| We show up about 40 minutes late at the first
venue and still are able to catch the last 15 minutes of the
first act's 30 minute set. This set the tone for the weekend
in the sense that it was mathematically confusing keeping track
of the schedule, and nothing ran on time.
Sigh. What the heck is it with the people in East ATL? Why
can't anything run on time? I mean: is planning and coordinating
really so damned hard for these people? I don't get it. I am
also curious as to how things work in Europe. I know that there
is a music festival every other day during the summer months
in the UK alone: do all of them run so terribly off schedule?
If not -- how do the Brits keep things running on schedule???
Whatever -- but the East ATL slackers need to get their shit
together.....
Okay, so: that first act was Faith Kleppinger, who does pleasant
enough folk music. But she was, unfortunately, performing live
in the 5th Circle of HELL! (That's where it gets hot, for those
of you who don't know your Dante.) Yeah, the basement of The
Gravity Pub is an unventilated concrete room with The Open Fires
of Eternal Damnation glowing just on the other side of the wall.
I think i lost 5 pounds in sweat just watching Faith perform,
and i was trying my hardest NOT to move at all.
That venue was another bummer of the whole festival.
So, after the sweltering heat, we Minions fled to cooler climes.
Heck, the 90 degree temperatures outside felt nice by comparision.
We fled to The Earl, where Sweetwater had set up a Rube Goldberg
Contraption consisting of a box on stilts, a cooler, several
pounds of ice, and several feet of tubing. This device dispensed
draught beer in clear denial of the non-fucntional wall-mounted
taps located a mere 2 feet away. And, even better, beers were
$1.50 a pop.
So, we Minions stood and re-hydrated ourselves after our stay
in The Fifth Cirle of Dante's Basement of The Gravity Pub, and
watched The (aptly named for this evening) Hots. They did not
make me cringe as much as last time. That is -- their music
is now competant and not merely forumlaic. Not bad, but not
inspired.
Then came A Fir Ju-Well. First off, i wanted to ask what the
heck was up with that stupid name, but then i noticed that the
band members were scrawny boys with long hair. Ah, i thought,
it made a lot of sense when they were stoned.
I am sure that there music made a similar kind of sense. I
however, was annoyed. Do people actually like this band?
Fortunately we were soon to flee back to the heat for Sharks
& Minnows.
And even though it was disgusting and hot and miserable, i
am glad i went to see them. They played for well over an hour
and tore through the songs i like off of their albums, as well
as spirited covers of Tainted Love and, of course, Hysteria.
Everybody was drenched in sweat at the end of their set, but
i really really enjoyed it.
Shortly thereafter, we headed back into the relatively cool
80 degree night outside and headed home: to re-hydrate and rest.
That was day 1. One oustanding performance, two okay ones,
and one that sucked. And the heat! Oh, the heat.... |
