The Delicious is gone. Except this time, it’s for really real. As in, the place isn’t there anymore at all.
What was once an important piece of Fayetteville house show history is now just a pile of rocks on the corner of Whitham and Douglas.
The entire house has been demolished and now only exists in the memories of those who spent countless nights breathing the musty air of its basement and enduring the claustrophobic-but-still-somehow-welcoming atmosphere in the living room while bands from all over the city, state and country played late into the night.
Being in my early thirties, I spent most of my house show days at other locations in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Delicious was just a bunch of apartments inside a gigantic house back then and the only sounds coming from it were those of radios from its windows and acoustic guitars from its cozy porch.
I was, however, fortunate enough to catch a half dozen or so shows at The Delicious and knowing that it’s gone for good is a pretty sad thought.
In remembrance, Stuart Field has compiled six Delicious basement recordings from various performances made “with a hand held cassette player, and then transferred to MP3 with only minimal editing” all of which are available at the KXUA blog.
Although I could never do The Delicious justice with a proper obituary considering my limited time spent there, I thought maybe some of you folks could help out. What are some of your Delicious memories? Got any favorite shows in mind? Most memorable police-related encounters? Ever trip going down those crazy stairs to the basement?
[Original photo via kxua883.blogspot.com. For a partial list of bands that played at The Delicious, visit the MySpace page.]
