It was all a bit dream-like, filtering into the Railgarten compound on a bright, balmy afternoon, seeing many friends for the first time since lockdown, faces half-covered as if convening some mad masquerade ball. Later that night, Miss Pussycat would proclaim “This is so weird!” from the stage, as she gazed out at the crowd, and she spoke for all of us. And yet, it was reassuringly familiar as well.
Many had begun their day to the sounds of DJ Matt Uhlman, co-founder of the Royal Pendletons and New Orleans’ Mod Dance Party events, who had set up shop at the Central Station Hotel. That veritable temple of vinyl was an apt setting for folks to receive their complimentary Gonerfest 18 EP, featuring tracks from Reigning Sound, Aquarian Blood, Archaeas and Silver Synthetic.
As the beginnings of a crowd gathered at Railgarten and the opening ceremonies marked the festival’s start, Alicja Trout assembled the Alicja Pop band for a quick line check and Boom!, it was on.
The first surprise of the day was the guitar-heavy sound of this new Alicja Pop iteration, with Andrew Geraci on bass, Lori McStay on drums and Jared McStay on guitar. Trout stuck to guitar as well, leading the band through a batch of songs sans keyboards. The heavier vibes were more reminiscent of past Trout projects like River City Tanlines or even the Lost Sounds. Quite an appropriate start to Gonerfest.
DJ Jared Boydy’s interlude music during band tear down and set up set a seriously funky, Stax-y mood that played like a grand welcome to Memphis for all weary travelers. The next act, Rocket 808, was a unique palette cleanser, John Schooley III’s solo wailing guitar and vocals over classic drum machine beats. As the Goner guide puts it, “Link Wray meets Suicide madness,” from an artist whose record was Goner’s sixth release way back in 1996.
Next was Smirk from San Francisco, who took the evening up a notch with propulsive beats and restless guitar interplay cut with intriguing vocals, akin to the more rock ‘n’ roll side of the Fall, yet more singable. “Very drinkable,” as Goner co-owner Eric Friedl quipped about the dedicated Gonerbrau by Memphis Made, a “chuggable ale” that was quaffing thirst right and left. It paired well with the convivial-yet-cautious mood that prevailed as the crowd filled out and evening descended.
Throughout the proceedings, nimble-footed elves armed with Sony Handycams flitted on the perimeters of all the action, capturing every move for the well-coordinated live-stream, Goner’s concession to the continued need for socially distanced alternatives. A makeshift command center ensured that the best shots were compiled seamlessly into the online presentation.
Night was upon us, announced by the pounding drums of Detroit’s Human Eye, the latest project from Timmy Vulgar. The outlandish power of the drums was soon matched blow for blow by Vulgar’s guitar stylings, at times locking in with the rhythm in punk-metal riffage, then descending into more freestyle noise bursts. Listeners might have thought a boxcar behind the stage was screeching and careening off the rails, but no, that was Vulgar’s guitar, culminating with blasts of actual fireworks in the final throes of the sonic chaos.
And then, suddenly, the night reached its denouement, as Quintron and Miss Pussycat took the stage with their full band. Given the minimalism of past Quintron/Miss P shows, this was a revelation. A guitar and drums rhythm section augmented Quintron’s canned beats and scratchy organ, with extra freaky, funky texture brought by none other than Goner recording star BÊNNÍ, clad in chain mail, who nonchalantly manned a vocoder. A fellow dancer joined Miss Pussycat’s trademark dance moves, as did the entire audience. The danceability of this Q/P project is greater than ever, with BÊNNÍ’s vocoder either adding bassy funk figures or eerie, swamp-soaked drones. Quintron, for his part, supplemented his grinding organ with licks from a lap steel set atop his keyboard, not to mention his own vocoder in the final number, in tandem with BÊNNÍ’s.
At one point, Quintron exhorted the audience to consider his electronics. “Please don’t throw ice on the keyboards! Throw your ice at the guitarist! They don’t care what you throw at them. Throw anything on the singers, they love it. Pee on ’em if you want! Just don’t throw ice on the keyboards!”
Together, Quintron and Miss Pussycat swapped vocals, with catchy choruses like “My name is Jesus Christ, and I’m an alcoholic!”, “What do you do??”, “It’s gonna be all right!!” and “If I was you, I’d hate me too!” The audience was revved up, cheering wildly at the close of each song, and so all eyes were on Goner’s Zac Ives when he stepped up to consult with Quintron mid-set. Listening seriously to Ives, Quintron then turned to the crowd and proclaimed, “We can keep going! We didn’t even know it was a possibility that we could not keep going, but we’re just so excited now to learn that we really can keep going!”
And even when they’d played their last number, they kept going. While Miss Pussycat prepped her puppets, Quintron played exquisitely lush lounge music. Then the puppet proscenium was presented, and the audience dutifully gathered around it, sitting in semi-circles on the ground like kindergartners.
The evening’s puppet show, a regular feature of Miss P’s for years, was perhaps her best yet, including finely crafted figures of a squarish werewolf and two baby maracas, who grew into a fully dressed and wigged dancing team that took the stage with aplomb. Quintron, for his part, participated in the puppetry as well, which also featured his pre-recorded incidental music.
As the puppetry began, Miss Pussycat spoke warmly to the crowd gathered on the ground before her, offering heartfelt thanks. “Thank you so much! We’ve all been clamped down in New Orleans for the past year and a half,” she reflected, expressing amazement that we could be gathered at all. Indeed, it seemed a minor miracle, and all souls filtered out of the venue that night with rather dazed, happy faces, emerging from a collective dream.
Visit Gonerfest.com for details on the continuing festivities today, Saturday and Sunday.
Photographs courtesy of Michael Graber