When Dex Romweber and his childhood friend Chris Smith began poking around together on guitar and drums in their parents’ Chapel Hill, NC garages, they couldn’t have had any idea the impact they were about to make on the music scene at the time. More than a decade before the White Stripes, the Flat Duo Jets made its appearance, delivering rhythm and blues drenched in reverb and rockabilly licks from Romweber’s Silvertone guitar. The band’s live shows were known to be chaotic, almost transcendent. Romweber would roam about the stage like a man possessed, frothing at the mouth and stalking with his guitar in hand. He made such an impression on audiences that when a young director named Tony Gayton saw them at a UGA frat party, he filmed them. Despite only living in Athens for a year at the time, Flat Duo Jets was immortalized within the Athens music pantheon with their inclusion in Gayton’s documentary Athens, GA: Inside/Out. Personal tensions broke up the band not long after, but Romweber has continued a compelling solo career since.
WHO: Dex Romweber, Instant Smile
WHEN: Sept. 1–2, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Flicker Theatre & Bar
HOW MUCH: $12
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