Memphis road trip - part one

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.