The Shirks with Little Dave. Photo courtesy of The Shirks.

The Shirks leave the American South and hit the Midwest in this installment of thoughts and photos from the road.

Ned Moffitt writes:

April 14: Indianapolis

An eight-hour drive from Memphis brought us to our home away from home: Indianapolis. Alec Budd grew up here and our shows are frequented by characters from his past, mostly friends of his old band, The Problematics. We play Indianapolis semi-regularly, but on this trip we did not have planned lodgings. Enter Little Dave.

Little Dave’s “paper work.” Photo by Ned Moffitt.

Dave moved to D.C. with Alec in 1995 and soon became a D.C. fixture as an employee at the Georgetown location of Smash! Records and at the Black Cat. From his pulpit at Smash!, he preached the gospel of garage music to unreceptive teens. He often went beyond mere recommendations and bullied me into buying Gories and Rolling Stones records. I was 15 and afraid of him, and at 33 I am eternally grateful and still frightened. His enthusiasm for primitive rock and roll was only equalled by his disdain for contemporary art rock: he blatantly refused to sell Fugazi records to paying customers, claiming, “If my mother knew I was selling records like this, she would roll over in her grave.” (His mother is alive and well in North Carolina.)

Dave moved back to Indianapolis ten years ago because he had burned all of his D.C. bridges, and by midnight after our show, he was our only standing offer for a place to stay. But the promised party was not to be: his house was stripped bare of all furniture, appliances, and fixtures. Only one functioning light bulb flashed in the house. His two cats, Doggie and an unnamed stray, fended off any rodents, which lent the house a splendid austerity. That said, he was a gracious host. I slept in a room littered with what he referred to as “paper work” (see picture). Before we left, he gave an inspriring lecture on his revisitation of Henry Miller’s complete canon and the anatomy of the male reproductive organs.

April 15: Bloomington, Ind.

We traveled an hour south to play a hip house party in Bloomington. The show went well, and all I remember is a mother with a neck tattoo, bottle of wine in hand, screaming at her daughter to stop burping throughout the night.