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Josh Ritter - 10/9/07 - Backstage Graffiti Vol. I - Pearl Street

By
Austin L. Ray
on October 10, 2007 2:54 PM | | Comments (101)

A Scrawled Note on Graffiti

I’m sitting backstage at Pearl Street in Northampton, Massachusetts and thinking that along with my normal entries I’d like to send in some of my favorite pieces of backstage graffiti from the places we visit on this tour.  Pearl Street, which no one could accuse of being anything other than a rock room, has a great collection and while not the Sistine Chapel of backstage graffiti, it probably comes close to an Uffizi. 

Now, we live in a multimedia, terabyte, full throttle digital world, where the real and the concrete don’t always mean the same thing, so it’s not surprising that a rock band would want to leave its mark on the world in some way just to prove they were here and they RAWKED.  Occasionally these bands and performers manage to make their mark on society and culture through music.  Sitting backstage at Pearl Street however, it’s plain that far more often, we use sharpies.

I’ve never been one to leave stickers or names or anything like that on the walls but like almost everyone I’m still a big fan of this type of literature.  The backstage of a place like this is the modern equivalent of a cave wall, and in general these cave walls belie the fact that despite the many achievements of Homo Erectus, the development of a written language being a particularly big feather in our large headed hats, we are still our father’s sons in the evolutionary sense. 

My classification are subject to change as the tour goes on, but in general the stuff falls into six categories:

1.Band Self Reference/Extollation (“The Suburban Legends are Dance Machines!”, “Cobra: Bites Once, Strikes Twice!”)
2.Band to Band Messages (“X and the Y’s LOOOOVES/HAAAAATES A and the B’s”)
3.Anatomically Fantastical Pictorial Scenarios.  These are often pretty basic, but occasionally can be raised to the realm of actual art by the cleverness of the artist. When I find one, we can test Paste’s legal department.
4.Stickers/Posters (“In Dreams We Die”: Appearing Live!)
5.Actual Artwork (Occasionally you do see something really beautiful on the walls)
6.Pithy Sayings (“I Heart Jeethuth”, “Cargo pants are not pants”, and the old war horse, “I’m Here Because I did Drugs in High School”)

So, over the course of this trip I’ll be sending in some photos of my favorite backstage wall art.  My thanks to the artists, Cro Magnon or otherwise…







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101 Comments

By Jakki on October 10, 2007 8:14 PM

Love that groovy eyeball! The ladies loo’s in the Empire in Belfast is a hotbed for grafitti!

By Everett Reed in Annapolis on October 10, 2007 10:06 PM

At my college we have tiled bathrooms. No large graffiti, but lots of this between the tiles: Grout Expectations, The Grout Gatsby, and so on.

By monette on October 11, 2007 1:07 AM

well, as a geologist i could blather on about the differences between concrete and rock and RAWKING but I think you’ve got it figured out.  lovin’ the posts!!

By TR Daggett on October 11, 2007 1:35 AM

In the early 70s Pulaski Park was the venue for tons of bands. If they used the Theater next door (The Academy of Music?) as a dressing room there could be some great vintage graffiti hidden there.
Those were fun days listening to James Montgomery, James Cotton, and so many others.

By Dianne Scott on October 12, 2007 6:18 PM

When you’re in Austin you need to check out my “Invitation Only” wall at the back door of The Continental Club! It’s nothing but band & other assorted stickers. In fact, part the wall is on the front cover of Taylor Hicks’ debut CD.
I’ll be at your show at The Parish!
Dianne Scott
The Continental Club
1315 S. Congress Ave
Austin TX

By Sarah G. on October 13, 2007 4:54 PM

Josh, the wolves in your songs at your Cleveland show made me think of this poem by Eavan Boland (Irish poet, no less!) :

LIMITS

So high
in their leafy silence
over Kells, over Durrow,
as the Vikings
raged south --
the old monks
made the alphabet
wild:
they dipped iron
into azure and
indigo: they gave strange
wings to their o’s
and e’s: their vowels
clung on with
talons and the thin
ribbed wolves
that had gone north
left their frozen winters
and were lured back
to their consonants.

By Claire on October 19, 2007 10:55 PM

I’ve always loved bathroom graffiti myself.  I always thought I should keep a quote book on me and leave inspiring quotes.  Loving the blogs.  Thanks for sharing.

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