Jack Pribek

This photo is from The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee.

My wife, son and I were there to see a Neko Case show. The whole thing was a birthday gift for Beka.

I like the photo, it has an otherworldly quality. It was a strange night. Neko did a few songs and then walked off in protest because, from what I could gather, she didn’t like having an armed security guard sitting to the side of the stage.

The audience reaction was subdued. No threat of a riot or anything. Everybody just stood around shuffling their feet for about 45 minutes until someone from the venue staff announced that the show was over and everyone would get a full refund (which, by the way, was done promptly and included the lodging, parking – the whole nine yards).

I’d never seen anything like that before. For a time, my only thoughts were that it cost someone a bunch of money.

I think that a lot of art gets screwed up by the sins of having someone to answer to…the money men.

On that basis, I have some admiration for Neko Case, because, for whatever reasons, she had the ability to bypass all that thinking and go with her gut.

I’m not all that interested in the principles or politics of it. Armed security seems a strange hill to die on. But, truth is, nobody died. Everybody just moved on. Maybe those hills to die on aren’t a big deal.

By the way the olopening band was Des Demonas. They were really great. I recommend them wholeheartedly.