Forty Shades of Blue

Bringing Gravity deep down South was a bit of a struggle but, luckily, in the case of getting to Memphis, we were able to find the most awesome curator/rock journalist/dog lover/Punk-Rock-Southern-Belle in the form of Andria Lisle who helped finally get us the farthest South Gravity live has been to date (which will soon be usurped by Australia! Yup, we are crossing the equator to the land down under!)! Andria has done a bunch of everything it seems (she worked for Ike Turner for goodness sake!) and now she is breathing some progressive, sweet new life into The Brooks Museum in such an awe inspiring way! I mean it! She might be my new idol!

Andria is pushing the boundaries of what people think of as museum going (she is planning on having rock bands perform in the Italian masters gallery where the vaulted ceiling acoustics are beautiful, she is organizing a "Let Them Eat Paik" party- with cupcakes!- in honor of Nam June Paik's birthday revolving around his museum commissioned sculpture and, she even brought Brendan's former bandmate Ian MacKaye down for a lecture/discussion in conjunction with an exhibit called Who Shot Rock N' Roll: A Photographic History 1955- Present). Our shows here went great too thanks not only to Andria but also too our sound man/hero Doug. Now Doug is somewhat of a rock sound engineering legend down in Memphis recording such albums as Catpower's The Greatest and Pavement's Wowee Zowee (to name some of my favorites), so working with him was both an honor and a pleasure. He is surely carrying on the musical recording legacy of this town which makes me feel like we've somehow been able to be a part of this local culture in a (tiny, tiny) way...

We did two performances at The Brooks (the first sold out! Mainly due to Brent's morning talk show appearance which was pretty much the single most hilarious thing I have ever seen and will not embarass him any further by discussing!) and both were great! Playing off of the audience made for a buoyant, loud rock show of the first performance and a more somber, contemplative one of the second. Brendan, John, Drew, Brent and I hadn't played together in a bit and, as always, it was so much fun to see these guys and make some improvised music together! Thanks so much to Memphis for welcoming us with open arms and letting us make a tiny little mark on your long lasting musical heritage! And thanks again to Andria! (Psst...Andria? Do you have a fan club? Can I join? Please?)