The 2014 Flagpole Athens Music Awards kicked off the music portion of AthFest on Thursday, June 19 at the historic Morton Theatre in downtown Athens. As usual, the show was a mix of affection, affectation and absurdity.
The big winner of the night was rising collective Family and Friends, which took home both the Upstart and Artist of the Year awards, in addition to performing a set of rousing folk-rock to close out the evening.
Other multiple award winners included Elf Power, which won the Rock, Cover Art and Music Video awards, and The Darnell Boys, which earned steel statues in the Live and Americana categories.
The two new artists’ vote categories, Live Engineer and Studio Engineer, went to Gene Woolfolk and Jesse Mangum, respectively. The former regaled the Morton audience with a rather convincing “demanding band” routine before leaving the stage with a well-placed bird flip.
The night’s performances impressed top down and were filthy with interesting accessories, from Jay Gonzalez’s acoustic keytar to Hand Sand Hands’ mysterious noise suitcase to Family and Friends’ wily guitarist’s gas-can six-string.
Host Tom Visions kept things moving like the weirdo pro he is, and, in addition to several bursts of capable freestyling, provided one of the night’s more memorable moments with an impromptu rant against a certain Atlanta-based magazine publisher.
Pit band Kenosha Kid once more outdid itself, the Athens AcroYoga group made everyone else feel physically inadequate and all the award presenters shone like the crazy diamonds they are.
Thanks to all who made the 2014 FAMAs such a resounding success—and here’s to next year.
Peep a photo gallery over here, and below, check out a video recap of the evening courtesy of DTProductions, as well as the list of winners:
Jazz
Kenosha Kid
World
Athens Tango Project
Pop
Kishi Bashi
Americana
The Darnell Boys
Jam/Funk
Velveteen Pink
Experimental
Tunabunny
Rock
Elf Power
Punk/Hardcore
Muuy Biien
Hip Hop
The Swank
Electronic
Yip Deceiver
DJ
DJ Mahogany
Upstart
Family And Friends
Live
The Darnell Boys
Studio Engineer
Jesse Mangum
Live Engineer
Gene Woolfolk
Cover Band
Gimme Hendrix
Cover Art
Elf Power – Sunlight On The Moon
Music Video
Elf Power – “Darkest Wave”
Album of the Year
New Madrid – Sunswimmer
Artist of the Year
Family And Friends
Bookmark Homedrone for AthFest show reviews, photo galleries and more, and stay tuned for video from the Awards show courtesy of DTProductions.
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