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Gonerfest 14: Friday

Gonerfest Friday went all day and night.

Thunderroads take the Gonerfest leap.

For a second day, the weather gods smiled on the afternoon show. This one, at Memphis Made Brewery, featured a truly international cast, with Magic Factory from New Zealand being the farthest afield.

The Memphis band Model Zero made something of a debut with a groovy, hybrid drum machine and live drummer setup.

Model Zero

The atmosphere was friendly, with some kids running around and old friends reconnecting. Allison Green, a New Orleans photographer, has been covering Gonerfest for four years. “It’s my friend’s bachelorette party, so I’m taking it a little easy. I love shooting candids at the day shows more than anything.”

She says Gonerfest has been one of her favorite events to photograph. “Visually, Ty Segall’s set he did a couple of years ago was brilliant. He knows how to put on a show.” she recalled. “Hank Wood and the Hammerheads blew me away. They had two different drummers, and it was the best I’ve ever seen that done. There were tribal undertones, with traditional drums on top, and it was amazing.”

The highlight of her Gonerfest so far was Thursday night’s Sweet Knives performance. “I love Alicja Trout. I was a huge fan of the Lost Sounds. My buddy Rob and I were working in the darkroom—we went to college together—and he said, ‘You need to come to this show with me!’ That was my introduction to the Memphis scene in Chicago. It was 2004, probably? That’s when I saw the Lost Sounds. Alicja’s just the nicest human being in the world. I adore her. It’s very nostalgic for me.”

Kyle Johnson and Alyssa Moore keep Gonerfest sounding good.

Memphis bassist Jeremy Scott said it’s important to pace yourself during these long day/night show combos. “I love the outdoor shows at Murphy’s. Blood Bags, out of New Zealand, played last night, but they first played last year, and I saw people in the room with their jaws dropped. They were just that freakin’ good. Heavy, no bullshit, straightforward rock.”

He has played Gonerfest four times, but last year’s Reigning Sound reunion was his favorite. I don’t think we knew we were going to do it ever again, so to have that go off as well as it did was a lot of fun.”

I didn’t get pictures of anyone I talked to, so here are a couple of random guys.

Thunderroads, a Japanese band, closed out the after with a spectacularly athletic set that ended with  Masahuru, brother of Seiji from Gonerfest favorites Guitar Wolf, leaping from the landscaping.

Masahuru of Thunderroads

Friday night at the Hi Tone started off with Frantic Stuffs from Osaka, Japan playing a charming, English-challenged set. Outside, Goner Records founder Eric Friedl was happy with the way things were going. “The first band is killing it, and it’s as full as it was last night already.”

Finding bands to fill out the weekend is a year-round job, he says. “There are a range of bands you would like to get. Then some people approach us and say, we’ll build a tour to get there, or we’re going to be on tour, it would be great if we could play. Then other people we ask. It’s kind of a random mix. We don’t have enough money to say, ‘We want you. We’re going to fly you in and put you up.’ So it has to be a collaboration between the bands and us. That’s why it works, I think. People really want to be here. People like Mudhoney, Cosmic Psychos—these bands could make more money other places, but they want to be here.”

In the crowded Hi Tone, San Fransciso’s Peacers delivered noisy power pop seeped in Big Star harmonies and Husker Du noise meltdowns.

Gonerfest 14: Friday (3)

Foster Care from New York City blew the roof off with rude, old school hardcore. When the crowd started to throw beer cans onto the stage (a sign that things are going well at Gonerfest) Foster Care’s bassist upped the ante by emptying out the contents of a trash can onto the audience, then wearing the trash can while he played.

Foster Care, with trash can.

The set ended with a punk puppy pile.

Foster Care gets intimate with the fans.

Lindsey, a Memphian attending her fourth Gonerfest, was there for one band. “Nots are my favorite!”

Gonerfest 14: Friday

Nots had their coming out party at Gonerfest a few years ago, and now they’re a staple of the festival. This year, fresh off the road, they did not disappoint, putting forward some new, synthesizer heavy songs, mixed with guitar-led screamers.

Gonerfest 14: Friday (2)

Tyvek, another veteran Gonerfest band, rose to the challenge the Nots laid down. pushed and swayed.

Tyvek

Sydney, Australia punks feedtime’s drummer was rejected for his visa, so the band played their headlining set with Anthony from San Francisco’s Leather Uppers sitting in. At that point, the Hi Tone main room was so packed I couldn’t make it in the door. I paused for a moment to talk to Elise from Salt Lake City, Utah. “I’ve been to Memphis, but this is my first Gonerfest,” she said. “It’s fucking awesome. I like everything about Memphis—the culture, the people, the music.”

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Rockin’ Down Under

The Oblivians traveled to Australia earlier this month for the first time since forming more than two decades ago. While the band has played in Europe and Japan, Australia seemed out of reach until a couple of years ago when the band’s booking agent starting laying the groundwork for American bands to make the trip down under. After he caught up on some much needed rest, we talked to Eric Friedl of the Oblivians to find out more about their latest trip, the bands they played with, and trying to find time to relax while on a grueling tour.

Flyer: You guys have strong fan bases in Europe and Australia, but how did the trip and tour get set up?

Eric Friedl: A lot of the guys from the Onyas had been bugging us about coming to Australia, but it just never really seemed possible. You never really know what you’re getting into when you travel that far from home, but our booking agent has been over there a few times and she seems to have set up a home base for some of her bands. We have a lot of friends in Australia, and it was kind of a Goner Fest reunion in a lot of ways. Seeing everyone who’s traveled all that way to the USA to watch us play really hammered home how far people travel to come to Goner Fest.

I know the Oblivians played Japan a couple of times, but was this everyone’s first time in Australia?

Yep. A long time ago we were looking at going to Australia, but we had better connections in Japan with Guitar Wolf at the time, so it made sense for us to go play over there. We thought we could swing by Australia on the way to Japan but those countries seem a lot closer when you’re just looking at a map.

What was the travel situation like? How did you all feel when you finally got there?

I think it takes like 16 hours to get to Sydney and the trip takes a bunch out of you. We slept most of the way, which was good since we didn’t get much sleep for the rest of the tour. I’m looking forward to some severe jet lag in the next couple of days because it takes a while for your body to realize it’s doing something completely different. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the tour, not just from the shows but more from the jet lag.

You guys got to play with some really great Australian bands, some of which your music has influenced. Which show was your favorite?

We gave our booking agent a list of bands we wanted to play with ahead of time, so that helped. We figured if we were going to travel all the way there we might as well play with some of our favorite Australian bands. Everybody was great; we didn’t see a bad band the whole time. We got to play with Feedtime twice, which was incredible, the Ausmuteants and Low Life were also great.

The first Feedtime set we saw was just completely unbeatable, so mean and so nasty, and they were following Low Life, who are also really good. Feedtime just leveled the place. It was like the apocalypse. We knew we weren’t going to come close to following their performance, so it made it pretty easy to get up there and play.

How were the music scenes in Australia different from what you’ve experienced playing shows in Europe and the US?

It was a lot different. Sydney had a younger, more aggressive crowd, and Melbourne was mostly an older reserved crowd, but they were also older people who are into really good stuff. It was awesome to get to play the Golden Plains festival. So many festivals suck to play, but this was one was amazingly cool. The number one rule of the festival was don’t be a dickhead, which was kind of weird because most of the time that’s what festivals are for. There were about 6,000 people at Golden Plains festival just hanging out, and it was probably one of the biggest shows we’ve ever played.

Did you have time to be a tourist or were you too busy playing shows?

We got to the beach twice, but we didn’t have time to do much, no surfing or anything like that. We had radio shows, solo shows, and then two shows a day for about half the dates. All the travel time also kept us pretty busy. We got up to see Mikey Young from Eddy Current Suppression Ring; he lives a couple hours north of Melbourne. We saw some kangaroos hanging out in the park and that was pretty cool.

As a record store owner and collector, how big of a priority was trying to go shopping for vinyl?

I only got to a couple of shops but Greg [Cartwright] got to a lot more. Besides some foreign pressings, I didn’t really buy anything, but Greg can dig up records anywhere.

What other kinds of culture shock did you experience?

We did notice that there are like 10 million kinds of chicken parmesan in Australia, and everyone is very conscious of free range everything there. They serve you portions that are basically twice American size, but other than that it was pretty standard. We didn’t eat kangaroo or anything too wild.

What do the Oblivians have going on for the rest of the year? Are you going to tackle any other new places?

We are doing a run up through Chicago and Cleveland at the end of May – that’s our next little jaunt.