Impose Magazine

Cart (0) Impose Instagram

Scene and Heard

Casserole Fest

Photos by Joe Perez + Christine Smart » Last week marked end of the Neil MF Harper / Phillip Shive reign over the Milestone, Charlotte's grittiest basement venue.  The space has had its ass kicked by time and bands like Black Flag, Fugazi, Bad Brains and countless others that have rolled through over the past 40 years, the walls now entirely covered in graffiti and stickers from ceiling to floor, some of it dating back to the early 70s.  Neil and Phil have spent the last six years operating and booking The Milestone, hosting bands from around the world and putting on the kind of ape shit crazy shows you'd expect to find in a place like this, and plenty that you wouldn't. 

Text by Joe Perez
Posted on December 01, 2010

They're putting the venue to rest until they hand it over to new owners in January.  This ending was celebrated with the beginning of Casserole Fest, Shive's new annual week long series of shows and amusements. I got back on the Chinatown bus to Charlotte, and that's the last thing I clearly remember. In between sets by local favorites and a ton of touring bands including Future Islands, Peelander-Z and The Coathangers, we tweaked out in a wild west bouncy castle, got wasted on $2 Mickey's Ice and shared "mystery white" and other pot luck dishes in a haunted house staffed by face painted juggalos.  


David Liebe Hart from Tim & Eric Awesome Show, also known for his awesomely insane public access program, 'Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show' and his musical ventures headlined the final night.  He drew portraits of people in the crowd (Rob Chabebe of EyeBodega, who David claims is an alien of the Corinian race, being the only one to receive cryptic otherworldly messages on his), offered life affirmations and serenaded us with stream of conscious folklore.  He closed the fest on a celebratory note in the language of his alien captors.  "Go into the light until we meet again, SALAME!"  

For more from Joe Perez, click here.

For More from Christine Smart, click here.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Recent Photos

Related