The week after AthFest usually involves a sort of hungover post-partum depression. Folks absently leaf through their Flagpole calendars while idly eyeing their Netflix queue; the bars go ghost town. That's all well and fine: no one in this town is bionic, aside perhaps from Allison Weiss. But there's no true dearth of really, really good shows this week. For your information, here's a carefully selected personal calendar of things I'll be looking forward to post-AthFest. (I am obviously focusing on things that did not already get big-ups in this week's paper.)

Ben's Bikes has been dipping its toes into the show-throwing arena. Witches, who are exponentially more terrific by the show, are playing there on Friday evening with Birmingham, Alabama's P.S. Eliot, along with Hop Along and Shitty Darkness. That same night also sees the return of Roy Coughlin and Gabe Vodicka at Flicker; Roy just moved back into town from San Francisco and he'll be doing his startling balladeer thing. I say "startling" because to look at the guy and then hear his voice, well...cognitive dissonance is a kick in the ass, is all. You may remember Gabe from Long Legged Woman, but his solo stuff is goddamn pretty. Their evening of music is described on our website as "goth-folk," which I'm assuming is some sort of joke. And I'd be remiss to not mention that Casper & the Cookies will be kicking off their tour that night at the Caledonia Lounge. All within a few square blocks, people.

I gave Dead Dog a little baby shout out a few months ago, and they are going to be getting down at the ex-Tight Pockets kids' punk spot de jour on the Fourth of July, along with approximately one billion touring bands, so go down there and shell out some American currency for some American gas tanks. Rumors of a chili cook-off abound. Where the slip 'n slide at?

Now, Sunday...Sunday is where things get really weird. Marriage released their latest record, Ebenezer, few months ago. Ebenezer takes a few bold steps towards the swaggering world of classic rock, and perhaps due of that, the group was roped into playing a Fourth of July family reunion for the Mississippi clan of guitarist Josh Wootton. Recruiting additional guitarist Jace Bartet, he of the astonishing Black Sabbath tribute Supernaut, the quartet minted themselves with the horribly stupid name "90210we812" and set about learning the set list, which was drawn up with decidedly populist tastes in mind. We're talking some Gn'R, some Zeppelin, some Crue. They've been conned into granting us an encore performance here in Athens, over at Farm 255, the day after the party. If you know Marriage, you know this is not to be missed. Independence Day just became Independence Weekend. Fireworks!

Jeff Tobias