Beale Street Music Festival (Day 1)

So this past weekend was Memphis in May, and I went for the second year in a row and the third time overall. It was awesome! Much better than last year, when many of the bands cancelled because of flooding and the park was evacuated on Saturday night so many other bands didn’t get to play. This year we had two whole days of music before the rain set in.

On Friday, I met up with my sister and we drove the five hours to Memphis. We got to our hotel (Super Ghetto Motel, ask if you need directions). It was really hot but the AC in the room didn’t work. Also, we discovered when we arrived that we had a room with one “full” bed instead of two queens. Oh, well. It was cheap. It smelled like smoke even though it was a non-smoking room, and we soon discovered smoke drifting in through the window while people smoked on the balcony and yelled at their children. Big fun.

We went to the festival and on the way got pulled over by a cop when my sister ran a red light (the sun was RIGHT in our eyes. I have no idea how anyone could see that the light was red). The cop asked us both for ID even though I wasn’t driving. Then he proceeded to ask us what bands we were going to see and then blocked off the intersection so we could make a left turn and get to the parking area we wanted. Why aren’t all cops so helpful?

We went in and caught part of Cake, who I’d seen a few times but was still fun. Then we saw B.o.B, which was WAY awesome and better than I expected. It turned out to be my favorite show of the whole weekend, especially when he started free-styling at the end. Amazing energy, great view, and I loved all the songs, most of which I’d never heard.

I kept trying to hook up with a couple different groups of friends who had also come for the weekend, but I didn’t get hold of any of them. We went to see Stone Temple Pilots, which was a little bit disappointing. They were okay, and they played a lot of old stuff and a lot of new stuff. But it was just meh. Something lacking. Or maybe I just expected SO much because I love them so much, so of course it couldn’t live up to my expectations. We left the park and went to bed ‘early’ that night, which means 1 or 2 a.m. in Memphis in May time.