Once upon a time in Jackson, in the Myspace days, if you wanted to see a punk band, you had to go to church. Well, not a church service, per se, but at the very least on the inside of a church building.
According to Riggs, who I would affectionately describe as an oldhead, that was all you had in the days of yore: Myspace (and later on, Facebook events) and church buildings. Although we are far removed from the Myspace era, things haven’t really changed all that much. Instead of Myspace, we have Instagram, and instead of church buildings, we have burger joints. “It’s 2024 now,” he said, “You gotta adapt with the times. Growing up, when I was in the punk/hardcore scene in 2009, people would post flyers on Myspace and Facebook and it was mostly word of mouth.”
COVID has been the genesis of a lot of things – mostly bad, I would argue – but one of the good things that came from it was @goodgigs_jxn, a humble Instagram account posting local show posters to nearly 2,000 followers. Riggs, who co-runs the account alongside Lucy, was previously working states away but had been laid off during the pandemic and moved back to his hometown here in Jackson. Like old times, started going to shows again. “I was at a place and I ran into a friend. We were drinking some beers, and I was like, ‘Man, you weren’t at the gig tonight, there was a cool show.’ And he was like, ‘Man, I totally would’ve been there had I known there was a show happening.’ And literally, when he said that, it was like a light bulb moment.”
The very next day, he hit up Lucy, whom he had met at his first gig back in Jackson in the preceding months. “[He] hit me up one day and was like, ‘Hey, do you wanna do this Instagram account together where we post all the cool alternative, DIY-type shows that happen around town?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’ And here we are.” And, on January 8th, 2023, Good Gigs JXN was born – to my surprise, relatively recently. I was under the impression the account had been around for much longer. Pre-COVID, even.
Lucy explained to me that there were shows going on before the account was made. In fact, the Jackson Free Press had an event calendar that included them. That wouldn’t last long as not only did things grind to a standstill after COVID hit, but In 2022, JFP was absorbed into the Mississippi Free Press. Although the website is still up, it has laid dormant since then. Around that same time, Lucy began booking shows. “I was booking shows for a little while, just sort of hoping people would come out via word of mouth. I posted them on my private Instagram account, and that’s basically it.”
For Riggs, they were simply filling a niche that had been left vacant. “You have a 3, 4, 5 year gap where there was stuff happening, but it wasn’t what Jackson was at one point, and I feel like everybody can attest to that.”
At first, the account was mostly geared towards promoting shows Lucy booked, and neither of them expected it to go very far or last very long. “I can say at least from my perspective, I didn’t expect it to get barely any traction, more than the maybe 100 people that already came to shows,” Riggs said, noting that 100 people was probably pushing it.
“I figured we would try it for a while and it would peter out,” Lucy added, laughing.
They underwent a name change after formation to more accurately represent what they were doing. “We were originally called DIY Jackson. We were just doing DIY stuff. We changed that because we weren’t just doing DIY and punk shows. We kinda dabble in everything – punk, hardcore, alternative, indie, shoegaze.”
“I think both of us have a much wider taste,” Lucy added.
“But here we are, a year later.” And, although it’s been just one year, the impact has definitely been felt in the community. “I’ve had people hit me up like, ‘Man, I check your page every weekend just to see what’s going on.’ That’s cool to hear.” I am one of those people. Upon telling Riggs I had post notifications on, I got a high-five.
Throughout talking about Good Gigs, both Lucy and Riggs made a point to say that they’re just an Instagram account posting about shows, nothing more. “Not saying that we did anything to pick it up,” Riggs said, “It was already picking up, naturally. We just started an Instagram page.”
Despite their humility, Riggs admitted that things have accelerated since the formation of Good Gigs. “You can definitely see a resurgence. There’s younger kids that have never been to shows before. I’ve seen a new face every show, and it’s awesome. That’s what it’s all about – just having one new kid coming to shows that’s never gone. I’ve heard kids say they started coming to shows because of Good Gigs. You can feel the sense of community, and that’s what DIY is all about.”
I have also noticed the mix of oldheads and younger kids coming to shows – some nights, I walk into a gig and feel like an infant. Some nights, I’m surrounded by infants. As someone who throughout my life was usually the youngest in a group – either when I was in school as the kid with an early birthday, or at work as the plucky new hire – it’s definitely been an interesting experience.
“I think I’ve seen a lot more young people at shows,” added Lucy, “I went to college in Jackson, and so mostly I would go to shows at CS’s or at OffBeat, and I think that was usually a crowd that was older than me. I do think it has brought a lot of new blood. Lots of new bands have started up in the past year-ish that are great.” The reach has also widened considerably. She continues, “When I started booking shows in Jackson, it was just people I had met playing shows in my bands. When we started doing the Instagram page, people would reach out just because they were trying to find a show in Jackson. We’ve ended up having people from way far away, which has been really, really cool.” There has been Coffin and Alien Nose Job, both from Australia, Lewsberg from the Netherlands, and soon, a band from Poland will be coming. To name a couple I’ve seen, there has been Final Gasp from Boston and Careful Gaze from Minneapolis, plus more bands from all over the States, both from big cities and “yeehaw Kentucky,” as Lucy put it.
“In a sense, it’s put Jackson on the map,” Riggs said, “We have so many more bands hitting us up now from all over the country, all over the continent, all over the world. When bands tour, they don’t care what town they’re in. As long as kids show up and they’re having fun, whether it’s two kids or a hundred kids. It’s the sense of community and the vibes. I’m glad I started a silly little Instagram page.”
In just one short year, there has been an explosion of activity. In my calendar that I use to keep track of shows, there have been at least two every weekend for the last 3 months, and I don’t even put every show on the calendar. “In 5 years I only see it going stronger,” Riggs replied when asked where the scene might be evolving. “I feel like word gets out and that’s attracted a lot of people. It’s like a domino effect.”
“I hope that there will be more people involved, a different group of people involved maybe,” Lucy said. “I hope that it’ll be more diverse than it has been. I think that is one thing that has changed a lot in the last year.”
Riggs added, “We don’t have a mission statement or anything, but to get other people to do what we’re doing—not that we do anything special. That’s kinda what we’re doing. I’ve had some of the most fun time of my life booking shows, whether 10 people show up or 200 people show up. This city has so much potential and I love this city with all my heart and soul.” And it’s been a positive feedback loop: when bands come and see people showing up and showing out, they want to come back and tell other bands to come as well. Not to sound boring and capitalistic, but it could even be an economic boon to the city.
While talking to Lucy and Riggs, I got something of a history lesson on the Jackson music scene. Aside from churches, back in the day, you could also see your favorite local Myspace Metalcore band at The Bomb Shelter, a which used to be on Siwell and Terry Road in South Jackson, The Carter 1 and 2, a venue located where the Cathead Distillery now sits, Big Sleepy’s, a venue that only closed around the time I moved here for college in 2017, or indoor skate parks. According to Riggs, in these times, huge bands would come to town: Backtrack, Iron Lung, Naysayer, Harm’s Way, and more.
Something that struck me as an interesting quirk of the local music scene currently in Jackson was where a lot of these gigs are located. Sure, they aren’t being held in church meeting rooms anymore, but I frequently watch bands in restaurants or bakeries. I wondered if it would benefit the scene at all to have another dedicated venue aside from these restaurants and bakeries, something like the Masquerade in Atlanta, a venue where every big-name band and their mama has performed at some point or another in the past 10 or so years, but Lucy gave me a different perspective. “We are so lucky with all the venues we have right now. I primarily book shows at CS’s, Urban Foxes, Sunflower Oven, End of All, sometimes Hal & Mal’s, and all of those places outside Hal & Mal’s are all ages. They really don’t take anything from the door. All the money that goes to the door goes to the band. For the most part, we don’t have shows where people are getting ragingly drunk and being annoying.” She adds that while it would be technically possible to have a dedicated venue, it would likely be financially unfeasible. I myself have daydreamed with my only other metalhead friend about opening a bar here and all the different shows we’d book and themed nights we’d have, but we both know it’s a pipe dream for us. “I think what we have now is really a wonderful thing.”
“Wherever you can find a place that will allow loud, fast bands to play and people will show up, we’ll do it there,” Riggs added. “5 years down the road, I can definitely see a venue in Jackson.”
Lucy and Riggs also showed me the “RockDoc”, a Google Docs file of all the upcoming shows for the next several months. I couldn’t really read the names because there were a lot of them and the font was small, but I can say that there will be a stacked lineup of shows going into the end of 2024. “I’m really excited to have D. Sablu coming up here soon,” Lucy told me, describing the artist as a “freak” from New Orleans, “because I feel like one of the first punk shows that I helped book and play was that D. Sablu show.” The RockDoc included a little bit of everything, from punk, to indie, to rap.
“Lucy is the best at getting the sickest punk bands that you may or may not have heard of, but when you see them, they will shred your face off with riffage,” Riggs said of the upcoming performances.
“I think you put that well.”
I wanted to interview the people behind Good Gigs JXN not just because I was curious about them, but because I feel like the discovery of this account was, for me, very important. I wouldn’t go so far as to say life-changing or anything, but who knows, there’s still time to figure that out.
The summer of 2023 was an…interesting time for me. I was still coming down from the absolute worst job experience of my life (so far, anyway), adjusting to a new job and new people, and coming to terms with the fact that my 6-year friendship was quietly dying (stemming from an August Burns Red concert, ironically). I was at a pretty intense crossroad when I found this “silly little Instagram page”, as Riggs put it, dealing with a whole lot of emotions at once, and just kinda…languishing, quietly. The story about how I found them is kinda long and meandering and will make its way into a future feature story here on JXNU, but it seems I found them at just the right time.
My first Good Gigs show was Sunday, July 30th: Final Gasp from Boston, Crypt Eater from Jackson, Sludgelung from Starkville, and B.O.R.N. from Birmingham at Hal & Mal’s. I was really nervous because, unfortunately, I had the incorrect notion that punk was still being inhabited by skinheads. How that thought wormed its way into my brain, I’m not sure. I was never into punk before then – I’ve always been mostly metalcore trash – but I’m happy to report that there were no skinheads that night. I didn’t really talk to anyone. To be honest, I just wanted to see if there was a legit scene for that kind of stuff here, hear some music, and dip. But there, I had an interaction that I’ll never forget.
I’m a short girl, 4’11 ½” to be exact, and I was mostly sticking to that one pillar in a very annoying location in the Brew Pub (IYKYK) because again, I was nervous. A girl with blue hair reaches out to me and encourages me to get to the front before Final Gasp’s set, and I oblige. I didn’t want to get very close to the “stage” because being toe-to-toe with someone performing feels like a personal space invasion, despite the fact a LOT of the bands I see always want the crowds to be at kissing distance.
During the set, I’m vibing to the music, rocking back and forth. I don’t dance, and I don’t really headbang anymore because I saw The Devil Wears Prada on my 23rd birthday in 2022, went to bed, and woke up with a stiff neck (I will, however, still go feral when Danger: Wildman is played). Once the show was over, I leave pretty much immediately, but once outside, I’m stopped by the blue haired girl. She introduces herself to me and her “hubby”, the bassist for Crpyt Eater, and thanks me for dancing with her. I was totally stunned, because I totally wasn’t dancing, but I thanked her anyway. To my tremendous surprise, she – a woman who I had met less than an hour ago – gives me a hug and tells me I’m awesome. To this day, I’m still not sure why, or even what I said in reply. All I remember was that hug, her telling me that I was awesome, and her scary-looking hubby with palm tats saying 0 words during the entire interaction. In the moment, it was strange, but it’s been the warmest of welcomes into a community I’ve ever had. (By the way, I have since formally met Iron Mike, he’s a nice guy, not scary at all.)
Were Lucy and Riggs directly responsible for that? Maybe so, maybe not. But the fact still stands that their silly little Instagram pulled me out of what could have been a really rough time, and I know I’m not the only person with such a story.
When asked what they wanted to say to the greater Jackson music community, Riggs had a heartfelt message. “Thank you for coming to shows and following our Instagram page. When we started it, I did not think we were gonna get more than 200 followers, max. To see what it’s become in under a year has been mind-blowing. Just one person saying they came to a show because they found it on Good Gigs Jackson is just the biggest compliment. We do this because we love it, not because we have to. Support not us, but the city of Jackson, the bands of Jackson, the local bands, the touring bands, the awesome venues that we have. It means the world to us and a lot of other people.”
Lucy’s message was more succinct and direct: “Start a band.”
“We will definitely book your band,” Riggs agreed, “We don’t care what you sound like.”
“I kind of care what you sound like,” Lucy interjected with a laugh.
“Okay, I care what you sound like, but you don’t have to sound good. You could be awful, and we will support you with every fiber of our being.”
Jackson is known for a lot of things. Most of them not good – terrible, even. A water crisis to rival Flint’s, the Pauper’s Cemetery, the wack roads, high crime. I mean, name anything, and Jackson has been dumped on for it in the national stage, despite the fact that several large cities have the problems we do. Everyone loves to point and laugh, though. Thank God for Mississippi, and whatnot. Although I am a transplant who, I’ll admit, partook in the pointing and laughing despite being from Alabama of all places, there’s an undeniable charm about the City with Soul. “Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been proud to say I’m from Jackson,” Riggs said. “We have a bunch of cool kids, cool people who are into cool shit.” And whether they know it or not, this hometown pride is exemplified through Good Gigs, a little Instagram page they started just because they wanted to tell people about upcoming shows.
Be sure to follow @goodgigs_jxn on Instagram. They’re really trying to get to 2,000. Plus, they post some really cool shows.
JXN UNDERGROUND 