sat in a bad spot so we didn't get to shake his hand.
This wasn't any boring church service. There was a band, a choir and several parishioners sang. The preacher was great - he was dancing around, calling out "Praise the lord!", "God is good!", "Hallelujah!" and more all the time. He'd invite the parishioners up to the front and would pray to get rid of their problems and talk about how the Lord saved them or will save them. Several spiritual songs were sung throughout the service, and man can these people sing. There was one women who was incredibly intense - she really looked like God was inside her. She had an amazing voice as well. All in all it was an incredibly experience. The passion and spirituality in the room was amazing and you could really tell what it all meant to the people there. The band was really funky and soulful and the choir could really belt it out. It wasn't quite like that James Brown scene in The Blues Brothers, but it was close. I donated a few dollars and we left at about 2:00.
On the way out of town we stopped by Graceland, which was just up the road from the church. We didn't go in or even see the house because it was set so far back. Instead we parked the car in the taxi stand, ran around the parking lot a bit trying to get a look at the place and finally settled for taking pictures next to the sign by the road. Then we were off. We filled up with gas tank and proceeded to kick it a full five hours non-stop through Nashville, Louisvillle, Kentucky, and other small towns before we finally took a break for more gas and some food. Then we plowed on for another long while pretty much straight to the border with minimal stops. This took us through Cincinatti which has a skyline very reminiscent of Montreal, especially as you cross the Ohio River and see the it backed up by rolling hills around the city. But there was no time for stopping and we kept going through Dayton, Toledo and Detroit. It was like being in a James Brown song. At one point there was a terrible fog on the road and I couldn't see more than ten or so white-dashed lines in front. It made for some scary and eerie, yet invigorating driving.
Finally, at the border we payed the toll, stopped at the duty free for cheap liquor and then headed through customs. Contrary to what you'd expect from two low-twenty-somethings in a dirty, smelly car, who've been driving for 13 hours straight and must look like crap - well, we made it through with absolutely no problems. We kept on rolling down the 401, finally back in good ol' Canada where we're no longer known as the Canadians, as we were in Memphis. The sky opened up, the rain came down in torrents and finally, when we were within an hour Dan's place in Waterloo, we hit the wall. Both of us were exhausted from a lack of sleep and 15 hours straight driving. So we pulled over, slept for an hour and then finally got on the way to Waterloo. We showed up at 8:30 AM after 17 hours on the road. I slept on the couch for a few hours, woke up and made the final stretch to Toronto, finally getting home just after noon on Monday.
Overall, it was an amazing trip. As I said back in part one, I don't know how I survived, but I did and I have no regrets at all. Now I just need to start a band.
Saturday morning I woke up around 11, which was way too early but I couldn't fall back to sleep. I wasn't hungover so Dan and I got moving early. It was hot out - 25 degrees and sunny, a nice change from the dreary fall weather back home. Our first stop was a garage to get the headlights fixed. Unwilling to actually drive around or do it myself, I took it to the closest garage and got ripped off. While we waited for the work to be done we went for a walk around "downtown" Memphis. Memphis is the most run-down city I've seen after Sarajevo, and Memphis never went through a thousand day siege. The roads were falling apart, the sidewalks are in horrible condition, there are boarded up buildings everywhere and its completely lifeless. No wonder so much trashy rock and roll comes out of Memphis these days. I couldn't imagine anything but sleazy, trashy, dirty music originating from the city - anything else just wouldn't seem right.
Our first stop was Sun Studios. It was much smaller than expected and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by empty lots, run down shops, and boarded up buildings. But the Sun sign is still intact and the lobby was filled with memorabilia, lots of Elvis pictures and pretty much everything else you'd expect. We didn't take the tour because it was too expensive and we heard it's not really worth it. We left Sun and headed down to Beale Street, which is where Memphis blues originated and musicians from all over congregated and playd. Nowadays its mostly tourist trap, though some of its charm remains and one great, dicount store remains. Surprisingly, on a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon it was really quiet. I guess everyone was out seeing George W. Bush, who also happened to be in Memphis that weekend.
After getting the car we drove down to Stax Studios. We read our Eric Oblivian-produced map poorly and ended up on some side streets in a run down, black neighbourhood where it felt like everyone was watching us two white boys with the foreign license plate drive by. We made it to the Stax museum and it was awesome. There were great displays set up outlining the history of the label and soul in general. They had two walls displaying original copies of every LP, EP and single that Stax ever put out. The highlight was Isaac Hayes turquoise and gold cadillac/pimp-mobile. Oh yeah, the whole thing was backed by that sweet soul music that made the label so legendary.
At five o-clock the museum closed and it was time to check out King Louie at Legba, Greg Oblivian's record store. Recording pickings were slim as most of the good stuff was already picked over by all the out-of-towners who had been to the store before us that weekend. King Louie was too hung over to play so we missed out on him as well. We got our first real meal of the weekend and then back to the Red Roof for a nap. But that didn't happen so after an hour of watching Total Recall we finally gave up and commenced drinking with our motel neighbours from Atlanta.
Then we went back to the Hi-Tone for the Saturday night show featuring The Final Solutions, The Lost Sounds and Viva-American-Death-Ray. The first two bands were good, especially the Lost Sounds, who blew me away. Viva was pretty dull so instead I left to grab a 40 of Bush Light from the gas station next door and drank in the parking lot with a whole lot of other people. We talked about music, Goners, and drinking.
At some point we left and went to an after-party at someone's house. It took a while for people to get there but once things picked up they just took off like crazy. The guy's house was a veritable shrine to Kiss and he also had a killer music and DVD collection. We watched a live recording of Little Richard and that got everyone dancing and hollering. Next he threw on a documentary on the amazing, original one-man-band Hasil Adkins. The best quote being, "Hasil used to listen to Hank Williams on the radio and he thought it was Hank all alone playing all those instruments, so thats how he taught himself how to write songs".
Someone was driving back to the the Red Roof so I went with them. We were going to party some more but we were out of beer and the management forced us into our rooms. It was 5 AM, so it was probably for the better, since the next day we had to drive back home.
I'm back from a whirlwind weekend in Memphis, Tennessee - where to begin?
A quick summary would tell you that the drive there was dull as hell. But the Oblivians made it all worth it and then some. Holy shit did they rock! Memphis was a lot more run down then I expected. The Stax museum was great, as was Al Green's church. Lots of cool, friendly people. Lots of partying, drinking, etc.. And not nearly enough sleep. In some ways I'm amazed I survived.
And now the long:
I left Toronto at about 7:30 Thursday evening. Got up to Waterloo at around nine to pick up Dan and give him a crack lesson on how to drive stick-shift so I wouldn't have to drive all the way. By 9:30 we hit the road with The Oblivians blaring, full of energy and excitement. And then we missed the turnoff to get onto the 401! We detoured around some country roads until we found our back to the highway. So far, not so good. The rest of the drive was so, so long. Getting across the border was surprisingly easy. You'd think showing up at customs at midnight saying you're going to Memphis for a show would lead to intense questioning, but not tonight. We drove for about 5 hours straight, playing every Oblivians release we had, when the headlights on my car burnt out somewhere around Lansing, Michigan. We pissed off lots of truckers by driving with the brights on for a bit, but their flashing brights and blaring horns was enough to send us to a rest stop for a very restless sleep in the car until dawn broke.
The second it did we got going again for the interminable trek through Illinois. Yep, nine hours of nothing but flat, featureless farm land from the outskirts of Chicago all the way to Memphis. We were going through the U.S. heartland, where people love their guns even more than they love Jesus. We stopped for lunch at a Subway restaurant. Dan is vegan, and he certainly raised eyebrows when he ordered a vegetarian sub. Not to mention our Canadian accents stood out about as much as they would in Australia. Pretty much every car in the parking lot had a bumper sticker praising either God, Jesus, or the NRA. At one point we passed by this massive cross to the side of the road. Dan drove for most of this stretch because I would have gone insane if I had to drive such a long, boring, flat stretch of road. Not to mention I could barely stay awake.
We got into Memphis at about 4:30 PM and made it to the Red Roof Inn pretty easily. It was nothing fancy but it was clean and had cable TV. The place was filled with people in town for the Oblivians reunion. We failed in our attempt to have a nap and instead headed over to the pre-show hotdog party at Murphy's bar. Taxis are notoriously hard to come by in Memphis, so we decided to walk. It didn't seem to far on the map, but I'm pretty sure we're the first people to walk those streets in decades. The sidewalks were falling apart and there was nary anyone else around. I had visions of being a victim of a drive-by. Of course, we made it to the bar safely. A M.O.T.O. cover band was playing and the BBQ was churning free dogs for everyone. Dan and I were both pretty out of it at this point so not much socializing was done, though one friendly Texas woman wrote "East Action" on my fists.
That was good fun, but it was really just a warm-up for the main event. At about ten we headed over to the Hi-Tone for the show. I began the festivities there with a shot of bourbon, followed by multiple beers. I hung out by the merch table while Greg Oblivian set things up and managed to score a t-shirt, a copy of the latest Oblivians release (basically their very first recordings) and a copy of the very first Compulsive Gamblers seven inch from 1992. And then me and Dan began to worry about where to stash our merch when our neighbours at the Red Roof, a really great group of people from Atlanta whom we'd only shared brief glances with at the hotel, let us keep our stuff in their little hiding place.
Which meant we could rock out for the Cheater Slicks. My memory of them is hazy because at this point I was so tired I had to sit down at the back. Which is one step above the guy from Portland, Oregon who admitted he got so drunk before the show that he passed out in the parking lot and missed everything. Everyone assures me the Cheater Slicks were great. Oh well. I'm only human, and unlike a large portion of the crowd, I don't do drugs.
At about midnight The Oblivians hit the stage. And let me say it is the greatest show I've ever seen. The band was absolutely on fire and the crowd was eating it up. Everyone was singing along and dancing and pogoing up and down non-stop. Greg Oblivian started things off just as I hoped with "Motorcycle Leather Boy" in all its "sissy-punk-faggot-ass-take-it-up-the-butt" glory. Greg played his songs for about 40 minutes, with some of Eric Oblivian's songs sprinkled in. I can't remember exactly which songs were played but highlights were definitely the sing-along to "Live the Life", "Vietnam War Blues", and "Pill Popper, pts 1&2" (the latter played with only 4 strings). Next up Jack Oblivian stood up and Greg went back to assume drum duties, while Eric stayed up front. Jack began with "Strong Come On" and continued through a whole lot of killer songs. The set finished with "Never Change" which killed. "Like a broken record/I play the same old song/And if I ever fix it/It'll still be wrong/I'll Never Change!" It was unanimously decided afterwards that this was the theme song to pretty much everyone there. At least for that night.
For the encore Greg came out playing Jack's right-handed guitar left handed. Pretty much on the spot he figured out how to play "Sunday You Need Love". Second song in the encore was a scorching "Mary Lou". The Oblivians closed the show with "I'm Not a Sicko, There's a Plate in My Head". The whole performance was so intense. They played for at least two hours and played pretty much everything. The only dissapointment was no "Bad Man", but I think that was more because Greg basically broke every string on his guitar so he couldn't play it.
After the show we all headed back to the Red Roof for an after party. Despite barely sleeping the night before I joined in the festivities. I ended up hanging out with some kids from Portland as well as a guy who used to play in The Woggles back in the early 90s. Everyone there was in a band except Dan and I. About 5:30 AM, while the party was still going, I finally crashed because I just couldn't stay up any longer. The surprising thing is that I never really got that drunk but it was still one of the best nights I've ever had.
