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Celebrate Good Times The 2007 Flagpole Athens Music Awards Show F or the ninth year running, the ritzy Morton Theatre graciously let the Flagpole Athens Music Awards take over its stage, honoring achievements in local music with a three-hour cer emony replete with music, speeches, tears (almost!) and roller skates. The night opened with an introduction to the sport of roller derby; Classic City Rollergirls' Ire Starter gave the crowd a quick explanation of the sport's rules as the team skated across the stage. Why roller derby? The fine women of our local league served as stage assistants through the entire night. Phillip Brantley and JoJo Glidewell, both past performers and winners as half of the band Modem Skirts, presented the first set of awards. DJ Mahogany, accepting his award for the DJ category, sent out a heartfelt thanks to his dad for inspiring his love of classic soul music. The members of experimental winners long Legged Woman were on tour toting a generator through the Badlands and couldn't accept their award, so buddy and fellow musician Roy Coughlin whipped up an entertaining Old West yam on their behalf The New Sound of Numbers was the first musical performance of the night, and, after a brief setup, the E6 band swerved through two tunes combining throwback-to-obscure-post-punk sounds with a for ward-looking attitude. David Lowery of Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven and Pitch-A-Tent Records came out on stage to pres ent the next set of awards and was greeted by a “Hi, Daddy!" from his young son in the audience. (You al ways knew Athens music was a family.) Oubconscious won the World award for the second year in a row, but—as became a trend for the evening—the band was on tour and sent up a representative to accept. Music Hates You, also a second-year-running recipi ent, won the award for Punk / Hardcore, express ing a little shock that fellow nominees American Cheeseburger weren't onstage instead. Tin Cup Prophette—in trio format with Amanda Kapousouz, Bain Mattox and Jeremy Wheatley—en- raDtured the audience with two violin-heavy songs off of the debut album Liar & the Thief. Film::Athens followed with a presentation of the Sprockets mu sic video awards for Audience Choice: "Kathy" by Noogeez (directed by Safi Khesghi and Ken Starratt); and the judges' selection: "A Normal Conversation' by Cobrasex (directed by Jamie Corbett). The Empties opened the second half of the show with hopped-up rock and roll, though guitar static resulted in a minor tantrum and broken guitar strings at the end of the band's set. ».ocal poet Jeff Fallis opened his awards presentation with a poem written for the occasion before Bear & Ben Stevens took to the stage, marking the first hip-hop perfor mance at the Awards Show in several years. Sleepy Horses frontman Nic Goodson gave an emotional acceptance speech for the Country/ Americana award, rattling off a list of names, but singling out Nug's Space founder Linda Phillips for her work in Athens. 40 Watt booking agent Velena Vego presented a special award to 40 Watt owner and manager Barrie Buck, who this year celebrates 20 years with the club. Oddly, every time Of Montreal took home an award—Pop Band, Album Cover Art and Album of the Year—the announcement was met with only tepid applause. What are we not counting them as locals anymore? Cmon, Athens! Get behind the suc cess story! Grogus closed out the night with exuberant Latin jazz and merengue, and the band's accompanying dancers were captivating. Dark Meat made its way back to the Morton stage after performing at last year's show to accept the award for Band/ Performer of the Year, and a tired yet enthusiastic crowd saw the curtain close at the Morton, as Athfest 2007 started off welL Chris Hassiotls DJ Mahogany 22 FLAGP0LE.C0M JUNE 27,2007 NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS MW WHITE