I got to the venue at around 7:30. I like to get there early, especially if it’s a place I’ve never played before, to get comfortable and familiar with a place. The bartender, Michelle, was very nice. She advised me that the bands got free Pabst Blue Ribbon—not quite ready at that point for the hipster Beer of Champions, I bought a beer and settled in. Wifey went to hang out with a friend from work. If you’ve never been to The Bucc, it’s a very small place. The “stage” as it was is situated in front of an old fireplace. I should have asked if it was a functioning fireplace—I meant to and forgot. There is no sound guy, but a small PA system sits on the fireplace and the mains are hung up on the wall. Mark showed up pretty soon after I got there, and Ethan and Shawna were not far behind him.Just before the Unstoppable Juggernaut guys (they’re a duo) got there, we went out and brought in our gear. The Juggernaut guys were very nice—they let us use a PA they brought with them, and we helped them bring their gear in. They had a lot of kit for two people and understandably it took a while for them to get things set up. As they were adjusting sound levels, the crowd started to show up and the guys in the Curtains arrived—I greeted Mike as he was the only one I knew personally.
Unstoppable Juggernaut went on first and…wow. They did some very interesting things, were very technical, very challenging. I couldn’t get into some of what they were doing (a mixture of math-rock, free jazz and Mike Patton-ish freakout) but it was further confirmation that there are some unique things going on in Memphis musically. It also solidified for me that this would be yet another diverse bill for the night.
Our set was challenging but for an entirely different reason. In terms of executing the songs, we did quite well…in fact, I think one of our best songs that night was one of the new ones (“A Novel Idea”). Unfortunately, we had a number of technical problems especially in the first third of the set that knocked us off a lot. In spite of this, we came out pretty well. The set was:
Call and Response
Vanity Tax
Chinese Whispers
Discontent
A Novel Idea
The Human Condition
Song For Vara
Automata
Loose Arrow
Survival
We finished, and the crowd fled. I’m not sure if it was because it was late, that most of the crowd was ours, or what. Of course, we did have some people in from WAY out of town (Illinois and Florida) so I totally understood them wanting to get to their hotel for a little rest. The Curtains went on at around 1:30 AM and were loud. Great, but loud—I was really happy to finally get to see them, even if my ears were really tired by that point. Mark gave Wifey a ride home and I hung out with Ethan and Shawna and talked to the gal working the door, Lyndsi. I’ve known her for a long time, and she used to date a good friend of mine who also showed up.
Everybody at The Bucc took good care of us and I think we put on a pretty decent show. It’s hard to say if we’d play there again, as I don’t know if we’d cater at all to their usual crowd, but it was a marvelous experience and I left tired but happy.
