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| Past Athfest Photo because my camera keeps mucking up |
Waves of heat and humidity kept sweeping over me as I walked from my office towards the music downtown. While my day job affords me a bit of air conditioning, Athens itself wanted to make sure I felt the burn. But I was curious about the vendors setting up their stalls. So on I trudged.
I was very pleased to see a vast array of white tents, blue tarps, and interesting artwork. Probably most exciting was the inclusion of a sweet tea vendor: a must in Georgia. I wandered around a bit, enjoying the sights and sounds. The air was heavy with the promise of rain.
Easter Island had taken the stage and was jamming pretty well by the time I made it up to the front of the Athfest area. I met up with a few friends and we discussed the oncoming weather and the events we were attending that night. I had to run a few errands at six and didn’t get back downtown until around 9:30 but I suppose that was a good thing after what happened.
Lightning struck the Trapeze building during Lera Lynn’s set, sending bricks raining down onto the people below. Fortunately, the only person hit seemed fine. My twitter feed filled up with images of the broken part of the building. Talk about starting off with a bang! Organizers postponed a few shows but managed to get everything back up and running smoothly after a short while.
I had decided to wander around a bit but spend most of my night between the 40 Watt and the Arch bar where I was to run merch for Misfortune500 again. The set up in the 40 Watt was pretty cool. Band set up in the middle with speakers all around on high supports. A bit like surround sound really. The rock and roll was pretty great coming from ‘Powers and Manray. After a little while, I hightailed it back to the Arch bar.
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| Photo/ David Manning/OnlineAthens.com |
I managed to catch a bit of the Futurebirds set in between my wanderings. Really not my thing, I’m afraid. I just shrugged and continued onward. That’s the great thing about Athfest; you can leave and find a decent show if the current one isn’t doing it for you. Just keep walking around and you’re bound to stumble onto something. It just may take a while according to the year.
My night ended at the Caledonia. Since the Arcs and Spring Tigers had decided to switch places on the schedule, some of us were a bit confused. I hung out at the gate, chatting with our good buddy Gordon about bands, ATHFEST, and the insane heat. The place was a little too packed to really enjoy standing in but you could hear the band from outside. All in all, a pretty good start to Athfest. Just watch for falling bricks.
athensmusicjunkie.com 