Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators were a band that influenced a wide range of people in Texas (and other parts of the universe) in the early days of psychedelic music. People say his way of vocally delivering a song set the stage for Janis Joplin and the music his outfit gave us over a short burst of acid fuelled creativity from 1965-1969 impacted Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and artists like Primal Scream and Spaceman 3 who covered their songs later in the 20th Century. Roky brings this burden of history with him to the stage. Besides the legendary musical footnotes, there are the even more haunting stories from his past that are coloured with darker hues and struggles that are not apparent to the casual observer during a Roky gig.
Joined tonight by a band that included his son Jegar on backing vocals, two other guitarists, and a bassist and drummer, Roky was able to pull off a set that was just a little over an hour with a sound quality that was probably better than anything they had in 1967. As usual, it was turned up loud. The casual listener might not think much more than this was an able rock and roll band with garage influences that were doing a fine job of getting the crowd involved. Since the crowd were experienced in all things Roky, getting them shaking was not a hard task. There were a few moments where Roky seemed like he needed help from his band musically and at one moment to open a bottle of water, but overall he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing.
Kicking off with “Bo Diddley’s A Headhunter” had the room gyrating to that tribal beat in a flash. Roky was in fine voice early on although it did seem to lose some of its power as the short set went on. Roky gave us a little over an hour of rock and roll filled with monsters, vampires, alligators and the like. Songs such as “I Think Of Demons”, “Creature With The Atom Brain”, “Bloody Hammer”, and “Don’t Shake Me Lucifer” (all from the 1980 Stu Cook produced release ) were guitar driven rock and roll that had the front of the house moving more than most Sydney gigs.
I had expected an older more sedate audience, and overall that was the demographic. Although, who would have thought, that a half dozen people would invade the stage at various points during the last third of the concert to either be forcibly expelled, throttled by a stage hand, or tossed onto a crowd that did not expect a crowd surfer to be dribbling upon them. I guess someone forgot to tell them to avoid the brown acid.
Roky and band finished with the most well known 13th Floor song, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”. It was one we all wanted to hear. The life experiences of Roky from garage rock/psychedelic pioneer, to lysergic traveller, to making the mistake of pleading insanity for having one joint to avoid a lengthy prison term and ending up being treated with electricity for his drug intake in a mental hospital and then battling demons and the Martian that inhabited him is all well chronicled. Rock and roll and life have left many tragedies in the dust. But tonight Roky proved that even with a bagful of troubles behind you, that rock and roll can still be a saviour for the performer and the audience.
With a smile I turned the ignition on in my car and the next two songs proved a bit of an epilogue to the gig. Stevie Ray Vaughan, another Texas legend who escaped his drug period only to be taken in a chopper tragedy, burst out with “Scuttlebuttin” which segued into a song that Roky covered with the Elevators (and has probably been covered by most garage rock and roll bands throughout time). Gloria is the song, and I thought of aliens and rock and roll and Gloria pleased to know that Roky was still with us and has made it (not unscathed) to the 21st Century.
– Paul Busch
