All Together Now

In A Mini-Festival Of Sorts, The Georgia Theatre Brings Five Local Bands To Its Stage(s)

originally published January 16, 2008

A handful of local bands playing one venue? That's any given night at any given club. But five local acts, all with new recordings in the works or with new albums ready to go, at one of the largest venues in town and split over two stages? That's something a little out of the ordinary - which is exactly what show organizer Jimmy Hughes, who promotes touring bands under the Fat Man Touring banner, wanted.

"It’s weird how nicely it came together. The booking folks at the Georgia Theatre actually asked me to do it," says Hughes, whose band Folklore is one of the performing acts. "I had contacted them inquiring about opening gigs at the Theatre for some of the Fat Man Touring roster and they very enthusiastically suggested that we do a Fat Man showcase instead, offered a weekend date, making the whole thing all the more enticing, and a show was born.

"At first I had some reservations because that room is so big that it’s pretty intimidating," says Hughes, "but I told them that if I could do five to seven solid bands and a somewhat eclectic bill, then I would be into it. Then I started talking to the bands I wanted to play and everyone seemed into it for the most part."

Though the Georgia Theatre still primarily features higher-profile touring acts and local bands more geared towards the partying college crowd, the venue has opened its doors to bands generally associated with the West Washington Street scene more and more over the past year.

For tonight's buck-per-band show, Hughes & Co. are setting up a second stage inside the Theatre to reduce downtime between bands and keep the show moving, taking inspiration from Mercer West's recent free shows at the 40 Watt Club with a similar setup. "We will start on time and we will be trying to keep to a strict schedule," emphasizes Hughes.

Venice is Sinking

Main Stage (10 p.m.)

For a band whose music is as understated and mellow as that of Venice is Sinking, there was a period of time when the group was omnipresent on the scene, playing shows in town every week or two. That hasn't been the case since at least mid-2006, though the band still struggles publicly against the we'll-catch-'em-next-week apathy of local show-goers.

The time off from Athens stages has been well spent, with the group at work on its sophomore album, Azar. "We should be mixing by March and finished with the album in April," says vocalist-guitarist Daniel Lawson.

"We still haven't found a label for this one, though, so it may be a little while before it actually gets released." Venice is Sinking has been working new songs into its sets for a while, layering new sounds atop the band's signature viola sweep. Accordingly, a trumpet and sax player join in tonight. Jeremy Wheatley (The Low Lows, Je Suis France) pinch-hits on drums, as Lucas Jensen out of town.

Quiet Hooves

Side Stage (10:30 p.m.)

Childlike in both enthusiasm and aesthetic, Quiet Hooves has been a mainstay at the Secret Squirrel DIY venue since the band's inception. The group, fronted by co-songwriting brothers Patrick and Julian Bozeman, features a number of compositions played on toy instruments, and tonight celebrates the release of its first full-length recording: No Mare o' Mine. The album's woozy pop gems are significantly less abrasive and meandering than the band's loose live shows; still, "what we have here is little regard to perfectionism of form or performance," says drummer Mercer West.

"A good bit of the songs were recorded while they were still supple little skeletons. I don't want to get too chatty about it, but we are very excited with the way the record has turned out."

The band is planning to head out on tour Texaswards in March, hitting up the South by Southwest festival and then later touring with Dark Meat.

Madeline

Main Stage (11 p.m.)

2007 was a great year for Athens' Madeline Adams. She released the quiet, intimate album The Slow Bang in the early months, and then pulled a near-180 by putting together a massive band for a show to celebrate its release.

Tonight, that same band, a hearty conglomeration of local talent that pulls from bands like Don Chambers + GOAT, Elf Power, Bellyache and Folklore takes the stage. These additional players lend Adams' songs a fuller sound and a gutsy swing.

Her plans for the next several months include holing up and finishing work on her next album, and she's also hitting the blacktop with local band Nana Grizol, with which she plays bass.

Folklore

Side Stage (11:30 p.m.)

Show promoter Jimmy Hughes' band Folklore also has a new release that should be available tonight: the album Carpenter's Falls. Folklore, the pop music of which veers towards lo-fi storytelling and takes unexpected narrative turns, released an EP by the same name in early 2007, and followed that with the album The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman. For the new recording, Hughes says he revisited some of the older tunes, tweaking what needed work. "I was working on some other songs that seemed to work alongside those songs," says Hughes, "so I got the band to start cracking away at the recordings, and, in the end, we had 12 songs… so the EP was now an LP."

In late February, Folklore heads out on the road for a tour up to Ohio and then around the Midwest for a week or two before heading back to Athens in March. Shortly thereafter, Hughes hits the road again as guitarist for Elf Power, which is planning an early-summer tour in support of an upcoming album.

Dark Meat

Main Stage (midnight)

Athenians into the local music scene know the drill: talk to anyone in another city about our town's musical output, and one of the first questions that'll inevitably surface is "So who's the next big band out of Athens?" Dark Meat makes a strong argument to answer that question, and though the band's over-the-top live performances (costumes, streamers, more than a dozen members and a whole lot of jazz-influenced noise rock) have turned off a number of show-goers, there are just as many beyond our borders picking up on what Dark Meat is doing.

Vice Records, for instance, the taste-making offshoot of Vice magazine (an equally loved/ loathed publication that eagerly celebrates hedonism, nihilism and sincere partying in an oddly detached way) has tuned into the band. This year, Dark Meat will release its new album on Vice and see its debut album, Universal Indians, re-released on vinyl. Pairing up with Vice should also get the band a lot of attention at South By Southwest in March - word is Dark Meat already has at least one show a day, if not more, scheduled during the festival.

Chris Hassiotis

WHO: Dark Meat, Folklore, Madeline, Quiet Hooves, Venice is Sinking
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Saturday, January 19
HOW MUCH: $5