New Orleans, LA 8/2/10
We took our time loading in and showering in Hattiesburg and said our goodbyes in the afternoon. We made a detour to Slidell so Evan could visit his grandpa and we could explore the cultural epicenter that is Slidell. While evan was gone we tried to find downtown. This took us longer then expected and we soon were informed that we actually had driven through downtown a couple times already, but hadn’t even realized it. We found the little strip of bars and picked our favorite “the ole tavern.” Free pool, Foosball, and $2 Daiquiris greeted us. I befriend a guy named Jerry, and soon our whole group was having just a hoot with our new friend. Jerry informed us that his brother in law is James Carvill (The democratic strategist for tons of people including Bill Clinton, and frequent CNN visitor.) He also said that James’s wife, his sister was a Bush campaign strategist. I think the highlight of our conversation was Jerry informing us that he preferred the wife because of she’s a staunch republican and that she turned down Al Gore’s campaign because that Treehugger was gonna put everyone out of a job. Politics aside, Jerry’s awesome and he destroyed all of us in Foosball.
We got to meet Evans grandpa, who also bashed James Carvill and then started our trek across the giant bridge to New Orleans. I love New Orleans, entering the city is always gives me a very particular feeling. Its so beautiful and tragic at the same time. On our way to the venue we were blocked by a whole horde of kids who demanded 5 dollars to pass. We declined, but they took evan as ransom and we had to go Mad Max to get him back… kinda.
Michael was waiting patiently on the sidewalk outside the venue for us. Im so curious as to what goes on in his head, he is very quiet and pensive most the time, and I have no concept of what actually goes on in there. Im sure its awesome though. We met Alison the bartender and Sammy the door guy shortly thereafter. The saint is the definition of a dive bar, and apparently just got voted the number one dive bar in America. Punk rock decor and low lights define this little spot.
The moment we had been waiting for shortly arrived… we got to meet Pig Lizzard. Ever since we originally contacted him, saw his amazing myspace picture, and had gold myspace interactions, we have kinda been the biggest Pig Lizzard fans. He’s kinda like a magical unicorn or something. Meeting him was no disappointment, him and his friends were super nice and just the right flavor of awkward.
Here is where the first hints of problems started to arrive, the bartender began to card people and no one in the Pig Lizzard camp was over 21. He let a few guys slide by doing x’s on the hands.
Then Native America showed up, and they were also under 21. This took a bunch of negotiation, and the manager of the bar “squirrel” had to get involved. After a bunch of pushing we got it to the point that all the underage people (there was now a horde gather outside) could come in, but with a special wristband and only to see the first two bands. I knew this is all i could get from Squirrel as she didn’t seem like the type to negotiate. Now I understand the bar’s position, being that they could get in lots of trouble, but it also was a big bummer having so many people come and have to leave right before we played. Not only did they not get their monies worth for coming, but we played to half the crowd we could have.
All this aside, I’d like to do a little summary of the sets.
Pig Lizzard kicked things off and Sam and I both sat closely, eagerly anticipating what was to come. His set consisted of him and a drummer making very artsy jams that fluctuated from stoner metal, to the soft introspective lo-fi I heard from his myspace. Pig Lizzard is so god damn endearing, although sloppy at times, he couldn’t have charmed me more. You can’t help but like the guy, which makes it even more lovable that when playing together the two didn’t always lock up, and definitely hold a bit of a nervous energy. I expect good things from Will in the future and thoroughly enjoyed the set they played.
Native America began to set up next and in a similar way to Pig Lizzard, it didn’t seem like they were going to sound anything like what I had heard on the Internet. Although the tracks on the internet obviously show solid songwriting skills and promise in the future, I really enjoyed the show much more. Ross is a super talented dude with a strong grasp on melody and creating textures to support. The band was really tight, especially for being as young as they are. The music they made seemed to be pulling from the Grizzly Bear camp of melodic indie rock with a stronger preferences for psychedelic textures and noise worlds.
We closed our set out and B L A C K I E played after. I was happy to see some our homies from Giant Cloud and Hank, but all in all our set was a little disappointing being that there still were a large group of friends forced to sit outside and listen. It was really nice of Native America to stick around and we got to hang out for a little while after. There was talk of doing a house show afterparty, but being that we had to drive 71/2 hours to Atlanta the next day we politely declined.
Outside the venue our experience in New Orleans was very bitter sweet. Person upon person walked by with blank stares and cold eyes. Its a beautiful city that has been deeply damaged. Really a prime example of the importance of providing help for those who need it. As we sat outside a old man approached his with a cute child in tow. He asked us to watch the kid while he went inside. I declined and told him to go home and that this was no place for such a young child. After some reasoning he finally told the child that we were being real with him and they both wandered off. its such a heartwrenching thing to see not only adults get lost in the shuffle, but to have kids go right in the same direction. I don’t have an good resolution, but definitely thought deeply on the cause and effects of human suffering after the experience.
