weed hounds southern tour, pt 7 – memphis
alright so after we woke up in jackson we went to this place called beagle bagel, a place jenny used to go to when she lived in the south. the bagels were not n.y. qualified to be called bagels, but it was ok to fill our stumaches. we sat and discussed the real house wives of various cities and while watching some housewives on big flat screens. after eating and filling our water jugs we hit the road on our way to memphis, tennesee.
we hit some southern rain that slowed the pace a bit but made good time to get there and spend some good hanging time.
the first thing on our list of things to do was check out the legendary sun studios which is where pretty much all of american rock and roll was created. well, that’s not true but it is sort of.
brought out the old tri-pod for this one.
inside there wasn’t much history to be found aside from over priced souvenirs. i tried to snap this photo of a roy orbison single because when i was a youngster my mom loved some orbison. we glanced around a bit, got some moonpies (no pennywhistles) and headed out. it was a cool place to stop in and get a postcard (did you ever get it charlotte?) but not really worth spending much time in unless you are a souvenir collector. if i had more cash i mighta bought some singles maybe
our next mission was to lay our eyes on the mississippi river. i was stoked about this because the mississippi is responsible for a lot of history in the united states and i’ve never seen it in person
that’s a bridge and another one of those cleopatra looking thingys. i should do some research i guess but why are they everywhere?
we got out at this park and met a lady selling delicious snow cones of many varieties. she was also selling pre-packaged pickles. say that ten times fast! quick!
this was like a steamboat or something i dunno
charlotte sent me a “wish you were here” picture from the beach in new york at this second, so i responded with my own from memphis
we ate our ices in the blazing sun and enjoyed the serenity of the river. it was here when i first got a severe urge to touch the water of the mississippi river. the other hounds talked me out of it because the footing of the river’s edge didn’t look too solid
i just kept thinking “how could i come this far and not touch that damn water!”
we got back in the van and headed over to goner records. i found a ton of cool shit and bought 1/4 of it. das oath 9 inch on 10 inch (what?), infest no man’s slave lp and a jam “going underground” single. it was priced right, too. good shit. oh and that’s a overpass for a train above. it looks like a town. cool
at goner we saw a flier for our show in the window. again cool to see people are involved and into your shows when you get to town
we were hungry and wanted to get some memphis barbecue so us and girlfriends talked to the workers at goner i think and they suggested this place for us to go to. girlfriends got their before us. that’s their van
the place was just called “the bar-b-q shop.” seems simple enough to me. i had the best baked beans i’ve ever eaten in my life at this joint. i think laura ordered the tic tacs from her purse because this place put meat in everything
i don’t know what this is a photo of
after we were really stuffed we decided to get some groceries (beer) before going over to the house show
they have grocery stores that are ACTUALLY called “piggly wiggly” and they aren’t joking about it either. seriously. the inside of this place was more like what i imagined all of the south to be like. people with no shoes, crazy hair, obese, stained shirts and shorts and no shirts, etc.
this was hanging in the beer section “hey guys great barbecue! pass me one of those burgers please! oh you want a b-HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT FLYING PIG HEAD”
so pat took this photo of laura holding a case of steel reserve, posted it on tumblr and in approximately 41 second 10 people had commented on the image. which proves my theory: people like beer. when we got back to the show we hung out with the folks that lived in the house, played some lawn soccer with andy, benny and some locals and prepped to play.
local band all howlers opened up and blew my fucking mind. (jenny took these two photos) this band is so good! they started posting some recordings online too. i wish the recordings sounded more like they did when they played live because i don’t think it’s the best representation. they had so much more energy! like holy shit! there was a feeling in the air almost (cheesy yes, but true). i felt like these kids in memphis just grew up with rock and roll in their blood or some shit
we played a good set next (maybe my most sweaty set) and then girlfriends took the floor. this set was like another holy shit moment. and it’s funny, both laura and i had the same feeling. we both said we felt like we were at a house party in 1950 or something. people were getting down dancing and shit, shouting during songs and all that craziness! i felt so good for girlfriends, it must’ve been a really rewarding performance! after discarding sweaty clothes and packing up our van we followed the howlers back to their gigantic, beautiful house where pat played his aerosmith genesis game. the howlers offered us showers and even inflated a queen size air mattress for nick, plus both laura and pat both got couches! unfortunately we had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn the following day because we wanted to spend some quality time at our next destination – new orleans, louisiana.