Club Notes

Snorting Liquor

originally published December 14, 2005

Flute, fiddle, banjo, upright bass, mandolin and guitar: it’s not the Five Eight acoustic set, that’s for sure, but due to a perceived flip in the order, the Packway Handle Band is up first in the 40 Watt on Thursday, Dec. 8. This local six-piece bluegrass phenomenon constantly enthralls me with its finely intertwined Kentucky bluegrass melodies ranging from the deepest of baritones to the warmest amber tones, all backed by truly authentic pluck and fiddle work and that bopping bass line that puts a little jiggle-and-roll throughout the early-show crowd.

While the Packway Handle Band effervesces with an original, often gospel-bluegrass vibe relying heavily on traditional tunes like “Talk It All Over With Him,” they also slip in tongue-in-cheek humor courtesy of the razor-sharp wit of Andrew Heaton, which educates us to the fact that Satan exists in space and of a place where people inhale alcohol. On a friendlier note though, Packway also pulls off inspiring adaptations of pop classics from the likes of The Cars’ “Just What I Needed” and Talking Heads “Psycho Killer,” and I’ll be damned if another top-notch sizzling set from these troubadours hasn’t convinced me to let the moths out of my wallet to buy their new album (Sinner) You Better Get Ready.

Five Eight is up next and, just as Mother Jackson did last week, another local rock band is going acoustic. Five Eight’s website refers to the band as “the second greatest rock band in the world,” and while it could quite possibly get my vote as the best rock band here in town, the show tonight could well serve to firm the group’s world ranking. Dan Horowitz starts off working his fingers frenetically to get across the broadly spaced strings of his upright bass, which is not a foreign instrument to a man who can also be seen playing in local jazz outfit the Artie Ball Swing Band. Mike Mantione is singing about the destruction of his favorite band and working his voice strongly on - and away from - the mic, while getting some impossibly rock sounds out of his acoustic guitar. Mike Rizzi proves to be both a model of tempered control and a powerhouse on drums.

The semi-unplugging of their instruments is lightening the band’s sound a little, but not as much as you might expect. It is, however, serving to make Mantione’s vocals stand out in bold relief, creating a dramatic rock opera feel as some of the more sensitive and emotional nuances and boyish quirkiness that are often hidden are pouring forth unmasked and unrestrained. While the beauty of Mantione’s voice is, and always has been, its hint of frailty rather than pure angst, and while Five Eight might not have made, and played to, gazillions, in my mind, these guys are the best rock band in the world, at least for tonight.

Local three-piece retro-rockers The Stops have been talking the talk around Lunch Paper of late and tonight is their chance to walk the walk. The guys are playing frenetic pop rock with a retro base, like The Shadows on fast forward or Ceiling Fan before it found its niche. As advertised, The Stops also have a light show, but thankfully it is a tame affair and adds a modicum of atmosphere but doesn’t rankle with delusions of grandeur. About five songs in, a guy at the bar exclaims as if to no one, “God damn, that needs work!” and I’m inclined to agree. While The Stops are pretty tight, they don’t have a sound that draws me in. It seems unsure whether it wants to be upbeat indie pop or melodic rock, and while I can sense that the guys are trying to evolve a range of sounds to set their songs apart, they tend to come across as one long wash with a lack of character and differentiation. It’s all very rock-by-numbers. I don’t want to be too disparaging about this trio, as I think with work they could go places with their sound, but they need to focus on how they specifically want to sound and make that their goal rather than trying to pass off fairly standard songs.

Starting off with a sultry, French-feeling samba accented with Spanish horns, Audition with Max Reinhardt is back at the Go Bar on Friday night after many months away due to the absence of its lead cabaret crooner Sanni Baumgärtner. The crowd thickens fast inside the small, glitzy space and is soon singing along to the well-tread choruses of the 1920s and ‘30s German-cabaret tunes that garnered this band its strong local following over recent years, and tonight all those avid followers are here to welcome the band back.

With a bevy of saucy burlesque dancers behind her, Jenny Culler’s deeply emotive violin and saw and Amy Bramblett’s accordion, vocals and xylophone, Sanni and her quintet capture the world-weary debauchery of inter-war Europe and the heady days of delightfully entangled early Euro jazz. The set also moves quickly into more recent times with a German version of “Mack the Knife,” which Baumgärtner recorded before leaving Athens with plans for release under her new project Panda.

Ben Gerrard Ben Gerrard is a radio journalist and writer living and working in Athens. Club Notes is a weekly look at the local club scene.

Ben Gerrard

Ben Gerrard is a radio journalist and writer living and working in Athens. Club Notes is a weekly look at the local club scene.