The Power of Art in Nate Powell’s “Fall Through”

At the end of Nate Powell’s latest book Fall Through, Powell writes about what the book means to him. He begins, “thank you for indulging me as i reconnect with the openness and idealism driving us during an extended & libertine adolescence.” While Fall Through is fictional, chronicling the last tour of Wormwood, Arkansa’s Diamond Mine, it also pulls heavily from Powell’s own experiences in the DIY punk scene in Arkansas, specifically with his band Soophie Nun Squad.

Reading Diamond Mine’s story, I kept thinking about my own experiences in a similar scene in Northeast Louisiana while I was in college, the annual Christmas shows, the shows at some sketchy place in the woods in Mississippi or Louisiana, the shows at coffee shops, sleeping on benches, driving late nights to get back home, and more. I thought about late nights in basements or churches learning how to use 4-track records and bounce tracks to make room for more tracks. I thought about teaching ourselves how to produce music, not just write it. I thought about the VHS tapes we would get of bands we hadn’t heard of like The Get Up Kids or At The Drive In, seeing Cedric Bixler-Zavala bounce around a a crowded, sweaty room and pounce on top of a piano as he pounded the microphone on the keys. I thought about the sweltering rooms dripping with sweat and energy, the fleeting moments of time that appeared…