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eling similar catchy paths as early-'90s
stalwarts Blues Traveler, Hootie & the
Blowfish and Spin Doctors
COMMANDER CHAMELEON (40
Watt) Incorporating punk-ish pop rock,
calypso, pop. rap and spacey surt ma
nia. the local quartet's selt-titled debut
album is full of both sly and sopho-
moric humor, a little like a Georgia-fied
Dead Milkmen
THE DICTATORTOTS (40 Watt)
Seemingly outrageously crude, the
long-running Athenian chaos cultiva
tors stomp about and trash the night
with their beery post-grunge sounds.
The band recently turned out an EP
called Dobmldut
DJ BABY PANDAS & DJ
STRAWBERRY JULIUS (Go Bar)
Flagpole music editor Chris Hassiotis
(Baby Pandas) and local poet extraor
dinaire Jeff Fallis (Strawberry Julius)
serve up a deliciously danceable set
of retro soul, throwback rhythm and
blues, garage funk, ‘60s French girl
pop... and more! 11 p.m
DJ REBB (Detour) Atlanta's DJ Rebb
plays Top 40. hip-hop, progressive
house and other electronic sounds
prime for dancing. Starting at midnight
after the Classic City Kings drag show.
Every Thursday
DJ RIX (Loft) Championing dance
favorites every Thursday. Atlanta’s
DJ Rix favors breakbeat and hip-hop
mixes. He recently collaborated with
Louisiana’s Trace on a new mix called
TR-IXX.
DRAYTON SAWYER GANG (Repent)
Heavy, plodding punk from Brooklyn,
working in a good bit of interesting
percussion and vocal acrobatics, con
juring thoughts of early '90s California
weirdo-rock.
FIELDS OF GLASS (Repent) Florida's
Fields of Glass plays cathartic, gothy,
emotionally intense blacK metal fol
lowing the Scandinavian template but
giving it a twist Expect leather, spikes,
corpse paint, soaring female vocals
paired with chanting dude sounds, lyr
ics about magic, general riffiness (and
keys and a violin!)
RYAN HETRICK (Flicker) Athens
songwriter (and Wynburn street fair
coordinator!) Ryan Hetrick plays me
lodic, soulful troubadour tunes about,
as he puts it, “lost love and the day of
American society' 8 30 p m
JOKER (Caledonia) Locals Jason
Norris (vocals). Daniel Bmme (guitar),
Mark Crowley (bass) and Ted Lord
(drums) blend modern and classic
hard rock.
“KARAOKE" (Eastwood Pub) Every
Thursday.
MARK MAXWELL GROUP (Melting
Point) Capable of solo guitar and
group classical-type numbers off the
2005 album Building olFaith, as well
as some earlier, jazzier compositions,
blending some classical and contem
porary pieces in as welt
THE MUSICSMITHS (La Dolce Vita)
Every Thursday night, guitarist Brian
Smith (Georgia Guitar Quartet) and
flautist Natalie Smith (Grogus) play
classical music duets 7 30-10 30 p m
NATE NELSON & CORTRIGHT
(Tasty World) Nate Nelson started
out in town a couple years ago as a
tentative young singer-songwriter,
but he's since found solid ground in
the local scene, comfortable either
going solo and acoustic or—as with
tonight's show—backed by his full
band Nelson's vocal style borders
mainstream accessibility and more
mdie-oneiited idiosyncrasy ask him
about his full-length new album Knobs
Have Turned
ONE L (Wbtte Tjger Gourmet) Local
G,‘ansi Philip tohr^rtiet Booue Dog
fno/ixtflQS
jo the stage with his Irttle big band'
featuring g? Afro-Cuban rhythm set-
Friday, September 7
Red Letter Agent,
Blue Flashing Light,
Save Grand Canyon
40 Watt Club
Forceful local rock band
Blue Flashing Light settled
into Athens about a year
ago, choosing our town
after several years in South
Carolina, Ohio and the
United Kingdom. "Having Blue Flatting Light
lived in Charleston, I vis
ited here a number of times and knew that Athens was a sick little city," says frontman Ian
Schwarber. "We thought about Austin, but there was no specific reason for that, and Athens
was a known entity. Athens is just killer."
Schwarber says the relocation had a strong influence on the sound of the band's new al
bum Shadowboxing, out now. "If we'd made it anywhere else, it wouldn't have been quite as
full of different possibilities," says Schwarber. "[In Athens], you see so much freedom with
music that it was really inspiring to try new things."
Shadowboxing is an amped-up manifesto aimed directly at the mainstream, and draws on
the melodic bombast of bands like U2 and Soundgarden, while Schwarber's crooning borrows
from Brit bands like Coldplay, yet twists that sound with a hard-edged intensity. Schwarber
acknowledges that the sound is not necessarily in line with much of Athens’ scene: "We're a
straightforward rock band, and we wear our ambitions on our sleeve. A lot of people in town
would rather not... the music scene here's so rich and full of tradition, there's a lot to be
proud of. So it's not the easiest thing to just show up in town and play. You've really got to
pay your dues and so that's why we really try to give 200 percent. Which is great, you’d rather
have to work for it every night than get comfortable."
Tonight's show is a benefit for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital which focuses on
childhood cancer. "Everyone [in the band] has different aspirations, but I want to try to do
lots of benefits," says Schwarber. "We don't really get paid for our shows anyway, so any mon
ey that does come in might as well go to a good place." [Chris Hassiotis]
tion, seating horn lines and a distinct
approach to electric guitar.
PERPETUAL GROOVE (Georgia
Theatre) This formerly Savannahian
group's been stirring crowds into a
frenzy around the Southeast with its
high-energy jams and spirited cover
tunes But they liked Athens so much
they picked up and moved here last
year, and packed the AthFest mainstage
last month. All 1fiis Everything and
Sweet Oblivic ,s Antidote are the most
recent albums, but the new one is
LIVELOVEDIE Tonight's the first of a
two-night stand at the Theatre
THE PLAGUE (Caledonia) In the
1980s, this punk band formed as
one of the first of its kind in Athens
Members went on to play in bands like
Sump and ’’’’Volcanic, but in 2005
revitalized The Plague, their early,
rough and energetic creation.
POWERS OF MAN (Wild Wing Caf6)
No information available
PRINT (Repent) Highlights of Horror
is last year's release from New York
trio Print. The band creates a thrashy,
chaotic din that’s as much about ex-'
perimentation as it is about intensity
THE SHUT-UPS (40 Watt) Led by
Don Condescending and Ben Spraker.
formerly of Athens pop powerhouse
Ceiling Fan. the band produces sounds
reminiscent of the Joe Jackson Band,
the Paul Collins Beat and the Brains
The recent tongue-in-cheek-yet-totally-
rockin'album is The Stud Album
SPORK (Repent) No information
available
TROPICAL BREEZE STEEL BAND
(Farm 255) These guys head south
from Minnesota, offering up a mix of
Caribbean music—soca, mento, calyp
so. reggae, and more, all heavy on the
steel drum Expect to hear some beach
party favorites as well as other covers
JASON “LEFTY" WILLIAMS
(Georgia Bar) One-armed Atlanta
guitarist Jason “Lefty' Williams at age
six fashioned a pick to fit on what his
website calls “his nubb.“ and since
ties been turning out electrified rock,
delving into furjk countrvan^ jaz/cov-
-n*wuH**ri*a.nfcw sex? wMte*
backing band Big Plans is the debut
album out now
Friday, Sept. 7
THE ALWAYS ALREADY (Little
Kings) Texas guys Dustin Withers and
Jaime Cano play post-punk i r . a moody
New Wave sort of way. heavy with
keyboard riffs and nervy vocals. The
band’s new four-track EP touches on
Joy Division and Gang of Four as much
as it does on. surprisingly, the ‘80s film
scores of Jerry Goldsmith.
AN EPIC AT BEST (Little Kings)
Fronted by Robert Gunn and his pow
erful piano and ugmented by drummer
James McGaw. bassist Natalie Roberts
and guitarist Roy Coughlin, An Epic
At Best leans towards an empathetic
second-generation emo rock of the
mid-to-late ’90s, but expands past
cliche and presumption to something
more authentic. The debut album is
There Will Be Rain, and this is the
band's penultimate show, see Box
BLUE COTTON (Wild Wing Cate)
Country rock covers and originals
BLUE FLASHING LIGHT (40 Watt)
Local six-piece Blue Flashing Light
takes its name from a track by the band
Travis, and the guys aim for the same
Brit-styled emotional rock, though re
sults are decidedly more mainstream-
American Shadowboxing is the name
of the band's debut album, out now
Benefit show for St Jude’s Children's
Research Hospital, see Box
BO BEDINGFIELD & THE
WYDELLES (Caledonia) If
Springsteen had followed up Nebraska
with Georgia, it might've sounded
something like Bo Bedingheld's debut
album The World is ttimg, Show
Some Decorum Bedingfield's been
recording some new tunes recently
for another release, and tonight he's
• backed by his crackerjack band of all-
star locals
THE CUBS (Tasty World) Think simple
garage rock along the lines of The
Strokes, and you've got an idea of what
this young local quartet is working its
way towards, though thwes a slightly
rtiyffirqic underpinning with hints of
■uUfr;'nuL*'(■('
DJ JOHNNY D (Loft) One of The
l oft Lounge's rotating crew of house
deejays, Johnny D—whom you may
recognize from Atlanta's 95 5 The
Beat—lays down the new dance
sounds, heavy on the hip-hop every
Friday night
DJ MARK BELL (8e’s) Starting at 11
p m. every Friday and Saturday, local
deejay Mark Bell focuses on the dan
der sounds of 20 years ago
DJ REBB (Detour) Atlanta's DJ Rebb
plays Top 40. hip-hop. progressive
house and otherdectronic sounds
prime for dancing
DJRX (Rumor) The local deejay plays
party tracks, mainly current pop with
old school and country accents, many
o* which are his own remixes Every
Friday and Saturday.
DJ URBN TRBN (Go Bar) By day Shil
Patel gets that paper as a music pub
licist at local firm Team Clermont; by
night he takes over the sound-system
as DJ Urbn Trbn. Putting the desi in
desire, he selects subcontinental dance
tunes, bangin' bhangra and Bollywood
blowouts. 11 p.m.
THE ESKIMOS (Caledonia) This
Athens-roots-rock group—not of
ficially “broken up,’ but playing, oh,
one show a year these days, tops—is
back on stage after a lengthy hiatus.
The guys combine both a Dylanesque
knack for lyrical imagery and a classic
Brit-pop rock sound The band's third
release. Kola, is now available as a free
download online
FASHION KNEE HIGH (Flicker) Says
the band “Rock and roll music that is
bound to bite.’ 8 30 p.m.
THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY (Little
Kings) Weekly get-together of local
songwriters Christopher Henderson and
Don Auber, with frequent collaborations
and guest musicians Americana fables
and dark ballads from Appalachia to the
Dust Bowl Every Friday at happy hour
from 5:30 to 7:30 pm
GROGUS (Farm 255) The local and
long-running Grogus ensemble plays
jazz and salsa accentuated with reggae,
hip-hop and Afro-Cuban styles The
new EP Sabor de Esperatua a preview
disc ol the groups forthcoming full-
length album Esperanza. should be
available
► continued on next page
?MELTing
point
UPCOMING EVENTS
THURS An Evening with the
SEPT6 MARK MAXWELL
GROUP
\
FRI
SEPT 7
SAT
SEPT 8
Tickets S15 odv • S17 at the door
THE
HUSHPUPPIES
Ticket* S10 odv • S12 at the door
WE ARE GAMEDAY CENTRAL
• JOIN US EVERY SATURDAY IN THE FALL
STARTING AT NOON FOR ALL THE ACTION .
ON THE BIG SCREEN FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS [I
• THIS WEEK FREE ACOUSTIC MUSIC
BY JUSTIN BROGDON ON THE PATIO 1-5PM
MARK OLSON
(FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE JAYHAWKS)
w/ Special Guest*
THE LAST TOWN CHORUS
Tickets S12 odv • S14 ot the door
THU Double CD Release Party with
sEPtn THE EVERYBODYFIELDS
& JOHNNY IRION
w
FRI
SEPT 14
Tickets SB odv • S10 at the door
Country Music Legends
SHENANDOAH
Tickets S20 odv • S25 at the door
THU Evening with
sept2° MICHELLE MALONE
BAND
Tickets S10 odv • $12 otthe door
f?L„ BRIAN CONNELL
SEPT 21 CD RELEASE PARTY
with special guesl
BIRDS & WIRE
Tickets S5 dUv • SB ot the door
5AT Evening with World Renowned Jon Artists
sept22 JOSHUA REDMAN
TRIO
Tickets S32.SO odv • S37 ot the door
COMING SOON:
SEPT 28 - NORMALTOWN FLYERS
Full band show featuring special guest guitarist JOHN KEANE
SEPT 29 - THE BRIDGE
UNCORKED & UNPLUGGED
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT
HOSTED BY JAY MARKWALTER
1/2 PRICE WINE *7-1OPM • $5 AT THE DOOR
DANIEL CLAY, BIRDS & WIRE,
STEREO CAMPBELL
DON AUBER, MARK BRUT,
CANDLEWYCK DUO
WWW MY SPACE COM/MHTtNGPO!NTUNPlU€€ED
iSv "*r c f yt
FOR TICKETS & SHOWTIMES
WWW.MELTINGPOINTATHENS.COM
OR CALL THE BOX OFFICE 706.254.6909
Terrapin Tuesday
Bluegrass on the Patio
Every Tuesday • 7-10pm • $3
Tue*, Sopt 4
THE PEA RIDGE RAMBLERS
Tu«t, Sept 11
NATTY BOH DUO
rmagrr
2 9b E. DOUGHERTY ST • ATHENS, GA-
706.549.7051
LOCATE
MtC«fcPl£D BY
RflWfl
MUSIC
SEPTEMBER 5, 2007 • FLAGPOLE.COM 23