Top 10 Shows I Promoted Part Six
1989 - 2010
Welcome to the last post of my top ten shows. Remember, these shows are listed in chronological order, not by favor. To me, it’s all one show. One long story. My story.
Let’s recap:
Sat. March 25, 1989 - Thrash-A-Thon - Southaven JC Building - Southaven, MS
Thur. Mar. 29, 1990 - Faith No More - Six-One-Six - Memphis, TN
Sat. Nov. 16, 1991 - G.G. Allin - Antenna - Memphis, TN
Fri. Apr. 7, 1995 - Sonic Youth - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Sat. May 6, 1995 - Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Mon. Aug. 26, 1996 - Jesus Lizard/Six Finger Satellite - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Sat. Nov. 9, 1996 - John Zorn - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Sat. June 3, 2000 - Melvins - Last Place On Earth - Memphis, TN
That leaves just two left and they’re below:
(all photos by Chris Walker)
Sonic Youth & Friends - Wed. Aug. 16, 2000 - Last Place On Earth
L - R: Jim O’ Rourke - Steve Shelley - Lee Ranaldo - Eddie Vedder
I will forever be in the debt of John Michael McCarthy. The only way I’ll be able to pay him back is if I land him a gig that leads to a career, since that’s what he did for me. He’s probably going to have to write it off.
Mike McCarthy hired me as a part time production crew member at The Pyramid Arena in September 1999, when he was production manager. The Pyramid was home to the University of Memphis men’s basketball team and hosted major concerts and the standard arena fare. It’s a Bass Pro Shops now.
Mike is not a sports guy. At all. That can present challenges when half of the job is broadcasting basketball. He’d hired some skilled people but they weren’t really sports knowledgeable either. I remember talking to him at a show and he asked me if I cared about some part time work at The Pyramid. Outwardly, I acted mildly interested, while, inside my head, I was screaming like a little girl at a teen idol concert.
See, my dad raised us to be Memphis State Tigers.
I remember Dennis Isbell, Hank McDowell, and Otis Jackson being the first Tigers I rooted for as a child. They were below average that year and I remember my dad getting excited because they were getting some coach named Dana Kirk and it was supposed to be a big deal, and sure enough, it turned out to be. I remember my big brother, Kim, and my dad and I going to games in the Mid South Coliseum when they played in the Metro Conference and regularly played teams they never play today. When the opportunity to see every home game court side AND get paid to do so presented itself, it was a no brainer.
I had just opened Last Place On Earth, a 700 capacity venue located at Madison Avenue and Danny Thomas Blvd, a few months before with a couple of partners. I told them about my new opportunity. Since most Pyramid events end about the time ours would be getting started and it was a 5 minute bike ride away, no one saw any issues. If anything, the collective hope was that maybe my presence there could help our business.
Over the next 12 months Last Place On Earth hosted:
Indie rock legends Guided By Voices, Superchunk, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Don Caballero, Royal Trux, and The Make Up.
Various garage rock all-stars like Guitar Wolf, Demolition Doll Rods, Royal Pendeltons and all of Jay Reatard’s bands at the time.
A violent Hatebreed show that will be written about by yours truly one day.
A raid by the Organized Crime Unit of Memphis Police Department during Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis, and Candiria. That was something that kept happening across multiple venues. A big show of mine gets busted up by the cops. A common tactic of competing Memphis club owners at the time.
A VH1 reality show called “Bands On The Run” where we were the worst venue in Memphis. If you’re mad at yourself, you can watch the Memphis episode here:
My first 12 months at The Pyramid were eventful too. During that time:
The first concert I ever worked in a large scale public facility was Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers on Saturday, August 7, 1999.
On Y2K Eve, The Pyramid was rented out by a promoter who threw a variety show called “Capstone Blast”. It was more like a high school prom with $100 tickets. Less than 200 people attended in a 20,000 seat sports arena. It was something to behold. One gentleman, who was quite drunk, heckled every performer, and even wandered on stage until he was dragged out bodily by the MC. I put together a little video from the leftover footage:
Memphis State’s head coach resigned over a tryst with a student. Johnny Jones was the interim coach my first year to ever work in a basketball arena.
6 months later, I’m audio engineering the press conference announcing John Calipari being hired as head coach of University of Memphis. Afterwards, I remember feeling like things were going to change in a large and positive way in Memphis, especially when…
It was announced that Pearl Jam would be playing The Pyramid Arena on August 15, 2000. None other than Sonic Youth would be the support act. At fiber optic speed, I envisioned another secret show like the one that occurred 5 years earlier at Barristers, except this time, it would be in a venue that would be much more appropriate and accommodating.
I got on the phone with their agent. Miraculously enough, Pearl Jam had the next night off before they were to head to Nashville and my idea was pitched to Sonic Youth. I offered 100% of the door after expenses for them to play solo on Wed. Aug. 16, the next night after The Pyramid show, aka, my sister’s birthday, aka Elvis’s death day. It was confirmed within 2 weeks of offer. Unlike before, I had time to announce to the world that Sonic Youth was going to play my club but I could only tell people. No advertising. I was allowed to advertise it as “SYR Presents: Perspective Musicales”.
August 15, 2000. I’m in the sound booth of The Pyramid waiting for the show’s lighting director to call on the headset “Stand by house lights…aaaaaaaaand house lights go!” The call comes and I hit the 6 buttons to kill the mercury halide lighting and backlit advertising signage in the arena. It’s quite a rush that I still get to this day when it’s “house lights go!” and I hit the necessary buttons and thousands of people all cheer simultaneously. You always fantasize about completing a mundane task and hearing an invisible arena crowd cheering you wildly, but that’s exactly what happens when I simply press some buttons at my job.
Sonic Youth played these songs according to Setlist.fm:
Bull In The Heather
The Burning Spear
Free City Rhymes
Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)
Side2Side
Kool Thing
100%
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
I don’t remember at what point during their set this occurred but I was walking from one end of the arena floor to the other in-between songs and Thurston Moore spoke to the crowd of 10,000:
“Hey everybody, if you’re not doing anything tomorrow, we’re playing a club called Last Place On Earth tomorrow night with some friends if you wanna stop by.”
Over the span of 3 seconds, several emotions went through me:
Shock: It was like Thurston Moore was speaking about me without him knowing I was in the room. I literally turned around and froze.
Elation: They make movies about moments like this.
Pride: I wanted to lean down to the closest row of patrons and brag to them that he was talking about my club, the way a parent will gloat to a total stranger about how well the fruit of their loins is performing in whatever sport or activity they’re witnessing them participate.
Terror: It hit me like a ton of bricks that if as little as 9% of the audience decided to take ol’ Thursty up on his invite, I would have a big mess that I wasn’t prepared to deal with. As Marlo Stanfield would say “One o’ those good problems”.
The next day, I was thrown back to Sonic Youth’s 1995 appearance at Barristers, when the phone would not stop ringing at all. I changed the answering machine’s outgoing message to answer on the 2nd ring, not record messages and briefly state the details of the evening’s itinerary.
“You’ve reached Last Place On Earth, located at 345 Madison Avenue at Danny Thomas. Tonight is SYR Presents: Perspective Musicales, doors at 8 pm, show at 9 pm, no advance tickets, first come, first serve.”
The place packed out solid. If you’d like to see what the scene was like right before they went on, here is a clip of myself, my old partner, and Dr. Mr. James T. Bolden Sr. The American, His Damn Self working behind the bar and giving us the peace sign followed by Sonic Youth taking the stage and starting the show:
I was busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest slinging beers when one of my customers excitedly ran up to the bar and yelled “YOU DIDN’T SAY EDDIE VEDDER WAS GONNA BE HERE!!!”
Me: “What!? Where?”
Customer: “ON STAGE!!!”
I had to see for myself and, now, you can too:
I was entirely too busy to absorb the moment. Also, the music they were making wasn’t exactly rock out and dance music. I don’t claim to know what “shoegaze” is but it really seems to describe the music they played that night with Mr. Vedder.
Wiki’s definition:
Shoegaze is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.
To wrap up:
I’ve never been a Pearl Jam fan but I like them as humans. We share an intense passion for basketball, and between Eddie Vedder’s charity work (including appearing at my venue; that was definitely charity) and sense of humor, they’re a-ok with me.
Remember, this was August in Memphis. It was insufferably hot. We had solid AC, but no venue would be able to have the doors open that long and maintain any kind of climate control. I looked up the weather on that day. It got up to 100 degrees in the day and down to 90 when doors opened. By mid-show, we had to open all doors wide to exhaust the heat. The temperature outside had dropped to a brisk 86 degrees by midnight. Feeling the air, when walking outside by the front doors of Last Place, toward the end of the show, felt like hot jet wash blasting out.
One thing I didn’t know until I started researching and writing this piece was the audio of this concert exists online. You can listen to the entire show HERE.
You can also read the post mortem below:
Bill Ellis - Commercial Appeal
Damo Suzuki & Cul De Sac - Thur. May 9, 2002 - Hi Tone Cafe
I hate to end this series on a show that I have no media, nor any information available to me, other than the exact date and my decaying memory, but it’s looking like how this is going to go. So this is going to be short. So short, that I’ll just bullet my way out the door…
I emailed the Cul De Sac Bandcamp page to see if the band actually had anything to do with it and, alas, they do not. A gentleman named Heath responded and said he’s in contact with the band and would forward my message to see if they’d like to discuss that show with me. No response. Sad emoji.
Thanks to John Thomas, I’m a big Can fan and the Damo Suzuki stuff is by far my favorite. When Damo walked in the door of the Hi Tone Cafe, a venue I’ve booked countless shows, I was star struck. For the first 30 minutes of his arrival, he and I were like this:
Damo put up with my sycophancy beautifully. He was very friendly and would chat with anyone who wanted.
Cul De Sac and I revisited their past stay with me at my parents house in Mississippi in the 90s. I’m a huge fan of their album “I Don’t Want To Go To Bed” and to hear them with a living legend like Damo was going to be a once in a lifetime thing.
The show was all improv. It was glorious. You can listen to Cul De Sac and Damo Suzuki collaborate on their recording “Abhayamudra”, which is borne from their touring experiences. It’s the closest thing you’re going to get to experiencing the show.
There is an organization called “Live From Memphis” and they were just getting started around this time. They do amazing work and Chris Reyes, the founder, would record any bands that would come through. This show was documented and it used to be online, but now I can’t find it anywhere. If anyone reading this knows where to find that audio, gimme a shout!
I have come to the end of my list. Let’s re-recap, this time with links:
Sat. March 25, 1989 - Thrash-A-Thon - Southaven JC Building - Southaven, MS
Thur. Mar. 29, 1990 - Faith No More - Six-One-Six - Memphis, TN
Sat. May 6, 1995 - Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Mon. Aug. 26, 1996 - Jesus Lizard/Six Finger Satellite - Barristers - Memphis, TN
Sat. June 3, 2000 - Melvins - Last Place On Earth - Memphis, TN
Wed. Aug. 16, 2000 - Sonic Youth & Friends - Last Place On Earth - Memphis, TN
Thur. May 9, 2002 - Damo Suzuki & Cul De Sac - Hi Tone Cafe - Memphis, TN
The last show I put on was the death metal band Macabre at the Hi Tone Cafe in 2010 after I had moved away from Memphis and was living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I didn’t really do anything other than field the offer, relay it to Dan at the HTC, they agree to underwrite it, I signed off on it and let the professionals handle it from there. I don’t miss it.
I want to thank everyone who subscribed to this Substack and have followed along this series. Most of you were there. I want to thank you for that, too. I feel like it’s obvious that I love my music and that I’ve never done any of this to get rich. All I ever wanted was to help put on great concerts and events and be able to get by. I wasn’t even expecting health insurance, because in Memphis, if you’re attempting to make a living off of music, that’s not a thing. Now, I do fine helping put on events, complete with all the benefits you’d get at a regular job. Just not in Memphis. I wanted it to be, though.
There are times when I think to myself, I should put on another show just for old time’s sake; to see if I can still do it or to see how I can use all I’ve learned since then. I get far enough to start thinking about the logistics, the venue, parking, do I have enough money and time to even promote it properly? Then the idea dies a quick, painless death.
I’ve decided to try one last show and I have no idea who it will be.
I’m going to try to put a concert in Moody Center.
Stay tuned…