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Favorite Little Rock concert memories
For our annual Music Issue, the Times asked a handful of local musicians to describe their favorite memory of a concert in Little Rock. See more entries and contribute your own on Rock Candy at arktimes.com.
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insider, cont.
PICTURE1
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Insurance reformer dies 4
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G-force
Arkansas Times readers’ choice for best DJ I’m not sure of the exact year, but my best guess is that this occurred during the summer of 1989: I attended a rap concert at Barton Coliseum featuring Steady B, Kid ’n Play, Too Short and Sir Mix-A-lot 1 as headliner. His biggest song at this point was “Posse on Broadway.” Only the oldest of hip-hop heads will remember Steady B. He was first up to play and had a hell of a performance, but the major thing that stood out was his DJ. DJ Tat Money from Philadelphia broke into a routine of Rob Base’s “It Takes Two” that was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I thought for sure the night was only going to get crazier as the DJs for the other acts took the stage. Unfortunately none of the other groups had a DJ. Perhaps a smart move since Tat Money had been crowned the New Music Seminar DJ Battle Champion that same year.
Joshua Asante
Amasa Hines, Velvet Kente Steel Pulse 2 at Revolution some years back. It’s surreal the way they replicated the studio versions of their songs. Blood Feathers at White Water. Made me seriously re-evaluate my live performance. Before seeing them I focused way too much on restraint and not enough on execution and release. I also might have teared up a bit seeing Van Hunt at Stickyz in 2011. He’s been a longtime inspiration for a multitude of reasons.
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John Miller
Big John Miller Band, Arkansas Sounds Music Festival coordinator In the early ’80s, I saw CeDell Davis 3 at a Juneteenth celebration downtown on the river. Seeing a guy in a wheelchair wedge a butter knife in his polio stricken hands and use it as a slide so he could play the guitar affected me profoundly. This was the real deal. Happy, sad, lonely and lovely — this was the blues. While his technical prowess wasn’t exactly the best, he more than made up for that with his grit, spit and passion for getting his point across. Even as a young boy, the blues seeped deep into my soul that day. And thanks to that concert, CeDell helped put me on my lifetime musical journey.
Rod Bryan
Ho-Hum Last summer, The Geto Boys, with all the original members, played Discovery. Bushwick Bill was wearing a camouflage Razorback ball cap and a Yoda backpack. They faked him having an attack and death in the middle of the show. The show started at 3 a.m. Others: The Ramones at Asher and University (Midnight Rodeo?). The Rolling Stones at War Memorial. Violent Femmes 4 at Riverfest. Uncle Tupelo at Juanita’s. American Music Club at Sticky Fingerz. Alex Chilton at Juanita’s.
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Solo rapper, Ear Fear I remember the Tech 9 5 show at The Village in 2009. He had the stage set up like a scene from “Mad Max” with tombstones and macabre chup-
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pahs. He was energetic and incorporated some aggressive choreography. I’m still trying to put on a show as good as that one.
Sammy Williams
Futuro Boots, Midwest Caravan I moved to Little Rock in 2005, and I have been to Riverfest every single year since then. My favorite memory is of climbing over and through a sea of middle-aged women waiting to see LL Cool J to get on the front barricade for Soul Asylum. I remember catching the eyes of the few other diehard fans that were singing along to every word, those who had also braved the hordes of horny women. As soon as they hit their last note, I was immediately tossed aside as rabid females positioned themselves for a better view of the shirtless James Smith. A few years later, I was part of a small crowd once again singing along to every Soul Asylum song at Revolution. Despite the small crowd, Dave Pirner 6 still threw his rippedjean-clad form all over the stage as if “Runaway Train” was still the biggest video on MTV.
TJ Deeter
Founder of Localist I was at Barton Coliseum for Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2000. I got thirsty during Foo Fighters and headed to the concession for a drink. I was in line and looked up and saw Dave Grohl 7 come running by playing guitar. A crowd followed as he made his way back into the stadium and back on to stage. He never missed a lick.
Retired Batesville lawyer, judge and Rockefeller-era reformer John Norman Harkey died Aug. 1. He was 81. Republican Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller appointed Harkey, a Democrat, Arkansas insurance commissioner in 1967. His job was to clean up the sewer of corruption created by the Faubus administration. Arkansas had more insurance companies than New York with 30 times the population, books on the Rockefeller era recount. In a year, he set up a meaningful regulatory agency and forced dozens of the operators out of Arkansas. Harkey was a founding member of the Arkansas chapter of the ACLU and had a role in public interest litigation, particularly related to municipal bond financing for private projects. He very nearly upended a Little Rock convention center bond issue in this challenge. Ernest Dumas, who reported on Harkey over the years, said he would “have preferred that his death go unnoticed by the newspapers.” “He never cared for publicity, perhaps after the episode when he tossed policemen through the plate-glass window of a Hot Springs nightclub after they came to arrest him for excessive drinking and carousing. He was prosecuting attorney for Independence County at the time. He must have learned to cherish brawling when he fought with the Marines in Korea. “As Rockefeller’s insurance commissioner he shut down hundreds of fly-by-night insurance companies in 1967-69 and helped shutter Arkansas Loan and Thrift Corp., the bogus savings bank that Faubus cronies and the Arkansas attorney general, Bruce Bennett, used to fleece west Arkansas people out of millions in the late ’60s. He was later a juvenile judge.”
Beware of turkey thieves There’s a turkey rustler on the loose. On Aug. 1, The Baxter Bulletin reported news of a turkey kidnapper driving a Dodge Charger. It happened July 31. The car — bearing a conservation license tag — roared up to Gaston’s White River Resort bird sanctuary at Lakeview. A passenger hopped out, grabbed a turkey, hopped back in and the car roared off. Value of turkey? About $40. A run of the partial license tag seen by witnesses came up with nothing. www.arktimes.com
August 7, 2014
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