Home Sweet Home

Mercer West's Free Jammy Jamm Parties Bring The House Show To Local Club Stages

originally published February 6, 2008

If home is where the heart is, then Athens' heart - its vibrant, creative, ever-churning music scene - is where its home is. Packed with too many roommates, friends and visitors, many local musicians are content to write, record and perform in the confines of living rooms, bedrooms and basements. After all, every era of Athens music has been characterized by influential do-it-yourself venues, from the Milledge Avenue house where the B-52's played their first show to the numerous locations today cultivating a thriving underground scene.

Local musician and show organizer/promoter Mercer West has been bringing the same comfortable, anything-goes-and-nothing's-too-serious house show vibe into local clubs for the past several months - primarily the 40 Watt Club, though he's also put on events at the Flicker Theatre & Bar - calling his shows Jammy Jamms. Most have been on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, traditionally slower nights when clubs are happy to have any heads poked through the doors. This weekend, however, the 40 Watt's giving West free reign over setting up shows on both weekend nights.

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The Jammy Jamms are always free (though the 40 Watt requires a $2 door charge for show-goers not yet 21 years old), and will usually feature anywhere from five to 10 bands. West has established a precedent of taking risks and breaking audiences out of the regular rituals, setting up side stages where the 40 Watt's back couches or merchandise tables go - conveniently allowing for almost non-stop performance during band changeovers, and shorter sets for individual bands.

"It's really great," says 40 Watt booking agent Velena Vego. "There's always 150 people out, and that's really great for week nights."

The Jammy Jamm's crowds are diverse, and that nonexistent cover charge has a lot to do with both who comes in and how satisfied they are after the last band wraps up, says West. "It could be some people who see it's a free show and wander in, and maybe they stick around, maybe not," he says. "But there's a lot of people who are really dedicated who will show up and see seven bands back to back, and I can't even do that most of the time."

"Velena at the 40 Watt asked me to fill a date because I'd set a few Mouser shows up there," say West. "I thought of the idea of overloading the 40 Watt… almost punishing them for giving me free reign! [Laughs] I asked them if I could put a PA on the merch table and run it festival style, almost arbitrarily to see if they'd say yes. It was just a stupid fun idea on a Tuesday in the summer, which is usually a boner kind of night for a big club like them. But they were down with the idea, so we went with it. It went really well, and they kept asking me to do shows like that. It was basically a summer experiment that has carried on throughout the year."

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"It's almost making a joke out of the fact that there are so many bands in town," says West. "There's six or seven bands on each bill, half of them are upstart bands that only a handful of people have heard of anyway, some of them don't even names yet, things like that. This music is everywhere in this town anyway, so I'm trying to focalize it in one place and then throw it in people's faces. I think it kind of underscores the fact that people don't really need to come to shows anymore, so it's creating an atmosphere for people to go to where there are creative things happening."

West says he means that any one show with assorted local bands will be of little interest to audiences, and he's trying to break out of the ordinary. "There's shows any single night, every single night, so there's no real reason for people to go to any one particular show. Bands in Athens play with alarming frequency, mine being a prime example. I mean, Mouser was almost playing every week for a while with any band, almost as a goof, despite the fact that that goof doesn't really make any sense. So there's no real reason to bring people out, and I'm hoping to create that reason."

One way of achieving that goal has been to put on shows that haven't taken place before - last year's "Athens Face/Off," is a good example, in which local musicians threw their names into a hat and then were paired off randomly and given a month to come up with 10 minutes' worth of performance per pair. That format resurfaces this Saturday night, this time with a more structured twist: members of the notoriously expansive band Dark Meat are each pairing up with non-members ("civilians," as West says). Dark Meat backing vocalist Sara-J Ursrey, for instance, performs alongside Ginger Envelope frontman Patrick Carey. Horn player Nick Canada's matched with former Winter Sounds / Boulevard drummer Donovan Babb, while flautist Emily Armond tackles some tunes with Long Legged Woman guitarist/vocalist Gabe Vodicka.

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The free shows West sets up aren't entirely without criticism, though; several musicians who aren't part of the Jammy Jamm crowd and other club owners and staff have grumbled in private that the free shows devalue musical performances, and set up audiences to expect not to pay. None would speak on the record, though.

"My intention's not to piss anyone off," says West, "but it's not like people are making tons of money off shows anyway."

"This is a certain group of bands that Mercer invites," says Vego. "Most have played [local DIY venue] the Secret Squirrel, so they expect it to be free. We used to do cheap dance nights or other theme nights a few years back… it just goes with the times."

That West can afford to give up his time and energy assembling the Jammy Jamms speaks to his enthusiasm for local music, he says, and not so much to the economics of the scene.

"I get really excited when I see a new band in town that I'm into and want to see play and do well," says West. "I'm really grateful to a lot of the bands who play these shows."

Bands have reciprocated West's goodwill, and it's thanks to his cachet in the scene that they're often willing to play for free and to take risks with things that might work. Audiences have often come to trust his aesthetic, which tends to veer towards the experimental and abrasive, though he's got a good ear for some of the younger pop bands in town as well.

"It's more about entertainment than anyone's particular taste, so I can be a little looser with lineups," says West. "It's also allowed me to expand my tastes a lot, and there's a lot of stuff in this town that I never got to see until they played some of these shows. I'm not a music snob, or try not to be, and I like exposing myself to a lot of things. One of the most exciting things for me is to see a band you think you might not like and have them turn your opinion around."

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Expect the shows to continue, at least for the foreseeable future, and not just weeknights. "I believe Mercer and I work really well together. I think he feels good about putting on shows for us," says Vego, "and we appreciate him doing them here. So yes, there is a big future for Jammy Jamms throughout the year."

In addition to Saturday's "Face/Off" show, West has put together a strong lineup for Friday night, one that could normally pull in a $5 or $8 door charge, with Cinemechanica, Mouser, Sweet Teeth and others on the bill.

Full information on both lineups, and specifics on Saturday's pairings, should be posted on West's promotional site www.heyguys.biz.

Chris Hassiotis

WHO: Missing Children, Golden Triangle, Cinemechanica, Knyfe Hyts, Mouser, Sweet Teeth, The Buddy System
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, February 8
HOW MUCH: FREE! (21+), $2 (18+)

WHAT: "Athens Face/Off II: Dark Meat & Friends"
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Saturday, February 9
HOW MUCH: FREE! (21+), $2 (18+)