Ubu

Happy Juneteenth!  A few Juneteenths ago - five of them in fact - I was in Louisville not for Juneteenth celebrations but to see - for the very first time ever - the band Pere Ubu.  It was in a small club called Zanzabar & I forget if the only original member of the band was David Thomas, but he was in a mood.  At one point he stopped the show & took the band offstage to scold them.  It was almost like seeing the Fall although I never thought anyone was going to throw a punch.

My wife was out of town - I think out of the country, in Scotland.  We both knew she had taken a job in Fort Worth & that we would leave Kentucky by the end of the summer.  In fact, we'd leave the first week of August.  I hadn't told anyone because the previous year I had made a big deal about us leaving but she decided not to take that job.  I had lost my show because of that.

Speaking of my show - there were several folks at WRFL who I thought I'd see at the Pere Ubu show, but it was only me.  Driving home late, by myself, I wondered if I should've asked, or said something.  But I didn't.  So it was just me.

Zanzabar was in a section of Louisville I had never really explored, & I remember it was a warm, lovely night.  It was still light out when the show started - there wasn't an opening act, if I recall - & I was kind of in awe seeing the band, who were legendary at this point.  It was a fine evening - not revelatory for me or overly intense - but sometimes you just have to feel happy you get to see a band you had heretofore missed.

Remember seeing bands?  Sorry the picture is terrible.