Monday, June 27, 2005
Friday night - Started off by seeing Elf Power on the main outdoor stage. The mix was pretty bad... the vocals were jacked up wayyyyy too high. It was fun seeing BP Helium playing bass with the band again, but I couldn't enjoy the set due to the shoddy sound. Seems like Elf Power is one of those bands who have played their songs too many times. The members didn't seem to have a lot of interest in the performance. Next I headed over to the 2nd stage to catch Nikki Sudden play a fun, loosey-goosey set. Man, he was dressed for success... TDJ regular Pedro plays lead guitar for Nikki, and did a great job. Riffed it up, riffy.
Then Pylon took the main stage. They passed out Pylon balloons w/ pictures of butt plugs on 'em. It was quite a sight. The mixing issues continued throughout the first half of their set, but seemed to straighten out toward the middle. Once the kinks got worked out it was a great show. Lots of dancing. The butt plug balloons blocked my view for most of the set though.
After Pylon finished, I headed over to the Go Bar for Phosphorescent. It was extremely packed... so much so that enjoying the show was near impossible. Lots of voice cracks... met Boo... nice guy. I then headed over to Little Kings w/ Mail Clerk and caught a little bit of Bob Hay and the Jolly Beggars. Bluegrass and a comfy seat was a nice escape from the stuffy Go Bar. Made my way to the 40 Watt to catch Psychic Hearts.... eh.... There was alot of hype surrounding them in the past year, but I just didn't enjoy 'em. Finally, I went over to the Caledonia and couldn't figure out what was going on. The club was packed watching a boy and a girl hog the karaoke mic... where was the band? Oh wait... that was the band... eh... Decided to head on home.
Saturday - Started out w/ the Stand Ins at the Caledonia.... nice. This was as good as I've seen them play. Last song featured Robo-Dave on backing falsetto vocals. I got to meet Aaron (the bassist for Col. Knowledge and the Lickety Splits) at Popperfest, so I had to stick around for their set. Glad I did, those guys were fantastic. Great soulsy psych-pop... Watched just a tad of the Whigs outdoors. The main stage was still having sound issues. One thing about the Whigs, the singer is always a little flat. That's excusable at places like the Caledonia, but not on the main stage w/ a full row of vocal monitors.
(Tangent: The person running the outdoor main stage's soundboard must have also been choosing the transition music... the two annoyances would then explain each other)
Dashed over to Nuci's Space to watch Nutria play a great set of pop. Metronome was particularly well played tonight. Next I caught Heros Severum at Tasty World. This was the first time I'd seen them play as a 4-piece (they've added keys). Man, do they sound better now... Great set. Hopped back across town to the Caledonia (several TDJ'ers were at the 'donia including Mail Clerk, Pedro, Hillary, Jared, Robo-Dave, Jayne, and myself... it was another meet up). Caught the end of Murder Beach's set. Lots of fun... pretty girls in that band... Ceiling Fan took the stage and rocked the house boat. Funny story... during the song "Burnt Sienna" Robo-Dave leaned over and asked me if they were saying "Pussy Head" in the chorus. Only Robo-Dave would think that.
Finished the night with some dirty rock from Don Chambers and Goat. It was really mixed at a low volume, but sounded great. Don Chambers is definitely one of the highlights of the current music scene. The headliners, Southern Bitch, took the stage about 30 minutes later than scheduled. They were a little rough and one could tell they'd hadn't been playing many shows recently... I started giving out around 2 AM, so I took off before they finished.
So... Since I'm moving away in a couple weeks, this was my 8th and last Athfest... It was a weekend full of heat, snappy door men, ringing ears, smoke, and great music.
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