"I gave you the warning
But you never heeded it
How can you say you miss my loving
When you never needed it
You're gonna wake up wondering
Find yourself all alone
But what's gonna stop me, baby
I'm not coming home
I'm not coming home"
Day two of ACL. As Gregg pointed out, much to Cassidy's dismay, Tegan and Sara cancelled. But the other highlight of the day would turn out to be transcendant.
We saw bits and pieces of Aqualung (OK, this Coldplay shit has got to stop...how about a moratorium on pianos for a few years), Shields of Faith (my soul was saved), The Frames (who fucking ROCKED), Death Cab for Cutie (I'm noticing a theme here of bands who would sound great at night in a club, but who are completely out of their element playing on the surface of the sun), some replacement gospel band for the AWOL Betty Lavette (who we dubbed the Gospel Family Doofus Hour), Jet (see Death Cab...although they did do their Beatles-y song AND their Stones-y song AND their White Stripes-y song), and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Cassidy was mortified to see dad shaking his ass, but there were clearly lots of NOLA refugees there and it was a hell of a party).
And then there was Roky.
I saw Roky in one of his ill-advised nights out about ten years ago, at Antone's, when he was clearly not in possession of all his faculties. They did three songs, Roky only sang, he didn't seem to know where he was, and he meandered off in the middle of the set, confused, never to return. It was painful to watch. It was sad to see such a brilliant mind wandering in the wasteland of mental illness.
Well, tonight was not that Roky Erickson.
"I told you I'd come back....
I don't look like him, but I am him.
Don't you recognize the voice, Jim?
I promised to see you die, and I will."
It was fantastic. Cassidy and I got there early enough to be front row center right in front of him. And when he came out, after being introduced by Kinky Friedman himself, it was paparazzi mayhem. There were over twenty media cameras in front of the barricades and more cameras going nuts in the audience. Roky smiled the whole time. Played guitar and sang the whole time. Joked between songs. They played a full hour. The audience sang along with every word. Roky songs. Elevators songs.
It was fucking glorious.
Lots and lots of pictures on the flickr page.
I don't know if this is of interest, but I have a guitar just like Roky's, but in Cherry Sunburst. It's a '62 or '63 Gibson.