Spread My Ashes at the Music Venue

You’re alive and reading this right now (thanks, btw), but one day you’ll be dead, despite your best efforts (sorry). Maybe by that time, in the very distant future, you’ll have lived an impossibly fulfilled life to its biggest and best extremes, amazing experiences in a playground of a world made just for your adventurous exploration, alongside family and friends you loved and treasured and the feeling being mutual. “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt,” as it’s been put.

And, of course, you got to listen to all of the music you wanted, right to the final note, your beautiful, pain-free life’s soundtrack. As essential as your experiences and loved ones are, you never underestimate how music somehow makes everything even better. When you’re in an urn and it’s time to have your remains spread in the exact right place, somewhere symbolic and worthy of all the glory of your thought-having, air-breathing, music-listening days, might you choose a spot associated with that music? And which music-cetric place would you choose?

A little background — this story borrows heavily from one first presented in a different fashion by Pablo Torre Finds Out, a magnificent sports and pop culture podcast. If you haven’t tuned in, follow any of these links to the evocative, inspired stories presented episode after episode by one of journalism’s great interviewers. The show’s host, Pablo Torre, recently examined a growing death trend, one which sees folks dispatching the ashes of their loved ones at football fields, hockey arenas, baseball diamonds, golf courses and other sports venues – usually without permission – to fulfill the dying wishes of their beloved, departed sports fanatic.

Surely, this could be (or already is?) a music trend, too. After all, the first dance at your wedding, the tune you dialed up to quell your nerves in the delivery room or the bangers you want played at your wake are at least as important as that time your favorite sportsball team won the championship.

For my part, I’m going with Billy Joel’s front doorstep. For the longest time, I’ve been keeping the faith thanks to the Piano Man’s music, as has been detailed here in the Houston Press time and time again. I can’t think of a better way to explain how “I’ve Loved These Days” (a Joel deep cut) than being poured tastefully around the shrubbery and on the welcome mat at his home.

What about you, alive and well, reader? Is it Abbey Road? Coachella? Graceland? Or something closer to home like Numbers, the parking lot that used to be Fitzgerald’s or The Astrodome (yeah, it’s still there, the last time we checked). We asked a few music fans we know where they’d want their ashes scattered, to mix into the soil and drift with the wind and forever be one with a music place dear to them. Here’s what we heard:

Going Up the Country with Jason Esparza

Jason Esparza owns Hell N High Water Productions and has done professional video production, live concert filming and webcasting of some of your favorite music acts, including festival headliners like Pearl Jam and closer-to-home heroes like Robert Earl Keen. Esparza teamed with the late Kinky Friedman for the music series Texas Roadhouse Live and is a frequent contributor to nugs.net. Besides having a keen (no pun intended) eye for shooting concert footage and an ear for great songs, he’s a huge music fan, one who’s taken cues from his own musical heroes to write his own songs, a new endeavor for him.

We posed our weird question to Esparza over tasty beers at Equal Parts Brewing recently and he didn’t flinch. First, he told his actual plan, which is to have his remains scattered in a natural setting which we’re not at liberty to disclose. Let’s just say it has trees, lots of tall, old ones. Then Esparza addressed our hypothetical.

“You know, when I was growing up, I always thought that I was gonna have my ashes spread out over Woodstock,” which seemed on brand for Esparza, who is too young to be a true hippie but does love The Grateful Dead and lots of jam bands. “That place is still there, you know, it’s still living. I always wanted that.”

Brittany Hernandez: Die With a Smile

The header introducing our friend Brittany Hernandez is more than just a nod to the latest Lady Gaga hit (one of Hernandez’s favorite artists), it’s also our hope for everyone, especially our fellow music lovers. Hernandez is owner of and stylist at Friendswood-based Transparent Beauty. We asked what role music plays on the day-to-day for her, her fellow stylists and their customers.

“Music is huge in my workday. In my suite, it sets the mood, keeps the energy flowing and helps clients feel comfortable and relaxed,” she said. “It’s part of the rhythm of the day and makes even the busiest schedule feel more fun.”

Hernandez said she has a wide taste in music and is “especially drawn to pop, R&B and country. Some of my favorite artists include Lady Gaga, Sabrina Claudio, Ella Langley, WizTheMc & Bees & Honey. My first concert was NSYNC when I was 12 years old, but my favorite live show so far has to be Florence and the Machine. It was such an unforgettable experience.”

Hernandez is a pro so she knows about beauty, not just its outward representation but how it is manifest in and around us. Her response to our odd query was truly a thing of beauty.

“For me, it would be the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion,” she said of The Woodlands-based concert amphitheater. “Music has always been a big part of my happiest memories, so it feels fitting to choose a place where people come together to celebrate music, life and connection. It would be like leaving a part of myself in the middle of the joy I always felt there.”

Rad Rich Chooses The Axiom over The Mausoleum

Rad Rich is a Houston music journalist, radio personality and local icon whose roots with all things music in this city are deep. Thankfully, Rich has shared that love of music – particularly punk, hip hop and underground – with locals on KPFT’s Rock N Soul Revue for years. Besides his knowledge of Houston’s music scene (get just a small glimpse in this David Ensminger article from the Houston Press archive), he’s a consummate story teller, generous with the details we crave.

For instance, his knowledge of the background of his final resting place in our weird little game, The Axiom.

“The Axiom used to be Cabaret Voltaire,” Rich told us. Some folks know that but it takes a real Houston music fan, one of his legendary status, to know the deeper background. He said before it became the Axiom, the place was Cabaret Voltaire 3.

“There was Cabaret Voltaire 1, which was on Almeda and Alabama, which was an old mortuary,” he said. “Then there was Cabaret Voltaire 2, which was on Chenevert Street, which is now a Mexican restaurant.”

He’d choose Cabaret Voltaire 3, a.k.a. The Axiom, among all the Cabaret Voltaires as a place to scatter his remains. Right there in the East End of downtown on McKinney and Live Oak.

“A lot of people, when they pass by there, they’ve got so many memories, being there, hanging out on that corner, things that happened, the bands that played there. From Bad Religion to NOFX, you just go down the list of rock and metal bands – Sepultura played there – all these bands that became huge played there.”

When asked how many shows he saw at Axion/Cabaret Voltaire, he said “every show” and we believed him. The building is old and has a storied history as detailed by him (“It used to be a little whorehouse”) and this comprehensive 2012 Houston Press music article by Chris Gray. As final resting places go, it’s surely an interesting spot, especially if one believes in ghosts, the kind Rich was summoning when we chatted at – where else – a local live show, at Bad Astronaut, featuring Bad Brains’ H.R.

Elliot Lozier and The Eternal Shriek

Elliot Lozier is in several bands (full disclosure, including two with the author’s own kids) but he’s probably best known as the front person for Doom Scroll, a Colorado-based folk punk act. While that group is surging, having played Riot Fest last season and soon headed to Australia for a month long-tour, he’s keeping busy by releasing solo work as Pesky Self.

Lozier’s songs take an undaunted look at death, one of folk punk’s touchstone subjects. Check out the little ditty he wrote for Doom Scroll titled “Felled Spirits” and the chorus, “Death is waiting there to reclaim us allllll,” will be stuck in your head for days. He seemed a natural to take on our slightly morbid question.

Not that it was easy, he said. First he considered the Polack Inn, a Wisconsin dive bar he unironically referred to as a “local haunt.”

“I definitely don’t wanna stay there forever,” he laughed. “I also juggled with the Mishawaka Amphitheater but that’s only ‘cause that place is gorgeous and right on the Poudre River. Y’all should check out a show there sometime. It’s like mini-Red Rocks. A lot more intimate.

“I’ve been mulling it over the last 24 hours and I think I would have my ashes spread at Seventh Circle Music Collective in Denver,” Lozier said. “It’s been a staple in the punk community for so long and it always feels like home when we play there. I’m not a huge fan of large venues, so when I play places that are more intimate and authentic like Seventh Circle, it feels like I’m more connected with the people there and experiencing a show together. Some amazing bands have played there over the years and I’m honored to be a in a couple of them. Seventh Circle will always hold a special place in my heart for the music community and I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of playing there.”

Look for The Eternal Shriek, the debut album from Pesky Self, streaming everywhere Friday, September 5.