When Shalita Dietrich, vocalist and bassist for Lewsberg, left the stage after entrancing a full house at Gonerfest 20, I asked her, “Did you have fun?”
“No!” she said, her shoulders slumping. “It’s hot up there! We’re from the Netherlands. We get maybe five days like this a year. I’ve never been so hot!”
“We get about 200,” I said. “Stay hydrated!”
Lewsberg’s Velvet Underground-inspired grooves went over like a cool drink of water on Saturday afternoon. Traditionally, this has been the outdoor portion of Gonerfest, with bands playing all afternoon in the back parking lot at Murphy’s. But since the pandemic forced the festivities to move to Railgarten, it’s always the outdoor portion. The new venue also has the advantage of a larger capacity, and this year, Gonerfest hit it. On Thursday night, I remarked to Goner co-owner Zac Ives that it was the largest opening night crowd I had ever seen, and he replied that more than 200 people had yet to pick up their passes. By the time the Gories tore the house down on Friday night, the sprawling nightclub compound was bulging at the seams.
Dietrich was not wrong. It was hot as blazes Saturday afternoon, and the sun was shining mercilessly on the converted shipping containers that make up the Railgarten stage. After Osaka’s The Smog sent people scrambling for their smartphones to figure out which of the many bands with that name they should add to their playlists, Dippers from Melbourne, Australia (where at least they have some experience with heat), doled out the catchy hooks. Then ’90s Memphis punk supergroup Cool Jerks proved they can still get nasty with the lowest of ’em.
I was doing double duty with the Gonerfest Stream Team and as Flyer correspondent, so I was happy to see Christopher Reyes of the revived Live From Memphis running around with his giant lens, so we could get some good pics for this post. We’ve been livestreaming Gonerfest since before it was either practical or cool to send live music over the intertubes, and this year, under the direction of Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, it was better than ever. HD cams! Wireless setups! B-roll! Is Gonerfest finally growing up?
Maybe. Much of the audience was looking a little grayer in this twentieth year of the gathering of the garage punk tribes. But there was a lot of new blood, too. On Thursday, the first night of the fest, I asked randos if they’d ever been to Gonerfest before. Five people in a row said it was their first time in Memphis. The newbies were treated to a lineup that combined stalwarts with new, wider ranging sounds. In the case of Bill Oreuett & Chris Corsano, they were assaulted with sounds. The guitar/drum duo went free jazz with squalls of lashing distortion and thundering rolls. Railgarten’s stage is right in front of the railroad tracks that run through Midtown, and a freight train rumbled through about halfway through their set — a dream come true for an abrasive noise band!
OG Gonerfest was represented by the sundown set. King Louie Memorial Family Band gathered players from the many bands of the late, great Louie Bankston to play his songs one more time. It was a primal scream of grief and love, with each perfect rock song hitting harder than the last.
As the day’s heat dissipated, Philadelphia’s Poison Ruin laid down some sludge. Courettes got the swelling crowd dancing by exposing the thick vein of girl group melodies that flow through garage rock. Singer Flavia Couri had everyone in the palm of her hand from the opening beat.
Gonerfest vets Marked Men took some poppy melodies and rolling around in the dirt with them as a warmup to the night’s main event. If you hear there’s band called Mummies, your first question is probably, “What, are they guys who play punk rock dressed as mummies?” The answer is yes, that is what they are, and they are the best at what they do. The cult San Francisco band caused the capacity crowd to erupt in mayhem. High energy doesn’t begin to cover it.
On Sunday afternoon, I was marveling at the Mummies’ performance with Meredith Lones, who played Friday with Ibex Clone. “How many organs has that guy broken, I wonder?” she said.
Turnt, the Lamplighter house band led by the high priest of Memphis punk, Ross Johnson, gave one of the most memorable performances of this or any other Gonerfest. Johnson was the drummer for the chaos-billy godfathers Panther Burns, and this current ensemble, which meets every two weeks at 2 p.m. at the Lamp, delivers the full, disorienting noise experience. Guitarist Jimi Inc. directed the band through what I can only describe as song-like sonic sculptures. Little Baby Tendencies’ Haley Ivey stole the show going full Yoko, interjected with punishing jazz flute runs, while dressed as Snow White. The band was dressed in T-shirts specifying which of the seven dwarves they were, and burlesque artist Felicity Fox appeared as the Evil Queen to feed Snow White a poisoned apple. Then, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans joined the band to help things make even less sense.
Olympia, Washington’s Morgan and the Organ Donors made a rare appearance outside the PacNor, with some garage rock that harkens back to the ’60s origins of the form.
Gonerfest loves to close out Sunday afternoon with a nod to North Mississippi roots music. Sharde Thomas of the Rising Star Fife and Drum is the granddaughter of the late Othar Turner. She carries her handmade bamboo fifes in her boots after losing one of the irreplacable instruments when she checked her luggage on a European trip. The banging “Switzerland” came from a jam that appeared on the first day of the tour, when she was forced to make do with a standard flute. The deeply charismatic Thomas swept up the audience with “Minnie the Moocher” and closed with the oddly appropriate “May The Circle Be Unbroken” before she and drummer Andre Turner Evans descended into the crowd for a final up-close-and-personal drum jam.
As he thanked the crowd for making the biggest Gonerfest ever so great, Eric Friedl said, “Don’t tell anyone else about it. We can’t fit any more people in here!”
University of Tennessee Health Science Center