One thing I like about Atlanta’s music community is that when a bartender, band member, cyclist, or just some random regular on the scene hits hard times there will be some kick ass benefit show. I might not even know the person for whom the show is organized but with lineups like this I’ll pay $10. Heck, I might not even know half the bands on the list, but that’s $1.25 a band.
In this case, I sort of know Gina. She’s been a bartender and/or waitress and/or regular at many of my regular haunts, so I knew it would be my tribe in attendance. In fact, the shindig was MC’ed by none other than Ted Weldon, shown here snuggling with the woman in charge of raffle tickets. They had some amazing prizes and if you got there early or stayed late you were almost guaranteed to win something.
But on to the show. First up, Tom Cheshire playing a few tunes and reading a poem or two – a short but sweet set, though I prefer the drunken revelry that is his band, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves.
Someone has monkeyed with the stage lighting, again making things impossible for my camera during most of the bands. All the lights were focused on the lead singer’s head, turning him into a ball of plasma, while everything else turned into pitch. Thus I only have a few photos of any group, and crappy ones at that – even for my “clarity does not equal quality” style. So you only get one shot of The Fingers.
They play uptempo hard/heavy stuff with some seriously furious drums. The early crowd nodded appreciatively, but it may have been too early for such sounds.
Next, local degenerate Eric Lee took the mike with Paul McQuillan on guitar. I wasn’t sure what Vera Gemina were up to until the opening riff of a Blue Oyster Cult classic – Career of Evil, perhaps? I know they played it, I just don’t remember the order of the all-BOC set.
A virtual Who Used To Be Who Of The Star Bar took the stage as AM Gold doing Joel’s anthem rock, somewhat downbeat but heartfelt, touching and… well, this explains it pretty well.
“Why are you shaking your head?” degenerate CD asked.
“Because it’s too damn good. We shouldn’t be seeing this at The Star Bar. This should be at Variety or somewhere bigger.”
We both agreed that part of the joy of it was seeing it at the Star Bar, of course, but if you didn’t know who was on stage or why they were here and just took the music out of context you’d never believe you could hear such sounds in such a small venue.
I wasn’t much of a fan of The Booze. They were just a little too tame for me, but maybe they’ve got new tunes or a new outlook or something. This night they were on – extra energy, extra punch, I really enjoyed their mod stylings.
Somehow I missed one of the acts I’d really been looking forward to, Bigfoot. Well, not “somehow.” I was too busy flirting and socializing and checking the big raffle board and next thing I know I’d missed them. Too much fun gets in the way of having fun sometimes. When I made it back upstairs Ledfoot Messiah was bringing the rock, fast and hard.
I hadn’t heard of Primate, the final and I suppose “headline” act, but apparently all their gear had Mastadon stamped on it, so there’s some relationship there somewhere. I’m not in the know about the metallic end of Atlanta’s music spectrum, probably because it’s not really my thing – and Primate is a fine example. Just too screamy and loud for my tastes. I didn’t watch even enough of it to say if they were good at what they did, instead returning to the basement for raffles and socializing. But rock they did.
I stuck around for the “speed raffle” – giving away all prizes that hadn’t been given away yet, and walked away with a handful of gift certificates for local restaurants, galleries, etc.
All this for the low price of $10 admission and $10 in raffle tickets? I think the crowd walked away with plenty of benefits!
nice