As David Barbe’s birthday approached, he was contacted by the 40 Watt Club’s talent buyer Velena Vego about an open date on Sept. 30 and if he’d like to put together a show. Gladly accepting, he said that, funnily enough, it was the exact day of his 60th birthday—to which Vego replied of course she and club owner Barrie Buck knew, that’s why the offer was made.
This is just a small representation of the vast music network Barbe has built and the larger impact he’s made on the community in his 40-plus years of living in Athens. As the owner, chief engineer and producer of Chase Park Transduction studios, director of UGA’s Music Business program and member of a plethora of bands, Barbe says his connections have woven a deep national web. For a while, he’s had the idea of playing a career retrospective show, and the upcoming birthday sparked a lot of reflection on how he got to this point.
“My career has been a little different: I’m constantly moving on. I mean, it’s not like I have blow-ups with my bandmates. I think I’m still friends with everybody I’ve ever been in a band with. But I’ve always just kind of liked new things, different outlets,” says Barbe. “So I had this idea, and I settled on four bands of the last 40 years.”
The David Barbe Historical Rock ‘n’ Roll Abstract and 60th Birthday Party will feature performances by Mercyland (active ‘85–’91), Buzz Hungry (active ‘91–’96), The Quick Hooks and Barbe Plus, which has been built out of Barbe’s project with New Madrid, Inward Dream Ebb. At this point you may have realized that Barbe is spending his 60th birthday performing four different sets back-to-back. He says that he’s been practicing and getting into shape for the show, but nonetheless he’s very excited.
“I think just being with all these people will absolutely be the celebration, because I moved here to go to college in 1981… I’ve never moved, but my career has kind of been all over the place, and I mean really all over the world at various times. But I love Athens, and my celebration is celebrating 42 years of me being here and being fortunate enough to be able to be part of the music community here,” says Barbe.
Even as he’s about to celebrate his 60th birthday, Barbe happily says he’s far from slowing down. If anything, he says his problem is that he just wants to do everything. Throughout Barbe’s career, one thing has always led into the next by creating a new opportunity.
The Bar-B-Q Killers were the first band that Barbe ever recorded, which he did in his parent’s basement and made a four-track cassette. Although he had played in other bands, he says the first time he saw Bar-B-Q Killers he was “blown away by the total rock-and-roll explosion aspect of it,” and that ultimately led to him quitting his band at the time and going on to start Mercyland several months later. Mercyland and the Bar-B-Q Killers went on to play many shows together, and what just seemed like a “cool show” at the time was actually a major inspiration in Barbe starting a different kind of band and following a new path.
Over a 40-year music career, you make a lot of memories. In the summer of 1987, Mercyland was in the middle of a three-week run of the Southeast when the group’s van had died and Barbe’s truck had been rear-ended. So their friend Vic Chesnutt saved the day and volunteered to drive them in his van. The first Buzz Hungry show was in January 1992 in the basement of Snow Tire, now part of Rook and Pawn. Laura Carter (Bar-B-Q Killers) was set up to play on the last song with the power switch to her amp also turning on a strobe light at the same time, and she cranked the volume up so loudly Barbe describes the moment as “total rock and roll explosion.” Then in the early 2000s, The Quick Hooks had a weekly Monday residency in September at Caledonia Lounge playing on the back deck, in a time before outdoor music was happening at venues downtown.
Barbe hasn’t finished making those music memories yet, though, and it’s a rare opportunity to witness a time capsule of sounds within someone’s career over one night. For a better understanding of these bands, it’s highly recommended to take in the full experience live.
WHO: Mercyland, Buzz Hungry, Barbe Plus, The Quick Hooks
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m. (doors)
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
HOW MUCH: $10
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