The Loud Family Tour 1998:

From: Miles Goosens
Subject: [loud-fans] All the Way from Memphis Pt. 1 (tour news, no spoilers, ducks)

The Mott the Hoople classic was the first thing I put on in the car when we left Nashville Friday afternoon for a leisurely drive to the Bluff City. Dan Stillwell had endured a less leisurely drive from Welch, WV, to Nashville the day before, and Tim Pintsch's Wednesday flight from Chicago to Nashville had encountered turbulence and delays. Though consigned to the back seat of the Sunny Happy Shiny Little Red Car, they had to find the journey refreshingly uneventful compared with their travails in getting to Nashville.

Earlier on Friday, we had done the required Loud-Fan record shopping trip (sadly omitted from the St. Louis gathering on the 11th -- everyone is required to return to St. Louis and complete this step else list membership will be suspended and future record-shopping privileges revoked), which in Nashville means visits to the Great Escape, Phonoluxe, and Tower. I managed to convince Tim to pick up the Sugarplastic's BANG, THE EARTH IS ROUND for $2 and the Mekons' F.U.N. '90 EP for $1 (we would see the latter in Memphis for $10), and I foisted MEKONS ROCK AND ROLL on Dan (who, if ROCK AND ROLL takes as I hope it does, will live to regret leaving CURSE OF THE MEKONS in the bin). They both found plenty of other goodies, but I'll leave it to them to describe their treasures.

I found a vinyl of Julie Brown's TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A WHITE GIRL (the back cover, ooh la la!), a couple more Fall CDs to feed my new addiction, Spoon's A SERIES OF SNEAKS for $2, Jon Langford's SKULL ORCHARD, and a miscellany of other goodies. Perhaps most significantly, Tim started playing CIVILIZATION II on my computer and found himself hooked; he got his own copy before leaving our fair city, so I suspect we won't be seeing him again for a couple of months... :-)

During the drive down, I subjected them to Fluid Ounces and Tommy Womack, both of which received a positive response. In fact, the newly shaven-headed Tim surprised us all when he continued to request Tommy's "Skinny and Small" throughout the weekend. Weather in Nashville, Memphis, and points in between was surprisingly mild for this time of year. Dan and Tim both suffered from the humidity, but high 80s and low 90s sure beat the high 90s and low 100s earlier that week.

Friday night in Memphis, we ate Indian food, a first for Dan and Tim, but everyone survived, including Tim, who foolhardily ordered his dish at "native" spiciness -- the entire wait staff gathered to watch him take his first bite! Saturday we drove into Arkansas briefly (just to say that we had been to Arkansas), observed the March of the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel (Tim did not attempt to assassinate the ducks as he had previously threatened -- however, while waiting for the March he pretended to be a Ph.D. while talking to a guy who may have been pretending to be a lawyer), ate lunch at Huey's (burgers and giant onion rings, yum!), walked down a sanitized-but-still-interesting Beale Street, and hit Shangri-La Records.

At Shangri-La, Tim scored the Loud-Fan find of the day, a red vinyl PLANTS & BIRDS & ROCKS & THINGS -- well, I *found* it, but it was ripped out of my hands so quickly that I don't know if I could rightly claim it... :-) I ended up with only a pristine vinyl copy of Wire's A BELL IS A CUP for myself, a far cry less than previous visits which yielded rare goodies like Max Eider's THE BEST KISSER IN THE WORLD, R. Stevie Moore's GLAD MUSIC, and a vinyl LOLITA NATION, but I did find a copy of the Doubters Club CD for Michael Zwirn. One of the clerks (a skinny guy, not the red-headed woman who runs the store) kept eyeing the four of us suspiciously the entire time, the first time I've ever felt uncomfortable in many visits to Shangri-La. I didn't think any of us *looked* like shoplifters...

Around 6 PM we made our way to the club. Barristers is literally a hole-in-the-wall joint, in the alley between Jefferson and Court. There's a tiny sign over the foreboding black metal door, and that's it. We found Dave Marsteller already on hand, so together we headed to the door. There was no response. So we all stayed in the alley to wait for signs of life. We began to wonder if the gig was really taking place in the large alcove near the club door -- inside the alcove there were some broken-down restaurant benches, dumpsters, and words painted in black on the back wall that read:

NO DUMPING
NO LOITERING
NO TRESPASSING
NO TOLERANCE

It would have been an interesting show backdrop, dontcha think? Unfortunately, the stench of the dumpsters probably would have been too much for performers and audience. We settled in to wait for the band. At least the alley runs all the way from the courthouse on the north, straight through several city blocks, to the center of the Peabody Hotel on the south egress, so it wasn't as grim of a view as it could have been.

Around 6:15 a van pulled up. Not only was Kenny Kessel inside, but it was driven by none other than Mike Tittel, the tour drummer from '96, who had made the trip down from Cincinnati with his lovely wife (whose name escapes me, unfortunately -- 4 AM bedtimes will do that to you)! Kenny was kind enough to inform us that the band had already been in town since around 5, they would set up and do soundcheck at 7, and that Neilson Hubbard would be the headliner given their alleged status as a local draw. Kenny assured us that the Louds would get to do their full set, encores included. Then Kenny and the Tittels headed out for the time being.

Not long after the van sped away, new arrivals came onto the scene. First, Jeff Downing, who Melissa and I had met in St. Louis, pulled up, so we were glad to know that all the Loud-Fans who said they would be attending had arrived (Andy Snyder had to cancel, unfortunately). A few minutes later, who should come traipsing up the alley from the Peabody side but Alison and a personage whom we would soon learn was the Luckiest Man in the World -- her husband, Danny! Alison told us that since Danny was on the scene, she wouldn't be having dinner with us to enjoy (hrmph!) private time with him (waaah! much more our loss than hers, of course!), and we made yet another try to roust somebody inside the club, with the same results (or lack thereof) as before.

We were also joined by two Elektra reps who had come to promote Spoon. One of the reps was a junior in the Music Business program at Middle Tennessee State, so I engaged him in a dialogue about the Murfreesboro pop scene, and learned that Fluid Ounces drummer Sam Baker had recently left the group in order to devote himself to supporting and raising his new daughter (drat that family life!).

As promised, at 7 PM the Loud-Convoy came onto the scene, now three vans strong (the two tour vans plus Mike's van), but there was still no sign of life beyond the bolted, handless door of the club. But then the club owner pulled up, so the mystery of "What's Behind the Door?" was soon solved. What was behind the door was a nice-enough club for a hole-in-the-wall thing. Think of the bar as a rectangle, with one of the short ends at the entrance. As you step inside, the bar is immediately to your right, and to the immediate left are about six bowling-alley style booths. The stage is in the upper left-hand corner of the rectangle, running along the left long side and facing the other long side. Across the short floor from the stage, on the right-hand side, is a sunken area with a pool table. Above the sunken area is something of an upstairs, with a few seats strewn about. I've seen better, but I've seen worse. The floor wasn't sticky, and the air conditioning was working, both major pluses on a humid summer night.

We all helped the band with the load-in. As in St. Louis, there was no sound guy on the scene yet, plus Neilson Hubbard was supposedly headlining and would therefore get the soundcheck, so we waited for the band to set up what they could, move it to the left side of the stage, and get changed, plus Scott was still scrambling to find a hotel room for himself and Kenny. Everything didn't get squared away until close till 8, then our group (sans Alison and Danny, of course) headed the couple of blocks south down the alley to Le Rendezvous.

The line outside Le Rendezvous looked enormous from a distance. Le Rendezvous is the most legendary of Memphis eateries. Its specialty is dry barbeque ribs (dry means that the sauce is brushed on before cooking, rather than the wet sauce added onto pulled meat after cooking), which is something difficult to find outside of Memphis, and the restaurant is full of the atmosphere (both decor-wise and smell-wise) that only 50+ years of continuous operation can bring (take that, Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood!). You can't make reservations unless you have a group of 100 or more, but you do have to reserve the shrimp 24 hours in advance -- with a credit card, no less -- which I had done earlier in the week. Seeing that big of a line at this late hour put fear into me that we wouldn't be seated in time, and thus I'd be stuck with an enormous bill for shrimp that we never got to eat. I moved on ahead of the group in order to ascertain what the wait time would be, so we could make a decision on whether to stick with Le Rendezvous or move on to an alternate dining venue. I knew Le Rendezvous has very brisk service, so the turnaround time on tables would likely be quick, but visions of being the guy who engineered the Great BBQ Shrimp Fiasco of '98 danced in my head...

I made my way downstairs inside "Le Voo," and the friendly young women doing the seating told me that they indeed had the shrimp reserved, but it would be a 60-90 minute wait. I told them that I had a band with me that needed to be finished with dinner and back at the club in 90 minutes, and they said they'd see what they could do to work us in. Which in fact, they did, getting us seated in just over a half-hour; one of them even came outside to make sure that I could hear the speaker. While waiting, Tim, Jeff Downing, and I all presented Scott with tapes, including Mixmaster Steve Holtebeck's tape of Beatles covers, which had arrived in my mailbox on Friday in just enough time for me to dub myself a copy before hitting the road to Memphis. I also got to talk to Uncle Gil about his Charo shirt, and about Fellini -- I didn't know there was an edited-down JULIET OF THE SPIRITS until Gil told me, but I'm thinking that I saw the long version based on Gil's descriptions of the scenes pared from the truncated version.

At dinner, the burden of being interesting with Scott Miller sitting next to you fell to me, but I think I managed to survive without saying anything egregiously fawning or stupid. Scott was quiet and thoughtful, as is his wont before shows, but he did respond politely to all queries, and he started providing humorous captions to the unlabeled black and white pictures of what one would presume to be celebrities of the past that adorned the walls -- "look, it's 'Man-Behind-Bars Guy!'" Of course, I forgot to ask him the question about "Good, There Are No Lions in the Street" that I had also forgotten to ask in St. Louis!

Scott's streak of bad service continued -- service at Le Voo is usually the very model of efficiency, but we seemed to have a difficult time getting our waiter to understand just what we wanted, and Scott's question about the difference between the chicken sandwich and the grilled chicken resulted in an exchange that left everyone puzzled. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal, whether they dug into the giant cauldron o' shrimp or ordered their own ribs plate, so that made me feel good about my restaurant selection. Gil made it a point to come by our end of the table after the meal, and boy did he turn on the charm! I could listen to him tell stories (with his hands as much as his words) all day.

I also want to thank Dan, Jeff, Dave, and Mike, who all pitched in more than their share towards the cost of the meal -- Loud-Fans (and ex-Louds!) are the greatest!

From: Miles Goosens
Subject: [loud-fans] All the Way From Memphis Pt. 2 (long, spoilers, duck-free)

Scott exited a few minutes earlier than anyone else to be sure he caught all of Spoon's set. Gil and Kenny also left before the Loud-Fans, but we took off shortly thereafter. Spoon was already playing when we got to the door, but I don't think we missed much of their set.

And we were certainly glad that we didn't miss much of Spoon - Spoon absolutely rocked. As I said to Jeff afterwards, their sound deserves a much grander setting than the surroundings at Barristers. Several listmembers had mentioned the Pixies as a comparison, but live they sounded much more like '77-'80 Wire. We had A SERIES OF SNEAKS playing in the car for much of the day, and the recording doesn't do them justice. Their songs aren't that distinct from one another, but they all have a keen sense of rhythm and space, and are entertaining and arresting enough while they're going on. I don't want to make too much out of the Wire comparison -- certainly the Sugarplastic is more XTC-like than Spoon is Wire-like -- but their playing was clearly influenced by Gilbert / Gotobed / Lewis / Newman, and they ended their set with a Wire cover. Stewart must have seen them on the off-night of off-nights, because they held the stage with grace *and* force. I would gladly pay to see Spoon headline a show.

Other Spoon notes: Britt Daniel, the guitarist/lead singer, gets all of his very electric sounds out of an *acoustic guitar* run through a series of effects pedals. Who knew? Britt also does this odd thing with his feet where he stands on the *side* of his foot from time to time, and not in an Elvis-like way. Perhaps my fellow Loud-Fans can describe this quirk better. Spoon also stuck around for the Loud Family (more about that later).

I expected our heroes to take the stage next, but I saw that Scott was playing pool and Gil was sitting at the bar, and neither displayed any sense of urgency to get onstage. Jeff and I went over to the bar to get something to drink and asked Gil about it, and he said that Neilson Hubbard asked the Loud Family if they would headline again, so NH could get an earlier start back to Nashville that evening. Hey, fine with us! Gil then regaled us with more primo stories. I particularly enjoyed him talking about seeing Hendrix at the Charlotte Coliseum when Gil was 13 -- apparently Mitch Mitchell's playing at that show is what inspired Gil to take up the sticks.

Neilson Hubbard went on next. By now, we had about 25-30 people in the audience, which was more than the number of people who saw Spoon but less than you'd expect for a purportedly "local draw" act. Our group was very mixed on NH -- Dan hated him/them (it's a man and a group!), I liked them, Tim loved them, and Melissa, Jeff, and Dave were somewhere in between the Dan/Tim extremes. I agree with what Dave said about the pacing of their set being less than optimal. I also think that the kind of music NH plays -- layered, strumming pop with soaring, high-pitched vocal -- requires a crystalline sound system to not turn into sonic mush, and Barristers' PA was hardly crystalline. Neilson (the man) took a solo turn that IMO seemed to go on a few seconds short of forever, and brought whatever momentum they had built to a screeching halt. Plus after Spoon's dynamite set, anything short of the Loud Family would come up short in comparison; NH would have been much better as the opener of this particular three-act bill.

All that being said, I enjoyed their set -- hey, anything would sound good after Freud's Mom in St. Louis, but NH played with heart and skill. They also treated Our Heroes with the utmost respect. They announced their intention to thank the Loud Family every third song, and carried through with it. Alison and Gil did some enthusiastic off-stage moves to one of NH's songs, and like the night before in Jackson (as per Dave Marsteller's report), Scott and Alison joined them for "Everybody's Doin' It," though I couldn't hear Scott's vocals at all.

Some of the people left after NH, leaving us with a paltry 20-25 people by the time the Loud Family took the stage. Considering that at least 14 of us were from out of town (including the members of Spoon, who all stuck around for the Louds), 'twas a pretty paltry turnout in Memphis. <EDITORIAL MODE> I know Scott has said more than once that there wouldn't be Loud Family records without Alias, but this is where some knowledgeable local promotion would have helped matters greatly. Not only did Barristers have no posters or handbills up, but key local hangouts like the University of Memphis area and Shangri-La were devoid of promotional material. If you didn't look in the right place in THE MEMPHIS FLYER (Memphis' free news/arts weekly), you might not even know that there was a Loud Family show that night. Just a modicum of strategic footwork might have doubled the turnout -- heck, the woman at Shangri-La tells me that there are a dozen people on the waiting list for LOLITA NATION CDs (should any turn up used); having those people on hand would have increased the audience numbers by 50%. </EDITORIAL MODE>

Sartorial Splendor: Scott had on the "rock star" ensemble -- the shiny black shirt and the tight black pants, which (he said to the crowd later) he donned in honor of Mike's presence at the show. There was no shirtlessness on this occasion. Alison was wearing a cute mostly-black dress with an empire waist and bright colors above the waistline, though the ensemble wasn't quite as "hot" (heh heh) as the little flouncy black dress she wore at the St. Louis show. Gil had on his aforementioned Charo t-shirt, and I can't recall what Kenny was wearing...

Unfortunately, our heroes were once again plagued with sound problems. Spoon actually enjoyed the best sound of the evening, perhaps because of their being a minimal three-piece. NH's sound was a loud muddle. While the LF was getting set up, you could tell that Scott didn't like what he was hearing, and there were long momentum-killing pauses between all of the early songs while Scott tried to work with the sound guy to get things straightened out. Kenny's bass rig was particularly troubled -- I could usually hear some bass since I was right up front, but there often was no bass in the PA. As someone else suggested earlier, it seems like being a bitter sawed-off jerk is a prerequisite for being a club soundperson. This particular bitter jerk guy was a deadly combination of unresponsiveness and apathy; you could tell he'd rather be doing anything but his job. Mike Tittle, who was standing behind me, relentlessly ragged the guy and IMO the sulky doofus deserved all the barbs.

[By contrast, the people working the bar were surprisingly nice, and they took some time to talk to Scott after the show. No Helga of the Hi-Pointe yelling at Alison "Five more minutes for t-shirts!"]

When the Loud Family took the stage, Tim, Dan, Jeff, and I all stepped up front. It's very out of character for me to go up front and be demonstrative, and I think it might be for Jeff too, but I knew if we didn't do it, no one else would. So I stood there for the whole show, yelling and clapping as loudly as I could.

I won't go through the set song-by-song. If you've read this far, you've probably read the other show reports. It was the same regular set as the other shows on the tour, except "Mauritania" was played second instead of "Businessmen" (Jeff and I had said before the show that it seemed like a night for "Mauritania"). BTW, the setlist had "Businessmen" second.

The regular-set highlights for me were actually much the same as the ones I liked best in St. Louis -- the soaring "Way Too Helpful," the spectacular "Good, There Are No Lions," the Bo Diddley "Sword Swallower," and the rockin' "Dee-pression." "Where They Go Back To School..." was unsullied by talking louts this time, and I closed my eyes for good portions of it, trying to soak in the sound.

In St. Louis I had watched the frontline, but this time I found myself looking at Gil for a good portion of the show. What a guy! Not only is his drumming loose-limbed and inventive, but it's a show in and of itself to watch his mouth move during the songs. Sometimes he appears to be singing the words, but other times he appears to be singing along with instrumental parts rather than the vocals! At both shows I attended this year, I was really surprised to see what a large role Kenny's vocals play in many songs -- again, others have pointed this out, but it bears reiterating. Kenny deserves much respect, not just for his amazingly melodic playing but for those elegant vocal stylings.

I wasn't sure if we'd get any encores, with the small crowd 'n' all, but Scott and the band quickly returned to the stage. The first encore was "Like a Girl Jesus," apparently played at the request of Britt from Spoon. Britt made his way up front during the song, and, swear to God, he SANG EVERY SINGLE WORD. Britt appears to be as much of a fan of Scott's work as any of us.

Next was Alison's "Execution Day," and finally "Here It Is Tomorrow." Before "Here It Is Tomorrow," I thought Scott had said to Kenny "Re-Make/Re-Model," but either I misheard or the idea got vetoed. It would have been a special treat with Roxy fan Dan in the house to hear "Re-Make/Re-Model," but I hope he was just as pleased with a Game Theory classic.

And then it was over. The band really and truly played their hearts out for a sparse crowd. I know we tried to give them as much energy as possible, but it's a lot more difficult to draw energy from 20 people than it is from even 50 or 100. The band stuck around and autographed anything and everything; Scott was accosted by two nice-looking women afterwards, but I assure everyone that neither was present when Scott and Kenny headed for their motel that night. The Loud-Fan contingent stuck around to help with the load-out, and then we bade goodbye to the band, who headed their separate ways for the evening.

Downtown Memphis ain't what it used to be -- my car was not stolen or stripped! So Tim, Melissa, Dan, and I hopped in the Sunny Happy Little Red Car and headed back to our east Memphis hotel, a night of great music behind us.

Some miscellaneous notes:

*We stopped in Bucksnort, TN, on the way to Memphis Friday evening. Bucksnort. I kid you not. Someday I will visit the Bucksnort Trout Ranch.

*I added Dave Marsteller to my "Loud Fans met face-to-face" list, and I'mglad to report that Loud-Fans is still batting 1000 on the "Loud-Fan = nice person" sweepstakes. It was also good to get to talk to Jeff Downing at greater length than I got to in St. Louis, and I think we'd probably talk for about three days straight if we ever just visited each other without having a pesky thing like a show to distract us from chatting.

*Throughout this account, I really haven't said much about my pal Tim Pintsch. Maybe Dan can do the honors, or someone like Dave or Jeff who was newly exposed to Tim in person, but Tim is just about the most enthusiastic show-goer you can ever have the pleasure of knowing, and the shaved head and chains make him that much more of a spectacle. In fact, during the LF set, both Britt and Joshua from Spoon had each other take their picture standing next to Tim!

*Finally, bless the Loud Family. They are "our" band like few other groups could or would ever be to their fans. By that, I don't mean that we claim ownership in their personal lives or their art, but I do mean that Scott, Kenny, Gil, and Alison seem to genuinely enjoy our company, tolerate our sometimes excessive enthusiasm with good grace, and allow us all a degree of access to them beyond what any fans have a right to expect. It's a privilege to be a fan of people this talented *and* this nice.

I'm starting to expect that I'll see the Loud Family every other Saturday! If I still had the money and vacation days to go to San Francisco on August 8th, it would be true one last time... (sigh) But I will do my darndest to make at least a '99 one-off Bay Area show. It's hard to deal with the sad fact that *my* Loud-Tour is over.

thanks and good night,

Miles

From: David Marsteller
Subject: [loud-fans] Jackson errata/Memphis sidebar

Something I forgot to mention about the Jackson show:

When doing the soundcheck, the Neilson-less Hubbards ran through the intro of Iggy's "Search And Destroy" and started playing Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", wherupon Scott ran up to try to do the lead vocal. This made a sufficient impression on the sound man that he treated us to an entire Black Sabbath album as 'mood music'.

Memphis sidebar:
Surprisingly, the club in Jackson was bigger than the one in Memphis. Restaurants in Memphis do the most peculiar things with cole slaw. The coleslaw at Le Rondevous was yellow (mustard, maybe?). I'd been to another BBQ place earlier, and they put coleslaw on my BBQ pork sandwich. I thought one of the people in those celebrity photos resembled Bert Lahr in drag. I swear I wasn't drinking...

While I was waiting on Jefferson for Miles and company to show up, another van drove by with someone who looked kind of familiar behind the wheel. It turned out to be Sting- no, it was really Mike Tittel, but he didn't have blond hair anymore either. I didn't realize who it was until he came back a little later with Kenny. Oh, and after Kenny told us who it was. Sorry Mike...

Something Miles forgot to mention:

When Mike Tittel drove up with Kenny, Tim ran up to the van and gave Kenny a bear hug. Kenny survived.

Later
Dave

From: jeff downing
Subject: Re: [loud-fans] All the Way From Memphis Pt. 2 (long, spoilers)

Miles wrote:

>Other Spoon notes: Britt Daniel, the guitarist/lead singer, gets all of his very electric sounds out of an *acoustic
>guitar* run through a series of effects pedals. Who knew? Britt also does this odd thing with his feet where he
>stands on the *side* of his foot from time to time, and not in an Elvis-like way. Perhaps my fellow Loud-Fans can
>describe this quirk better."

I was mightily impressed with Spoon as well. Their sound was jarring in a euphonious way, as it appeared all three guys were mainly concerned with creating a tight, rhythmic texture for the songs. Britt's guitar is set up pretty much like Grant Lee Phillips'--though he never shifts into acoustic mode (at least he didn't on Saturday--which gave his playing a certain crispness, while the bassist used a number of different effects to produce a loud, but never dissonant, wash. All in all, I consider them a band to watch.

[jumping ahead to the LF set (spoiler)] Miles wrote:

>The first encore was "Like a Girl Jesus," apparently played at the request of Britt from Spoon. Britt made
>his way up front during the song, and, swear to God, he SANG EVERY SINGLE WORD. Britt appears to be as
>much of a fan of Scott's work as any of us."

Well, even your Christmas & Easter Loudfan/Gamester probably knows LAGJesus. It probably falls on one of the upper tiers of songs that old fans request most from the GT catalogue (after Erica's Word and Real Sheila). What impressed me most about Britt was that he was singing along to "Not Because You Can," and was completely into it.

Miles:

>Neilson Hubbard went on next. By now, we had about 25-30 people in the audience, which was more than the
>number of people who saw Spoon but less than you'd expect for a purportedly "local draw" act. Our
>group was very mixed on NH -- Dan hated him/them (it's a man and a group!), I liked them, Tim loved them, and
>Melissa, Jeff, and Dave were somewhere in between the Dan/Tim extremes."

Unlike Spoon, I'm guessing that some prior exposure to NH would have helped me here (the vocals for both bands were hard to distinguish, but Spoon would have sounded good even if Britt were spouting guttural nonsense). Their slow songs plodded a bit, and their uptempo songs hit all the expected notes while maintaining safe time signatures. As for the Grant Lee Buffalo comparison, the lead singer has Grant's cherubic look (circa '93), and that's about it.

Miles (on the LF set):

>I won't go through the set song-by-song. If you've read this far, you've probably read the other show reports. It
>was the same regular set as the other shows on the tour, except "Mauritania" was played second
>instead of "Businessmen" (Jeff and I had said before the show that it seemed like a night for
>"Mauritania"). BTW, the setlist had "Businessmen" second."

A thank you to Miles for not pointing out the pathetic deficiencies of my short-term memory (I asked whether Businessmen had been played on the tour, and he gently reminded me that not only was it a staple, but that they had played it in St.Louis. Doh!).

Another highlight of the show for me was "I'm Not Really a Spring," where it sounded as if all of the loudfan contingent were providing the backing "Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohs" at the beginning. If we as a group suffer from any collective anxiety, it is a need to compensate for the floorspace we cannot fill; thankfully, we have folks like Tim who are composed of flesh and adrenaline to reflect the maniacal levels of energy needed to sustain the band's stage inspiration. Kudos to him (and Miles, Dave, Dan, and Melissa, who followed his lead).

Miles again:

>*Finally, bless the Loud Family. They are "our" band like few other groups could or would ever be to their
>fans. By that, I don't mean that we claim ownership in their personal lives or their art, but I do mean that Scott,
>Kenny, Gil, and Alison seem to genuinely enjoy our company, tolerate our sometimes excessive enthusiasm with
>good grace, and allow us all a degree of access to them beyond what any fans have a right to expect. It's a
>privilege to be a fan of people this talented *and* this nice."

Damn straight. I asked Kenny about his Pat Metheny t-shirt and we ended up talking for a half-hour about everything from the dreaded "f" word (fusion) to the Dawn fiasco. Insightful, affable, and amiable. Personally, I don't know how I'd handle it if, out of an audience of 20, the average distance travelled by each member was something like 400 miles. But they all seem genuinely glad of our support (whether they understand it or not).

Jeff

From: Tim Pintsch
Subject: [loud-fans] Ok so that was my mistake...

I am still in the middle of my Memphis post but I feel I must defend myself here. yeah, I hug everyone... That's the way I am and the toughest hug I gave was to kenny, sure, because I dunno, I was really happy to meet him and clues that the Loud Family were actually there excited me in some strange way... I am sure no one who reads this list does not get excited when they see their favorite band... I just happen to be a hugger...

That's my fault... I didn't spot the setup!

Larger post from me soon,

Tim

From: Tim Pintsch
Subject: [loud-fans] Memphis: Section 8

To preface this note (I love the word preface for some reason)... For those of you who don't know, or if this is only a Chicago occurance, I am not sure. But Section 8 is a term used for government subsidized homes in private housing.

To be honest, Barrister's was one of the biggest dumps of a venue I have ever seen. It looked about as old as record players, and it has not aged gracefully. The Bar Stools were mostly broken and the bathrooms ranked worse then all of the filled up outhouses in the world. Scott and company really deserved a whole lot better then they got. Miles had the right on when he said that painted in stenciled white letters:

NO LITTERING
NO LOITERING
NO DUMPING
NO TOLERANCE

Other then meeting Dave before the show, he was the only friendly thing about the whole situation. I sincerely felt embarrassed for our Loud Family, they deserve so much better then a back alley bar right next to industrial sized dumpsters. In person, when Miles mentioned the possibility of their playing in that garbage alcove I physically winced. This attitude was also reflected by our pathetic excuse for a sound guy.

Getting to the good times now:

We arrived in Memphis 8 - 9 pm the Friday night before the show and Miles had this Indian restaurant all picked out. I've had Pakistani food before but never Indian. When we got there they presented us with Menus and I didn't know what to get and Miles suggested something, but I didn't take his advice, when they asked me how spicy I wanted it, I told them I wanted it as hot as I could get it.

Well, to my credit, I finished 2/3 of the dinner before giving up. I will admit at this point that I should not have ordered it as hot as I did, but anyways... we all had fun at the restaurant, most of it at my physical expense, but that was my mistake...

Sorry, I still have spot the setup in my head.

That morning we set out to see the Memphis sights, I was fairly unimpressed, as I live in a larger city, but Memphis had a charm of sorts I suppose. We went and saw the supposedly march of the ducks, but it seemed to be more of a dash of the Ducks... those critters really put a move on, and then we hung around and went to Huey's for some great tasting hamburgers (Miles, Melissa, Dan and I). After that we went down to Beale street, but when we went to Shangri La records, it was the highlight of my day AT THAT POINT... I was feeling really down because I was tired and other things to do with my other half, and I had no luck finding anything Game Theory/Loud Family and I went over to hassle miles and he was looking through records and came up with _Plants and Birds and Rocks and things_ RED VINYL! My mind reacted like a steel trap and I gently, yet, forcefully snatched it from him. (Sorry Miles)

He also found _Big Shot Chronicles_ and let me have it, I tell you, That man has vinyl radar.

After that we went off in search of a game that Miles has that I became addicted to while I was at his house, Civilization II, we never found it at the right price on Saturday but I did get some cool sunglasses and markers at the dollar store...

OK, OK, OK I can hear people thinking "Where's the Loud family content in that?"

Here it is...

We got in at 6 to see David Marsteller waiting outside by the hole in the wall for us and he was really nice, a little on the quiet side, but he was a library of music in comparison to me. Anyways we sat and started talking, then after a while Kenny showed with his friends in a dark Green Ford Explorer. I was excited and proceeded to tacklehug him... he saw what was coming and ducked... But I was very happy to see him, none the less.

... Allowing Miles post to fill in some details....

Eventually the band came together from all 4 directions, Alison and her hubby (lucky bastard) came from the south, Scott came from the East and Kenny and Gil also came from the south ok, 2 directions... sue me. We helped them haul their stuff in, they were hoping for a sound check, but things just didn't work out for one.

I hugged Scott and Gil (CAREFUL *NOT* to INJURE HIS BAD BACK). They were all as nice as they were the last time they were here in Chicago. I cannot re-iterate one of Miles Statements enough: "If they weren't the band, they would be Loud Fans like us" I found that to be very true. It was good to be sitting with Kenny, Gil, and the old tour drummer (sorry I don't remember his name and his extremely beautiful Newlywed.

I Jogged with Scott back to the show after he got done eating. It was excellent food, though I have never had to de-shell my own shrimp before. I do not usually like seafood, but this was really good. Unfortunately our Waiter just plain had a bad attitude about things. To go back, we didn't really have any great waiters except for at the Indian Restaurant the first night.

Anyways, we got back to Barristers and Scott went in and got dressed, when I was outside chatting with the members of Neilson Hubbard, and Mr. Hubbard himself and remembered that I had forgotten my camera and newly bought sunglasses, but Kenny, Gil, and company intercepted me in my mad run for LeRendezvous for my missing posessions and told me that they had given them to Miles for me.

Please forgive me for all of the details, for it is all I am good at besides adrenaline filled hyperactivity and memory and stuff... :)

SHOW STUFF:

We got back to Barristers and paid the $5 cover to see Spoon already playing. Spoon surprised me, I have heard comparisons to Wire, but they really had a unique setup with Britt playing an acoustic guitar that was set up to sound like a funky electric guitar, at one point in the show (In between songs) I yelled repeatedly, "Is that really an acoustic guitar?" to which the response was "Yes, it is an acoustic Guitar." at the end of Spoon's set I spotted Scott eyeing the pool cues and though I suck more then a newborn kitten at pool I invited him for a game, and proceeded to play me in 2 games in which I beat him both times, but I swear he let me win.

I cannot tell you what a great guy Scott is. Everyone else at this show has stated the obvious for me, but he was just like having a friend you've always known since you were a kid around.

Neilson Hubbard then began their set. Let me re-state what I may have already stated in this message The sound guy was a prick, repeat, was a Voodoo Glowskulls t-shirt wearing prick.

Neilson hubbard put on a good set for us. I felt they were a great band that fell victim to a bad sound system and an even worse sound guy. Their intricate guitars were thrown off by the high levels That Mr. VooDoo had set too high. I thought they had put on a good set and told them so. They were one of the best bands I have seen live yet this year (With exception of Local H and The Louds).

There was dissension in the ranks on this one... but I don't think they were done justice buy the sound system.

When the Louds finally came on I stepped up, and so did the other listers... I gave them my dancing all... I have read that the Louds feed off of enthusiasm and I have been told before that enthusiastic response gets encores.

We all tried to make enough noise for double our numbers, despite Senor Pricko del voodoo walking away from the soundboard all of the time and acting like whenever the Family asked him question like they were beneath him. Jeff suggested violence, but I relented and just enjoyed the louds. When they played mauritania I yelled during the Chicago band and Scott, normally too into his music to smile, paused half a second after Chicago and gave me a big grin. That, all by itself, made my night even more special.

They really played their butts off for us, and we loved them for it. I don't remember the setlist, and it's been posted already but we gave them everything we had, and they gave us everything they had and we had a good time. They deserve so much better though. I told Gil that, I told Kenny that, I told Alison that, and I told Scott that. To Barrister's credit, the manager was really a nice guy, as opposed to El Pricko the sound genius.

We helped them carry their things out of the club and then we all hit the road. It was something that was very special, but now at home I just hope the Louds have better venues to play after this one... this place was awful. The only redeeming quality it had was its $1.50 26oz Schlitz... I loved that stuff.

I am out of things to write,
Maybe I'll re-post other details when they come to me,
Sorry for the un-spellchecked incoherance,

Tim

From: Dan Stillwell
Subject: [loud-fans] A Weekend to Remember - 1 (no spoilers)

Are 43-year-olds supposed to have this much fun?

That's a question I've asked myself numerous times following the Loud Family's Memphis concert on Saturday.

On Thursday I had driven nine hours in my Neon to Nashville, surviving a thunderstorm from hell and interminable stretches of road construction along the way. I was never so glad to get out of a car in my life as I was when I finally arrived at Chez Goosens.

There I hooked up with Miles, the all-wise and knowing Melissa, and our pal Tim Pintsch. Following a nice home-cooked dinner we watched Tim's copy of "Clerks," which I had never seen before. Fine movie.

Friday morning we made the rounds of used cd shops The Great Escape and Phonoluxe. Ahh, those $2 cds and $1 lps!!

Afterwards we crowded into Miles' new Shiny Happy Sunfire and struck out for Memphis, rockin' hard along the way with Fl. Oz., Tommy Womack and Spoons. Then came the infamous meal at the Indian restaurant, as already detailed by Miles and Tim. While the others decided upon spicier fare, I chose something that was "very mild" and was _very glad_ I did.

Saturday afternoon we did the usual touristy things in Memphis, such as watching the ducks at the Peabody and checking out Beale Street. I was not as impressed as the others with Schwabb's, probably because West Virginia was filled with stores like that when I was growing up. I thought I had escaped them :)

Our lunch at Huey's was excellent. The onion rings were among the best I've ever eaten.

We killed the next few hours driving around Memphis, of course passing by Graceland couple of times. Shangri-la Records was wonderful, despite the paranoia of one of the clerks. My prized purchase there was a like-new copy of the Doors' _Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine_ (1972), which has never been available on cd.

Finally we arrived at Barristers. "Jesus! You've got to be kidding!" was our general consensus. Many outhouses smell better than that alley. Before long we were joined by fellow LoudFans Dave Marsteller and Jeff Downing. After 40 minutes or so the band began to arrive.

We gladly performed roadie duties and then headed to Le Roundezvous for an amazing dinner. Not liking shrimp, I feasted on the ribs, slaw and beans. I was fortunate to sit across the table from Scott, who is, just as everyone has said, exceedingly cordial and patient.

I asked him if he had been able to write any songs while on the tour. He said no, that with only four people in the traveling party, there was no time to write.

Scott left early to catch the opening of the Spoons' concert, and his place was taken by Gil Ray. Everything Our ana had told me about Gil was true! The man has a tremendous wit and is a joy to be around.

We walked back to Barristers and were nearly bowled over by Spoons. This is band to watch in the future. The lead singer has presence, he writes good songs and he's hell on wheels while attacking the strings on his amplified acoustic guitar.

The LoudFans contingent loved them, and they were very appreciative of our support and applause.

Next, Neilson Hubbard took the stage and I immediately began trying to escape their murderous attempt at music. Yep, I was the guy stuffing tissue into his ears!

As far as I'm concerned, if a band has to deafen me to make their point, then they must not have a damned thing to say. And I will not excuse them because of a bad sound man. Guitars and amps have volume controls, you know.

At least there was a very nice go-go dance by Alison during one NH song, and she and Scott nearly rescued another tune with their guest appearance.

Oh well, enough of the vitrol...

Next up: The Loud Family!

From: Dan Stillwell
Subject: [loud-fans] A Weekend to Remember - 2 (Spoilers!!)

The Loud Family's Memphis concert began with Scott taking centerstage, flanked by Alison on the left and Kenny on the right. Gil, the "man behind the myth," was behind Scott.

Jeff, Miles, Tim and myself moved up front to offer full support. We cheered, we danced (well, if our rock show movements could be called that) and we yelled. Anything to provide energy to the band.

I also had my trusty camera, sans flash, to attempt "available light" pictures. I shot two rolls of color and one roll of black and white (which I will process tomorrow at the office). Hopefully *something* will turn out and go on a website soon.

The Louds followed their usual setlist, except for substituting "Mauritania" for "Businessmen Are Okay." Scott was the confident bandleader, in good voice and doing the combined lead/rhythm thang on his Telecaster.

Alison became the temptress on stage, often doing a dance where she raised her hands high in the air and brought them down slowly to the side, just in time to add her keyboard parts or vocals.

Kenny carried on bravely, despite amp problems. It's a shame his superb melodic playing was often inaudible. Tim did his best with his punkish dances to make Kenny smile, but I think only a lynching of the dork behind the soundboard would have really cheered him up.

And finally, there was Unca Gil. Miles described his style of playing perfectly. He was God behind a drum kit. What more can I say?

Every song was fantastic, sound system be damned. Especially enjoyable were "Room for One More, Honey," "Good There Are No Lions In The Street" and the set-ending "Spot the Setup," which saw Tim nearly break my hand on a botched high-five (my fault, not Tim's).

The band gave us an encore featuring three songs - "Like A Girl Jesus," Alison's "Execution Day" (wonderful!) and an awesome "Here It Is Tomorrow."

Afterwards, Alison and husband Danny sold merchandise, the imcomparable Mr. Ray held court, Scott was everywhere and Kenny began taking the equipment apart. Each graciously signed autographs while we smothered them with praise.

Alison had sold out her _Fog Show_ cd the previous night, but I was able to score "Execution Day," plus a t-shirt that I'll never fit into, and a poster.

I told Gil that a 43-year-old (me) shouldn't be having this much fun at a show. He answered that a 42-year-old shouldn't be drumming like that! Inside my D4D booklet he wrote, "Not bad for a bunch of 40 year olds! - Gil Ray '98."

Scott saw Gil's words and wrote, "Hey, I'm only 38! But already forgetting my medicine. Take care Dan!"

What great folks they are!

We helped load the vans and wished the band a safe trip to Austin. In turn, I was given best wishes for my long trip back to West Virginia. It was about 4 a.m. when we finally made it back to our motel.

Sunday we returned to Nashville, ate pizza and saw Tim off at the airport. That night I stayed up late dubbing several LF/GT concert tapes.

Monday, moving on too little sleep, I said goodbye to Miles and Melissa and headed east. My eyes didn't want to stay open and I actually nodded off once before reaching Knoxville. Luckily I snapped awake before the car could go out of control. I reached the motel, napped, and called a much-beloved friend whom I had covered years ago when she played basketball (about the same time one Miles Goosens was a second baseman for his school). A dinner, a grand tour of the city and some catching up on old times proved the perfect icing on the cake for a terrific weekend.

I arrived back in Welch this afternoon without incident. The wife says she actually missed me!

Dan
(Looking forward to the next tour... and maybe San Francisco in '99!)

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