there was lots of Roky memorabilia on display....

The show was great. It was outdoors, nice out, and Spoon opened. The crowd, including many original, still-psychedelic, Roky fans, were way into it, and though I didn't know most of the songs he played, the music sounded good, and it was heartwarming just to see Roky up on stage, happy, and performing. He's still got it.

I got to the show just in time to see Spoon, but apparently I missed Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck while I was busy attending to my own day party over at the Scoot Inn.

If you missed Roky's two NYC shows this weekend, don't worry - he's back to play a third (and free) NYC show at Castle Clinton on June 2nd. You can also see him at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and elsewhere:

Roky Erickson - 2007 Tour Dates
APRIL 28 Indio, CA @ COACHELLA FESTIVAL
May 2 New Orleans, LA @ PONDEROSA STOMP
June 2 Castle Clinton, NYC
June 18 SWEDEN @ HULTSFRED FESTIVAL
Jule 6 DENMARK @ ROSKILDE FESTIVAL
July 8 FINLAND @ RUISROCK FESTIVAL
August 3-5 Lollapalooza, Chicago, IL
August 8-11 NORWAY @ OYA FESTIVAL

You can also see Roky Erickson at the movies

Chris Blackwell’s Palm Pictures will be releasing Keven McAlester’s directorial debut film YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME in theatres and on DVD. Recently nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, the film details the rise and fall of rock legend Roky Erickson, whose band, The 13th Floor Elevators, coined the 1960’s term “psychedelic rock.”

YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME will have a limited theatrical release starting in New York on June 8, and the DVD release shortly following on July 10th.

Outside Austin, Texas, a 53-year-old man sits in an apartment with four radios, three televisions, two amps, a radio scanner, and a Casio electric piano playing all at the same time. Loudly. He has three teeth, his hair is matted into one huge dreadlock, and he has a notarized document on his wall declaring himself an alien, "so whoever's putting shocks to my head will stop."

This is the story of Roky Erickson: the manic singer and front man for the legendary band, The 13th Floor Elevators who are considered by many to be the creators of psychedelic music and muse to Janis Joplin. YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME is a disturbingly intimate portrait of an imploding family and the struggle between modernized medicine and religion. Known for his colossal heroin and LSD binges and an ongoing struggle with schizophrenia, Roky has become one of music's legendary tragic figures.

First arrested for carrying one joint of marijuana, Roky enters an insanity plea, which lands him in a minimum-security mental hospital. After numerous attempts to escape, the state of Texas transfers him to Rusk State Hospital for the criminally insane, where he undergoes a series of implausible shock treatments, leaving this rock virtuoso a scarce whisper of his former self.

Now kept under lock and key by his mother Evelyn---who refuses him any treatment beyond love, prayer, and a view of psychiatry gleaned from the shows that she has seen on television. Erickson becomes the centerpiece of a surreal family struggle and the blank screen onto which those around him project their re-imagined pasts and hopeful futures.

Previously
* more Roky Erickson posts