So long Mississippi Nights January 19, 2007
I was sad but not surprised to hear that Mississippi Night closed it’s doors tonight. They’ve been in gradual decline for quite a while, unable to compete against newer venues like the Pageant.
For the years in my life when I was seeing live shows on a weekly basis, MN was my favorite place to see a show. I dug the tiered floors that let you choose how you wanted to see the gig – down in the pit, sitting, standing near the bar, etc. I dug the bar. I don’t know why, but it was just a fun place to be. Tom was our favorite bartender – he’s been there for ever. I always thought it was just the perfect size venue to see the kind of shows that I love the best. You could get close but it’s big enough that the place can get really rocking and high energy.
The first show I ever saw there was Sass Jordan with the Arc Angels opening. The Arc Angels was basically the Stevie Ray Vaughn’s rhythm section after he died. And Sass Jordan was sort of a southern chick singer Nick and I were briefly enamored with. Nick and I went down to see that gig and we were young enough that we had to sit in the special minor “no drinky for you” area.
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite show I ever saw there. I remember seeing a ton of local acts there like Robynn Ragland, Vargas Swing, the Unconscious doing a reunion gig, Slapdash, Suede Chain, Savage St. Hubbins, Sarah Cloud, The Urge, 311. Also a bunch of more national acts like Barenaked Ladies, Medeski Martin and Wood, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Popping Daddies, G Love, Paula Cole, Rollins spoken word, and many more.
The Barenaked Ladies gig was an awesome xmas show put on by one of the radio stations. They did a medley of Billy Joel covers at one point that was hilarious. Undoubtedly one of the best gigs I saw there was Medeski Martin and Wood, an acid jazz group. In fact, the show was so good that I went out and bought a kick-ass keyboard the next day and started studying jazz piano. And I think that same show was the impetus for Scott buying his first drum set.
Later, Mary and I saw at least one show there: John Spencer Blues Explosion. Mary actually saw her at the time estranged childhood best friend there (whom I had never met), which was weird. Turns out Mary has been going to Mississippi Nights even longer than I have and has seen all sorts of awesome stuff. She saw the Beastie Boys there at least twice. The first time they were completely drunk and couldn’t even play their instruments. The other was on a later tour and one of her favorite shows ever. Turns out her favorite bartender was Tom, too. Guess that guy was good.
The last show I saw there was (fittingly) with Nick seeing Primus last year with Drums and Tuba opening. D&T were really incredible (oddly I’ve seen them opening several times) and I would have gladly watched them do the whole night. Primus was lackluster – guess Les was sick and having an off night.
Nick, this one’s for you. I’ve seen more gigs than I can count with you and MN has always been a constant and special place. I’m glad you were with me on all those gigs, ready to share the music. I can remember so many detailed musical discussions, grooving, drinking, and just all around enjoyment we shared all those nights.
I was going to write a post about this myself but I’ll just comment here :) Last night I saw a brief bit on the news that it was Mississippi Night’s last show, which was the first I’d heard of it. Since then I’ve done some similar reminiscing.
At the moment I’ve got my scrapbook open, looking at ticket stubs. My first time inside was our aborted attempt to see White Trash there on March 19, 1992 – still got the ticket stub. We saw the opening act (called themselves The Real People, I think) and then decided it was getting late and we needed to get home, before White Trash ever hit the stage.
After that, I have no record of being in there until King’s X in the summer of 96. Other bands of note I’ve seen there are Son of Starchild, Korn, Galactic Cowboys, Rollins spoken word, G-Love and Special Sauce, Dr. Zhivegas, Big Bad Voodoo Daddies, and Fantomas. I think the last time I was ever inside there was to see some friends of my brother Shawn play, they were at the time called “Bachman’s Euphio” after the Vonnegut short story, I think currently it’s shortened to “Euphio”. That was probably at least three years ago.
The MMW show (May 10, 2000) was indeed the impetus for me to buy my drum set, although it took me a couple of months. I would say that show may be my all around favorite ever at Mississippi Nights. The first King’s X concert we all saw there was pretty outstanding, too, though.
I actually almost mentioned that White Trash show. I can’t remember why, but I couldn’t go and the next day at school you guys told me all day long how awesome it was and how much I sucked for missing it. Only at the end of the day did I find out that you hadn’t even seen White Trash!
Mary and I were talking more and she was remembering more shows she saw there – mostly punk/hardcore stuff like The Descendents, Circle Jerks, Dead Milkmen, Misfits, etc. She saw either Max Cavalera solo or Sepultura there as well. She said the worst and scariest show she ever saw there was Gwar!
Now I’m trying to remember who all went down with me to White Trash. I know Bill did for sure, and I thought you were there but I guess not. Dave might’ve been along. There were at least three of us.
I remember Metallica (on the Justice tour) with Queensryche opening (on the Mindcrime tour) played there in 1989 mere months before I first heard the album Operation:Mindcrime. Aargh!
Wow – Mary has seen Gwar?!! She would probably have snoozed off at the Metallica show!
Yep, I definitely remember Bill going. I wanna say that Karen went? I’m almost positive some girl went with you guys. I seem to remember you guys freaking out at that one stop light near Mississippi Nights where there are like 4 ways you can go and 7 signals.
Does anybody know who the last show was? I heard the story on the news, but they didn’t even mention who played!
*sniff*
I have a bit of a different take on the venue than most. To me, it wasn’t about the music. MN was about the energy. Bands played the smaller venue, even though they could’ve played Riverport because the wanted to knock the crap out of their truest of fans.
My personal favorite was Korn, where I lived in a pit for about 2 hours, somewhere around 120 degrees. I had to have lost 10 lbs just from sweating. Other favorites include any of the many Christmas shows The Urge came back and played each year, Slapdash (The News is on in 5), Colony (Go), and Just Add Water.
I find it interesting that looking back, it was the locals shows that I remember the most.
My least favorite show had to be the Ho Ho Show where Moby lip synched the entire set and that one-hit wonder band that sang “Sex and Candy” played their entire set without playing “Sex and Candy.”
G-Loaf, I didn’t realize you dug the Unconscious. My friend John Covelli, from my Famous Barr days, played in the Unconscious. I used to love his stories of his “band days,” like when he opened for Faith No More at Kemper Arena on the Real Thing tour. Typical Burgess never quite got there.
Wheelsmo
The last show was some fake ass tribute jam session thing. Seemed kind of lame from the little I heard about it.
I don’t really know anything about the Unconscious other than that one show. I seem to recall knowing about your link to them back then although I had forgotten that. Mary used to go see them a lot.
Alex:
I have no memory of Karen being there, but she might have been. I dimly recall Dave being there. I do remember the stoplight deal, I just forgot it was that night. Bill was driving, and when six green arrows lit up he just bellowed “AAAAGH!” and froze. Ah, good times.
Mooseface (if that IS your real name):
Man, that Korn show was HOT! I’ve never been so hot at a show, and I was even too chicken to be down in the pit.
I was thinking this morning as I got ready for work about one of the Urge concerts where I climbed up and jumped off a giant speaker stack into the waiting arms of security, who promptly threw me out. Somewhere in there I lost my watch. I can’t even believe, now, that that was me. Of course “liquid courage” played a part…
Ah, where to start. So many great shows there, most of them with you, my Homies.
How many Zhivegas midnight shows did we see there? I also recall one Zhivegas show that Tom didn’t see, for I believe he hurled in the bathroom as soon as we got there, and a bouncer happened to be in there, and promptly threw him out…
One of the first shows I saw there was Eric Johnson with Nitz. I was completely blown away, it was the first time I’d been that close to someone that good, so cool.
I must’ve seen 4-5 Urge shows there. One or two were Point Ho-Ho shows, one was a $1.05 show that Tom and I stood in line for about an hour in the cold to get in. But we were thinking ahead and brought Subway sandwiches to eat while waiting. Everyone around us was so jealous.
I remember going to see one show with Mixmaster, a local band he was sort of into. Only the thing is, we sat at the bar, drank our Amberbock’s, and just chatted the entire time. Don’t remember the band, but we had a great time just chillin’ and hangin’.
Other cool shows that I remember- The Power Station, G-Love (well, I really don’t remember much of that one), Agents of Good Roots (heard one of their songs on XM radio the other day), Big Bad VooDoo Daddy (if I remember correctly, we all elected to see that show and postponed heading down for a float trip Friday night, and we all drove down on Saturday), Rollins spoken word, and a the aforementioned Ho-Ho shows.
I definetely agree w/ Mooseface – the Moby/Sex and Candy part of that Ho-Ho show was the lowlight for me. I distinctly remember Moby’s female bass player, acting like she was playing her P-Bass when in fact it wasn’t plugged in to anything. But at some of those shows the bands were great – Reel Big Fish, Kay’s Choice, Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, Urge.
My favorite show was Victor Wooten last year. Amazing.
It’s probably scary to think how much Amberbock and Carmel Apple shots I have downed in that fine establishment…
Man, I totally forgot all the Zhivegas shows. I distinctly remember that Dr. Z show where Tom got thrown out. I forgot the Agents of Good Roots show too but I think I was there. Seems like I saw that on my show list from that period. I can’t remember anything about it.
I’m sure you were at the Agents of Good Roots show, in fact I think you asked me to go. I remember digging the show and buying their CD at the souvenir stand. I also remember the lead singer saying “Thanks to The River for playing our single”, and a handful of people shouted out “The POINT”, who was sponsoring the show. “Uh, The Point, my bad…”.
I also remember one Urge show where the bass player apparently didn’t like how his Ampeg rig was sounding, and 3 tunes from the end of the show literally kicked it over – kicked the cabinet back, the amp head went flying across the back of the stage, etc. Somehow the roadies got it back up and functional after one song…
Oh yeah, Chris Duarte opened for the Eric Johnson show that I saw…that was a cool guitar evening.
Wow, so many memories of that place. Too many nights of goodness at that place. I’ll miss it. At home I’ve got a list of all the gigs I’ve seen there, I’ll post it tonight.
Some of my favourite shows there echo what you guys have already mentioned.
That Barenaked Ladies show was incredible (101.1’s 1998 River Of Toys concert, Robynn Ragland and Edwyn McCain opened). A month before that they sold out The Fox and put all that energy into the packed house. One of my top 10 shows ever.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was great, Rollins spoken word (especially the first one in 1996 where we got to hear Eric The Pilot first hand, but Trish met a lot of you guys at the second one), the Fantomas show was impressive on many levels. The Agents of Good Roots show was on May 5 1998 (Cinco De Mayo at Taco Tuesday as it fell on a Tuesday) and in addition to you guys (Alex and Cleez) Flynndemonium and Like A Sunday Morning were there. I remember enjoying the show but don’t remember much more. Galactic & King’s X was sweet, and Better Than Ezra was a fun show (which I saw with Jake right after Guy Favaz borrowed some of my Pearl Jam bootlegs and gave me a swank PJ/K-She t-shirt as a thank you).
The show I remember best that I wasn’t even at was G. Love. I got the full review from Cleez the next morning, Shag called to tell me what he remembered, and Alex you called me to tell me what I missed. I asked you how many of G. Love cd’s you bought and it turned out you had just got back from the record store.
I loved that Sass Jordan/Arc Angels show too. We got free tickets somehow, and not only was that our first club show but our intro to how frickin’ great clubs are. Though we were baffled why no one was on the floor for Sass Jordan but it filled up for Arc Angels.
A show that I missed that would have been great to see was when Tori Amos played there in October 1992 on the Little Earthquake tour.
One show that stands out to me was Son Of Starchild followed by Vargas Swing doing a set, then Son Of Starchild doing another set. Shag and I danced with just about every girl there before Tom threw one of us over his shoulder while Kyle pushed the other one out the door. We were pretty lit up, but those were the days.
Speaking of that, as Alex once wisely stated: There was never a bad night with Tom behind the bar.
Alex, I echo your feelings. On the low end you and I have seen 350 bands together. When I see a gig without you I still expect you to be there to make observations or exchange ‘damn that’s hot’. We could write the book on non-verbal gig communication.
Oddly enough, I remember thinking I wasn’t that bad the night I was thrown out before Dr Z took stage.
I made it to the bathroom sink, but apparently that wasn’t good enough for the bouncer that I smarted off too.
I remember that fall being a particularly bad run for the Pyscho Wheelsmo episodes. The very next week I was escorted out of Silo X by two policemen for punching a monster-looking guy in the face. All I have to say is, “He started it.” I got kicked out of something else too withing a month of those two episodes, but I don’t remember what. hmmm… wonder why?
I need to dig out some ticket stubs. I remember I won tickets to see the Dead Milkmen on the Point. They were doing some deal where they were giving away tickets every hour to some shows. The tenth caller usually won. At 1am I was caller 3,6,7,9 and 10 or something like that. Then, on the way to the show with my friend Will, I made a wrong turn and started heading over the bridge. To correct the situation I made a u-turn in the middle of the bridge.
Free tickets not withstanding, I think at least 25% of all money I earned working at Imo’s Pizza between 1992-1995 was spent there.
Favorite show off the top of my head was Fishbone with Biohazard opening. I was not into Biohazard at all really, but it was a fun show. There was another band there too, but frankly I have not thought about it in a long time.
Also Run DMC with Kurtis Blow opening, on the Camel Unfiltered tour or something like that. Tours sponsored by cigarettes rock (re: Naughty By Nature opening for Tribe Called Quest at a country club in near Baltimore, featuring dancing girls and a ghetto fashion show, all brought to me by KOOL cigarette’s). I digress, this was about Mississippi Nights.
Yo Wheels, I believe that same fall/year was when the infamous “Cleezmo Perched On Mailbox Outside Morgan Street Whilst Police Office Politely Taps Him On Leg Asking Him To Get Down” photo was taken. If memory serves that photo was taken while exiting Morgan Street en route to a midnight Zhivegas show at Mississippi Nights….
I still have that photo stored somewhere in the basement…
Hey Cleez, I think the night that photo was taken was when we took Gaydos tobacco lobbyist friend from DC to see Dr. Z.
And Jake, when the ___ did you see Run DMC!
I think Run DMC was during college, maybe 1997 or 1998? I cannot find the ticket stub. I did however find one for the Cracker/Counting Crows show I saw in 1994. The Counting Crows were horrible that night and I have not been into them since. Also, the other band with Fishbone and Biohazard was Citizen King. Cracker, however, rocked and they had a bunch of Camper Van Beethoven stuff in their set.