shellshocked and awe
well, hold onto your hats, 'cause this is an actual post...
so this past weekend i was in jackson, missouri for the 4th annual shellshocked music festival. for those of you that are not familiar with missouri geography, jackson is very close to cape girardeau, half an hour from sikeston, and not quite considered part of the boot heel. my bandmate josh is a downhome jackson boy and one of the original founders of shellshocked. he and two other guys decided to put a venue together that allowed young bands the opportunity to play...and the rest is history. (the southeast missourian ran an article about it- props for mentioning 'grasscore') anyway, josh got our band, the sweet and lowdowns, on the bill this year.... so friday afternoon we packed our bags, grabbed our instruments, and headed down south.
so here's a recounting of events during the week:
friday- i rode with josh in his truck, and daniel followed behind in his car. the car ride was spent listening to tunes (i got josh to listen to tmbg's 'flood', and he in turn tortured me with garth brooks), buying sodas and hot dogs at gas stations, and me sassing josh (ie- pointing out that the only bilboard for miles was for tatoo removal, laughing at the city of fruitland, etc...). we arrived in beautiful jackson around 4:30 and josh had to go practice with another band he was playing with at the festival. while he was doing that, daniel and i played horse, and he annihilated me- 'h' to my 'horse'. afterwards we drove around josh's farm for a bit, then headed down to sikeston to eat dinner at lamberts- arguably one of the best restaurants i've ever been to. there i tried (for the first time) fried okra, catfish, hog jowl, and sorgum. old southerners mocked daniel's mowhawk, and i ate too many rolls. we drove home completely stuffed...
saturday- the day began around noon, when we drove to the jackson park band shell to set up and do sound checks. the skies were dark and cloudy and we were crossing our fingers that the storms would pass over without incident. mother nature, however, had other plans. daniel and i left around 2:30 to grab a burger. after about 3 miles, it started to sprinkle. we debated whether or not to call josh and break his heart....but decided not to. 5 seconds later, water started dumping down on us. so, we called josh, told him trouble was headed his direction, and they sheltered all of the important sound equipment just in time. when we returned to the band shell, there was a giant river in front of the stage (which carried off two garbage cans and a tent). there was talk of cancelling, but it was decided that we'd go on with the show. the festival continued without incident, although not many people showed up (josh counted 60 at most). we played probably our worst show to date- lots of sound problems, couldnt hear each other, but people still liked us and we got several compliments afterwards. josh threw an afterparty at his house, and we splashed around in the pool, watched futurama, and played video games and poker. went to bed exhausted.
sunday- slept in till about 1pm. daniel left early because he had to get back to kc. josh and i bummed around till about 4, then drove back. stopped in stl for a bit and visited with mutti and vatti. drank 3 cream sodas and ate 10 slim jims (stomach status: undesirable). arrived in columbia around 10:30. ate the rest of the slim jims (couldnt help myself).
all in all, i really enjoyed the weekend. it was fun to see a new town, meet some new people, and play a show. i only wish that saturday's circumstances were a little better- the rain was stressful for everyone- and that we played a better show than we did. i dont think we got any pictures of the show...or of anything else that weekend, otherwise i'd post some. so....that was it :)
so this past weekend i was in jackson, missouri for the 4th annual shellshocked music festival. for those of you that are not familiar with missouri geography, jackson is very close to cape girardeau, half an hour from sikeston, and not quite considered part of the boot heel. my bandmate josh is a downhome jackson boy and one of the original founders of shellshocked. he and two other guys decided to put a venue together that allowed young bands the opportunity to play...and the rest is history. (the southeast missourian ran an article about it- props for mentioning 'grasscore') anyway, josh got our band, the sweet and lowdowns, on the bill this year.... so friday afternoon we packed our bags, grabbed our instruments, and headed down south.
so here's a recounting of events during the week:
friday- i rode with josh in his truck, and daniel followed behind in his car. the car ride was spent listening to tunes (i got josh to listen to tmbg's 'flood', and he in turn tortured me with garth brooks), buying sodas and hot dogs at gas stations, and me sassing josh (ie- pointing out that the only bilboard for miles was for tatoo removal, laughing at the city of fruitland, etc...). we arrived in beautiful jackson around 4:30 and josh had to go practice with another band he was playing with at the festival. while he was doing that, daniel and i played horse, and he annihilated me- 'h' to my 'horse'. afterwards we drove around josh's farm for a bit, then headed down to sikeston to eat dinner at lamberts- arguably one of the best restaurants i've ever been to. there i tried (for the first time) fried okra, catfish, hog jowl, and sorgum. old southerners mocked daniel's mowhawk, and i ate too many rolls. we drove home completely stuffed...
saturday- the day began around noon, when we drove to the jackson park band shell to set up and do sound checks. the skies were dark and cloudy and we were crossing our fingers that the storms would pass over without incident. mother nature, however, had other plans. daniel and i left around 2:30 to grab a burger. after about 3 miles, it started to sprinkle. we debated whether or not to call josh and break his heart....but decided not to. 5 seconds later, water started dumping down on us. so, we called josh, told him trouble was headed his direction, and they sheltered all of the important sound equipment just in time. when we returned to the band shell, there was a giant river in front of the stage (which carried off two garbage cans and a tent). there was talk of cancelling, but it was decided that we'd go on with the show. the festival continued without incident, although not many people showed up (josh counted 60 at most). we played probably our worst show to date- lots of sound problems, couldnt hear each other, but people still liked us and we got several compliments afterwards. josh threw an afterparty at his house, and we splashed around in the pool, watched futurama, and played video games and poker. went to bed exhausted.
sunday- slept in till about 1pm. daniel left early because he had to get back to kc. josh and i bummed around till about 4, then drove back. stopped in stl for a bit and visited with mutti and vatti. drank 3 cream sodas and ate 10 slim jims (stomach status: undesirable). arrived in columbia around 10:30. ate the rest of the slim jims (couldnt help myself).
all in all, i really enjoyed the weekend. it was fun to see a new town, meet some new people, and play a show. i only wish that saturday's circumstances were a little better- the rain was stressful for everyone- and that we played a better show than we did. i dont think we got any pictures of the show...or of anything else that weekend, otherwise i'd post some. so....that was it :)
posted by suz at 9:57 PM
2 Comments:
There is something so familiar about what you describe--makes me homesick.
I've been to Lamberts, and to Sikeston. While Lamberts is a vivid memory, I wouldn't be able to pick Sikeston out of a lineup of small towns.
Sounds like you had an adventure, even if some of it could have been better.
woah. Mary Ann is human aferall.
Post a Comment
<< Home