A couple of blasts for the past from Memphis
Two big hangouts of mine when I was in high school were the Mall of Memphis and the Antenna Club. Neither one of them still exist. But memories can be had on the interwebs. Yes, it seems both of them have fans crazy enough to dedicate whole web pages to them.
The Antenna Club’s fan page can be found here.
To put the description in basic terms, the Antenna Club was a live alternative music venue. I know I saw many more infamous than this, but the shows for All (which was a band that picked up the pieces after Milo left The Decendents) and Pigface are the ones I remember most. I also remember an all local band show on Halloween of 1987. Sobering Consequences headlined.
To be honest, the place was a dump. The restroom, aside form being alive stunk up the whole place. But it was “our” dump. Plus we had the Piggly Wiggly parking lot next door that we could “hang out in” when there wasn’t a show. There was also a wall on one side of a parking lot down the street that would always get graffitied. It was a cool place. Of all the similar venue clubs I’d been to in my youth in other cities, “home” was the best. Nobody had anything as cool as the Antenna.
Really I started hanging out at the MOM (Mall of Memphis) well before I started high school classes. We moved into a house just around the corner when I was seven or eight. We moved away when I was fourteen. It was close enough to ride our bikes. I spent many weekends and summer times there.
I didn’t really spend much high school time there. I do remember this one time. A group of had ridden up there with my friend Mike Blumenthal in his car. Well, somehow someone lifted his keys from him and drove the car around to the other side of the mall without him noticing. It was so funny because at first he was freaked out, but then he got a little excited at the fact that he might be getting new car. His car was a piece of junk Chevy Caprice. It was in really bad shape. He was actually disappointed when they guided him around to where they had moved the car. I was of course not in on it. I was with Mike the whole time, so they didn’t have a chance to let me in on the joke. So in a way the joke was kind of on me as well. I seem to recall be a little put out by the experience. I had to get up early in the morning or something. Looking back on it though, it as pretty funny.
So if you have memories of the Antenna Club or the Mall of Memphis, leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
June 29th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Wow. I grew up in Memphis, ‘76-’86, and was just talking to a younger guy at work about this club (Antenna) back in Memphis — as a result of a discussion about the end of true clubs. Goggling, I ran across your page. But I remember more the MOM, heading there with my friends, avoiding the crews of kids of different schools rolling around. I better remember Fun-N-Games, I think on Poplar, close to that plant nursery, movie theater . . . not quite mid-two. That arcade was our primary spot . . . ton of memories.
July 6th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Oh yeah….Fun and Games…..I remember the nickname from the acronym.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I spent every Friday during highschool either inside the Antenna Club for all ages shows or outside on the sidewalk when I couldn’t find $5 or a way to sneak in. Some of my fondest memories are of that dump. I saw The Dead Milkmen there twice plus a ton of local bands. I wish I had thought to take pictures. At the time, I thought the Antenna Club would never change and that I would always go to punk shows.