Diarrhea Planet at Freakin' Weekend VII
It began in fall 2009 in a squat rectangular building — a building nicknamed “Glenn Danzig’s House” by the two kids who lived there. “Ben and Cy Fest” is what they called it, named for the DIY space’s residents: Ben Todd, founder of the blog (and later record label) Nashville’s Dead, and rock ’n’ roller Cy Barkley. The lineup featured local punk acts like Heavy Cream and Cannomen and out-of-towners including West Coast psych-rocker Ty Segall.
It went well, and so the Nashville’s Dead kids decided to do it again that spring, dubbing the festival “Freakin’ Weekend” and expanding the lineup. That went well too, and by March 2011 Freakin’ Weekend had moved out of Danzig’s and into proper rock clubs, including The End, Exit/In and Third Man Records. Setting FW a week before the massive industry-event-slash-festival SXSW meant that Todd & Co. could book nationally known touring garage-rock acts like Jacuzzi Boys and Davila 666 on their way to Austin, while also highlighting some of the strong talent that existed in Nashville’s underground punk scene.
“There’s really a lot of things about the scene here that sets it apart from scenes in other cities,” Todd told the Scene in 2011. “For the most part, it feels like everyone has a general respect and admiration for what everyone else is doing.”
Todd’s positivity and respect for his peers was a driving force behind Freakin’ Weekend every year, and every year scores of kids came out to the shows. But then things changed.
On Feb. 12, 2013, Todd, who had long struggled with depression and health problems, committed suicide. He was 24.
The future of Freakin’ Weekend appeared uncertain, but as festival co-organizers Dillon Watson and Ryan Donoho point out, the lineup was already largely booked and scheduled. Todd had taken care of that before he ended his life. So the festival proceeded as planned, attended by and featuring sets from young people who loved Todd dearly.
“I don’t think anything really beats JEFF’s performance from Freakin’ Weekend IV,” says Donoho of JEFF the Brotherhood’s headlining set at Exit/In that year, when the band brought dozens of friends onto the stage during their set. “That was a really magical performance.”
Freakin’ Weekend soldiered on year after year, booked and coordinated by Todd’s friends and featuring top-shelf touring rock ’n’ roll acts like The Black Lips, Perfect Pussy, Tweens, La Luz, Ex-Cult and The Orwells, and fearsome locals including Tristen, Pujol, Bully, Music Band, D. Watusi, Those Darlins and Savoy Motel. One year, hometown pop-punk heroes Diarrhea Planet brought Infinity Cat Records co-founder, father of JEFF the Brotherhood and accomplished songwriter Bob Orrall onstage to play hardcore-punk frontman for a song. Another year, fans dog-piled onto Twin Peaks frontman Cadien Lake James as he shredded on the Exit/In floor, and Louisville punks White Reaper riffed and rocked their way through a breakneck set at The End as attendees writhed in a crowd-surfing pileup that reached the rafters.
As Nashville reached its sometimes-maligned, sometimes-celebrated boom-city status, bands that started out playing shows in Glenn Danzig’s House began to land record deals and late-night TV appearances. Non-local artists who would typically skip Music City on their tour itineraries started rolling through town on an annual basis. And as can be expected, bands asked for more money as they began drawing bigger crowds.
“When Ben started it, the scene was at a different place, and it needed certain things,” says Watson, explaining the decision to make this year’s Freakin’ Weekend VIII the fest’s final installment. “The city has grown, the scene has grown. I think that the energy could be spent in a more productive way. … We don’t have the budget to secure higher-profile acts. We found these roadblocks along the way, roadblocks that have made it difficult to do. It just seems like we could be putting our energy toward something more productive that would serve what the city needs now.”
When asked what those future projects might be, Watson and Donoho say they aren’t ready to announce anything yet, but whatever those projects are, they’ll be under the Nashville’s Dead banner.
Jawws at Freakin' Weekend V
“Those first few years of Freakin’ Weekend and Nashville’s Dead were incredibly important,” says Ben Swank, who co-founded Third Man Records with his pal and associate Jack White and moved the operation from Detroit to Nashville around the same time Nashville’s Dead and Freakin’ Weekend were first making a splash. “[Nashville’s Dead] made connections with artists that went on to get larger and do bigger shows and things like that. They made connections, and they were solely the reason some of those artists came to town in the first place. They really helped foster a national identity for Nashville that I don’t think existed when [Third Man Records] moved here, and that happened really, really quickly.”
For the festival’s final year, the Freak Week organizers have booked a slew of bands with longtime connections to Nashville’s Dead — among them Music Band, Jacuzzi Boys and Diarrhea Planet, the latter of whom will fittingly play the last-ever Freakin’ Weekend set with their headlining performance on Saturday night. There are out-of-towners like Golden Pelicans and Omni, and excellent locals like Faux Ferocious, Daddy Issues, Watcher, and Mom and Dad. It’s a good lineup, one that salutes the artists who made Music City’s punk scene what it is while also allowing some stage time for up-and-comers, and a fine way to lay the festival to rest.
Says Watson, “The discussion came up: ‘Do we change it — especially with the connections that it has to Ben [Todd] — or do we leave it as what it was and allow the legacy to be Freakin’ Weekend?’ That’s where we’re coming from. It’s not as much saying goodbye as it is ending one chapter and stepping into the next.”
A previous version of this story stated that Pujol would headline Freakin' Weekend Friday night. Pujol frontman Daniel Pujol has stated that he will not play the festival.
Update: Amid rumors and band cancelations, Nashville's Dead has released a statement, saying they have made organizational changes and that "safety is our top priority." See more on that here.
Music Band at Freakin' Weekend VIIPhoto: Lance Conzett
JEFF the Brotherhood at Freakin' Weekend VIPhoto: Lance Conzett
