The Reunion Concert

Guitarist Stacy Sutherland was no longer alive and electric jug blower Tommy Hall was a no-show, but that didn’t keep the remaining 13th Floor Elevators from playing a stellar 1984 reunion at The Liberty Lunch in Austin, Texas. Although this recording quality is incredibly lo-fi (it was pulled from first generation high bias cassette taken off a video camera), the performance is great. The band was well rehearsed; Roky sings like the ‘60s never ended and the 1000-plus fans in the audience can be heard loving every minute, starting with a bluesy ten-minute romp through “The Beast.” Even though they deviate from the band’s material to play Roky’s “Don’t Slander Me,” the fact that Forrest’s guitar was still plugged into an old fuzz-box makes the song sound like a long lost Elevators tune. By the time the first few chords of the band’s hit “You’re Gonna Miss Me” get strummed, you can hear the audience become unhinged with a crazy happiness, which only fed Roky’s amazing performance here. His own “Bloody Hammer” ends the set with a charged garage-rock ferocity.