Photographed at Drkmttr
It's a sunny Monday afternoon, and Kathryn Edwards is sitting with Zack Ledbetter on the porch of Drkmttr, the show space they and others book and maintain. Drkmttr is an unassuming blue two-bedroom house, set off just a few feet from the sidewalk behind a chain-link fence with no gate. The two smoke cigarettes while seated on a small loveseat.
"I think it's really important," says Edwards when asked about booking all-ages punk shows. "There's so many times bands come through, and kids — that's the reason they play music, and they can't even go see them. Or some places you can have all-ages shows, but the cost gets not even worth it sometimes."
As The Other Booking — named for her former residence/show space, The Other Basement — Edwards and her friends book shows featuring touring punk and metal bands, as well as young local outfits ("baby bands," they call them) like Catflaps, DATENIGHT and Shadraq. After moving out of The Other Basement, Edwards organized events around town at house-show spots like Pussy Palace, plus the occasional show at a venue like Betty's or The End. After searching around for about a year, she found Drkmttr, which hosted its first show in August. Now, she, Ledbetter and friends including Tyler Coburn, Chappy Hull, Will Hicks, Mac Joseph, Olivia Scibelli, Kayla Phillips and Rory MacMurdo have the freedom to book whatever they and their community of young show-goers want.
"You don't have to book things dependent upon how many people will come," she says, pointing out that Drkmttr mostly accepts donations rather than charging an official cover for shows. "You can just book things depending on, 'Is the art good?' "
Brought up in the small town of Fulton, Miss., Edwards — who also holds down day jobs at Grins Vegetarian Cafe and Grimey's — moved to Nashville in 2007 to attend Vanderbilt University. Since then, Music City has come to feel like home, and she's happy (and maybe just a little envious) to see that kids here have more options than she ever did growing up.
"All I had were, like, some metalcore shows in the town over in a community center," she says of her experience growing up in Fulton. "That's as good as it got where I'm from. [Young music fans in Nashville] get to see pretty much whatever all the time. Granted, keeping in mind you have to be able to get in to the venue."
The house itself, which was built in 1930, has two different rooms that function as show spaces, though Edwards & Co. hope to do some expansion in the coming weeks and months, as well as adding a zine library and putting art on display. Currently, there's little in the way of adornment or furnishing — just a couple of empty rooms, ready to be filled with moshing punk kids multiple nights a week.
"It just looks like this beat-up shithole house, but then you realize how much fun you can have here," says Ledbetter, who plays in the bands Act of Impalement and Life O.D. "It's all what you make of it. ... It just takes someone willing to be like, 'Yeah, I'm just gonna get this house, and we're gonna play here.' And that was Kathryn, for sure."
Ledbetter and Edwards say that with all the changes happening in Nashville — rent increases, development, gentrification — they're not so sure places like Drkmttr will have the opportunity to spring up and grow for much longer. For now, they enjoy being near the burgeoning Wedgewood-Houston arts district, being surrounded by laid-back neighbors and providing a safe environment for their young friends to see shows.
"We make sure that everybody's taken care of, no one's doing anything that could be potentially damaging — except for possibly your hearing," Edwards says, chuckling. "But! This one kid Nick just gave us a bin full of ear plugs!"
More From the 2016 People Issue
The Celebrity Chef: Maneet Chauhan / The Gold Medalist: Scott Hamilton / The Perception Changer: Kent Wallace / The Blogger: Melissa Watkins / The Biker Chaplain: Allen Tanner / The Man: Charles Kaster / The Islamic Leader: Rashed Fakhruddin / The Tubatroll: Joe Hunter / The Dog: Doug the Pug / The Emancipator Impersonator: Dennis Boggs / The Booker: Kathryn Edwards / The Right Brain/Left Brain: Coke Sams and Clarke Gallivan / The Professional Ass-Kicker: Eric Young / The Watcher: Debbie Field
