The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
Where ‘weirdos’ played
Documentary remembers Antenna as beacon for early indie scene
The multiple televisions found inside Antenna — or “the Antenna Club,” as the venue was commonly if imprecisely called — justified the famed punk-rock site’s name and its New Wave TV-set logo.
But the name also rightly suggested that Antenna was attuned to something unique and vibrant in the ether.
Call it uneasy listening: the new sound of teenage rebellion, ennui, activism and sarcasm, a raucous strain of rock and roll that attracted sympathetic listeners and incipient musicmakers from all over the region to a dark rectangular room at 1588 Madison that was part performance art space, part playpen and part ground zero for potential disaster, as demonstrated by an infamous 1991 concert by shock-rocker G.G. Allin, who made local headlines when he stripped naked and flung feces at the audience.
After three years of shooting interviews and collecting archival footage and vintage memorabilia, the eagerly awaited “Antenna,” a feature documentary about the nightclub and the people it attracted, debuts at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Playhouse on the Square as the Friday “gala” screening of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, which began Thursday and continues through Sunday at vari- ous Midtown venues.
Born, phoenix-like, from the ashes of an aborted Antenna book project, the movie was written by musician/ writer Ross Johnson, who played with such bands as Tav Falco’s