Monday, June 27, 2005
Friday night: Got to the fest just in time for Jack Logan and the Monday Night Recorders. The music portion of the show was great, but the vocal knob was turned up way too high. Nonetheless, it is very rare that you get to see Jack Logan onstage with Kevin and Matt Lane, Rob Veal, William Tonks, John Neff, and Rob Keller.
On a totally irrelevant sidenote, I had my one and only visit to the beer tent during this time and the mosquitoes were everywhere in there. It only seemed to bother me in that tent so I never visited it again. And who needs to anyway, when you can enjoy the main stage from the Flicker just as well? In fact, thinking about it, the view from the bar was better as the soundmen blocked the view of the stage for all in the beer tent anyway. (Though it was in a better location this year than it was last year I suppose.)
Elf Power was next on the main stage and their set didn’t seem as energetic to me as it had in the past. Maybe partly because everything sounded a bit fuzzy to me, but overall, I’ve enjoyed them more in a club setting. I then caught Nikki Sudden over on the side stage which was very good. The backing band did a fine job on supporting his songs and it definitely offered a different perspective than his solo set at the Caledonia last year. (Coincidentally, I found myself at almost all of the same sets he was at for the rest of the weekend which made me feel a bit like I was stalking him.)
The next time slot found me over at the Caledonia for a long-awaited set by the David Barbe Band. It was on a pretty regular basis that these guys were playing last year, but this has not been the case as of lately so it was nice to see them get back on the horse. After debuting some new songs, they closed out the set with those familiar rockers that I love. It seemed to be slightly more mellow than usual with John Neff’s leads being a bit more of the focus (over Frank's) this time around, but as usual, these guys never disappoint.
After some catching up with friends outside for awhile, the next thing I caught was I Am The World Trade Center at the Caledonia. The club was pretty packed by this point, but I can’t say I could really figure out why. I did not stay for long. Maserati was next, but unfortunately, I can’t tell you how that set played out as they stopped letting folks in due to capacity.
Biggest regret of the night: Going home at this point, instead of going to catch We Vs. The Shark at the 40 Watt which I heard was a great show (and whom I’ve still never seen.)
Saturday: After sleeping much of the day away and then realizing our fresh seafood from Mobile Bay was not going to cook in time, we decided to hightail it over to the fest just in time for the Workhorses of the Entertainment & Recreational Industry. As usual, these guys cranked out catchy songs with great harmonies and solid playing. They were directly followed by The Chasers over at the main stage where the honky-tonk did not fail to disappoint me. The Chasers are always a fun time. Since we had Red Fish half-cooked at home, we decided to swing by the house and finish cooking up a storm. It was VERY good (in case you wondering.) Made it back to the main stage for the last song of Five-Eight and some of The Whigs set. I really walked away with no solid opinion of them other than it being the second time I’ve seen them and they still have yet to impress me. I also had some friends ask the same question I had in my mind, "why was this band headlining"?
Next up was a visit to the air-conditioned 40 Watt which was certainly one of my favorite single moments of the weekend. AC: now that’s what it’s all about. After some downtime, I was able to catch bits and pieces of Bo Freeze and Mother Jackson. I walked over at that point to catch Ceiling Fan and by the time I came back to the 40 Watt for the 2nd half of Don Chambers and Goat, I was amazed by how much bigger the crowd had gotten in just 30 minutes.
But backing up, Ceiling Fan rocked the motherfudgin’ house as usual. It pained me to have to leave halfway through their set, but I wanted to make sure my friends caught some of Goat for the first time as well. So anyone that wants to fill me in on how the rest of CF’s set was, please do so. Ceiling Fan probably took the cake for my favorite set this year (they came in a close second behind Southern Bitch last year). I walked into the 40 Watt in time to hear some new songs by Goat. While it was a welcome surprise to hear them play some newer songs after much of the same setlists throughout the year, it didn’t seem like those new songs had much of the trademark whiskey-soaked Goat sound. A little bit more rockin’ I guess. They did, however, close out the set with the familiar tunes and a pretty crowded house.
Southern Bitch and lots of whiskey (or wait, was it vodka?) closed out my night, and as usual, a rockin’ good time. Yeah, not the best Southern Bitch set by any means, but an average set by them is still more kickass than a lot of other things. They certainly gave me the rock needed to satisfy the part of me that needs a little heaping of loud rock once a day. A big happy birthday to Wendy Musick as well!
Biggest regret of Saturday night: Not having dinner ready in time and having to miss The Stand-Ins and Col. Knowledge over at the Caledonia. You can’t win ‘em all, I guess.
Overall, another fantastic AthFest weekend. If I had to compare, I’d say that I enjoyed the lineup and booking schedule more last year, but after awhile, it’s apples and oranges I guess. The small festival atmosphere, coupled with all the club lineups, really make AthFest a great place to be all weekend. One thing’s for sure, it beats the heck out of sitting at this desk until 5 o’clock!
Update: As expected, some things are slowly creeping back into my memory from the weekend. I had to add that I did get the chance to check out a portion of Geoff Reacher's set at the Lunch Paper on Friday night. This guy really has a cool one-man show going on and it was good to see him again. If you still have not seen this guy, make sure you do at some point (he has some dates coming up.)
Loading...
