In This Issue: More Jack White, Enon, Swearing At Motorists, Color Cast and Circuit Benders Than You Can Shake A Miller High Life Light At.

Tonight's adventure in Midtown had only one stop -- The Hi-Tone. Although I wanted to see my friend Greg Faison's band Circuit Benders, I managed to show up just in time for them to be finished. Slight bummer, but how could you do everything there was to do tonight in Memphis? We had Guitar Wolf in town playing with the band known as The Secret Service, there was a Filthy Diablo reunion show at The Buccaneer, and this little show. I really liked The Color Cast, but their set was only 20 minutes long! Make way for Swearing At Motorists, the Dayton two-piece who made a commendable effort performing songs from their current and back catalog. SAM's Dave Doughman and Joseph Siwinski played a great set and were thoroughly enjoyed by the swimming crowd of twenty-somethings. But the story for tonight was definitely Enon.

My friend Shelby Taylor's favorite band, she has frequently prodded me to listen to Enon & I have to confess: I never made the effort. Perhaps that is what made the whole affair so incredible. The band's lineup has had several changes, but the current unit features Toko Yasuda, Matt Schulz, and John Schmersal. I knew I had met John somewhere along the way, and I somewhat made an ass of myself in the forgetting process. I came to realize it was in Seattle at the Crocodile Cafe when he was in the sadly too-short-lived Brainiac, one of the 1990's most promising bands. The Enon show actually had many Brainiac qualities to it. The music is a divine combination of screaming guitars, unflinchingly solid percussion, and loops and keyboard plotted expertly to match Toko's and/or John's voice as they belted out these highly-danceable (and rangingly prolific) post-punk collectives. I cannot recommend seeing this band highly enough, it was a magical show.

Among the many faces in the crowd were Jack White and Patrick Keeler (the drummer for Cincinatti band The Greenhornes) who are in town working on two different records at Ardent. I have to admit, having had a chance to talk him last night and tonight, I'm convinced Jack is one of the most down-to-earth people working at his level of the industry that I've ever met. He doesn't have any artifice about him. He's just a guy who is really good at what he does. He loves Memphis, and we love him. Patrick, too, is an exceptionally cool guy. It was a bit awkward meeting him because of that interview I did with Brendan Benson a couple of months back (in which Brendan spoke in technicolor about his love of The Greenhornes' record he had recently worked on). I got to talk to Patrick about the new Big Star album (which Jody Stephens had played some of for him earlier in the day). Patrick says it's phenomenal and I'm sure everyone reading this cannot wait for Rykodisc to release it.

Also seen amongst the throng was Dave Shouse along with the other 2/3 of his Bloodthirsty Lovers (ex-Guided By Voices drummer Kevin March and Dave's new bassist whose name escapes me, sorry!). Bloodthirsty Lovers had the night off after a solid performance Sunday night at the Young Avenue Deli, so it was time to get down and hear some great music. The Bloodthirsty Lovers have toured with Enon before, so it was cool to hear Dave sing the praises of how far Enon's music has progressed.

Rachel talked to Jack for quite a while, bought him a couple of drinks, and when Jack accidentally knocked her Shiner Bock out of her hand, he kindly bought her another. Hipster Jenna and R.Y.A.N. were in the crowd, along with Rachel V2.0, Shelby Taylor and beau pop impresario David Brookings, Paul Taylor, Chris Swenson, my buddy Will, Shawn Apple, the very sweet Marianne and her friend (a really nice guy whom I only met at the end of the night briefly), Lauren Goler, Lisa and Brooke and so many youngsters I couldn't keep up with them all! We managed to close down the Hi-Tone, and the rock stars took off to do whatever rock stars do at 3 AM in Memphis.