The Highway Matrons, a Saint Louis based trio that has been together since the Civil War and provided countless hours of entertainment, bliss, anger and boredom for the handful of people in Saint Louis who venture away from their televisions long enough to go see live music, have played their last show.
One night in 1992 or 93 I drove around South City by myself in my battered orange Chevy Citation. I ended up on Cherokee St. and stopped in for a late beer at The Way Out Club. Way out with what?.....All I remember from that evening was this skinny cat in a dress falling over his drums to get to the front of the stage so he could begin a rambling poem about being down and out and fucked up. It was sad and funny and rather beautiful to hear. The bass player was unconscious beside the stage and the guitar player was stumbling around adding riffs to the recitation. That was my first glimpse of Fred Friction and The Highway Matrons.
Over the years I saw perhaps 50 performances and the experience was never the same. There were a few standouts like the RFT awards party where Mark Marshens or Stephens or whatever his last name is now, truly summoned the Gods along with Fred and Mark Sheridan, to blow the roof off the joint with an amazing set of gut wrenching pure emotion and symbiotic musicianship. Unfortunately many sets were not even close to good and left me wondering why I, or anyone else bothered to show up.
The Highway Matrons were like a jam band that didn't jam...sometimes the magic arrived, sometimes the PBR disconnected them from their instruments. As we all know, buzz management is a tricky business. And the point was they were doing it for years no matter what the hell was going on in their lives. It makes me wonder what is different now. Why stop now?
Fred got me in a headlock before kissing me after my band played at The Way Out Club for the first time. I guess that was a compliment, or a welcome of some kind. Free Range Human played with Fred's Variety Group a few times and actually got paid! These guys were (are) a big part of the ragged fabric of the Saint Louis music scene and I hope they start new projects or get back on stage when the time is right.
