Cover bands are a work of art in Athens, with Halloween its constant canvas. The annual festival for dressing freaky and eating candy was accompanied, at least in Athens, with a vibrant selection of local bands forming new bands to cover old bands. Modern Lovers, The Stooges, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Beat Happening, Zero Boys, Captain Beefheart — all were paid homage by a mixed-up, modge podge of Classic City musicians in recent years.
It’s been a musical night of great delights.
But this Halloween the cover band fiesta was curtailed for the most part, with only one place — Caledonia Lounge — keeping the cover history alive. Sure Flicker hosted Guided by Guided by Voices (which for the eight songs I caught was quite good) while Muuy Biien offered up a set of T. Rex covers at Go Bar, but with the trio of Nairvana, Man-Size and Geezer, Caledonia more than delivered when others did not.
Don’t get me wrong, living in a town where the Drive-By Truckers are playing a venue (the Georgia Theatre) four blocks from where Elf Power and Circulatory System (40 Watt) are is wondrous. Yet Athens affords the chance to see these bands several times a year, why can’t Halloween be for something else? And yes, I know how spoiled that sentence reads.
Regardless, Caledonia was the place to be Friday night, boasting a perfect blend of humor, guitars, angst and musical masquerading.
Headliners Nairvana, made up of Powder Room members Gene Woolfolk on guitar/vocals and Bubba McDonald on bass with Savagist’s Jason Richardson on drums, captured not just the sound of the Seattle band it meant to cover, but the attitude as well. If the crowd was expecting a setlist of nothing but Nevermind, never mind it should.
The trio roamed through the band’s catalogue of early albums and outtakes, making stellar work of Aneurysm, Floyd the Barber, Scentless Apprentice and School — enveloping Caledonia (a room that can sometimes feel like the trash room in Star Wars) into a sea of thunderous sound. It was only after 10 or so songs – and the ejection of a dazed-out spectator creating trouble by the stage – that the band approached the ’91 album of much acclaim. It, of course, opened up a frenzy in the crowd and yet the three selections from Nevermind (Territorial Pissings, Drain You and Breed) fit perfectly with the set in media res.
At night’s end, when Woolfolk followed his “last song of the night” notice by playing the opening lick of Smells Like Teen Spirit, it felt out of place initially. But he stopped, stepped to the mic, and declared “I’m not getting paid enough to play that song.”
Perfect.
Geezer, the Weezer tribute band from local band Come What May, took a different approach to its set and yet its take felt like something Weezer would appreciate — I can only guess playing songs of bands you emulate allows a piece of them to fall on you. Dressing and talking like old men (while telling corny jokes and offering the audience plenty of “hard candy,” it was Halloween after all), the foursome ably shredded through popular Weezer songs with aplomb.
Before playing El Scorcho, lead singer/guitarist Joey Hreha introduced it “as an old song, but then again, these are all old songs,” a fact that did not diminish the crowd’s excitement. Where Nairvana was anathema to play its bands popular tunes, Geezer ran through Hash Pipe, Say It Ain’t So, Tired of Sex, Buddy Holly and Undone (The Sweater Song) effortlessly. It was the perfect way to start.
In between Thayer Serrano and friends took on the complex songs of PJ Harvey, bridging the night of covers in a cool and satisfying way. Perhaps more than the others, Serrano’s Man-Size tribute band was a closer copy to what PJ Harvey sounds like on stage.
Except for rare instances (like Abby Road Live), cover bands aren’t for perpituity, which make them perfect for Halloween. Like the costume of a ghost, goblin or, in an example from last night, the woman pretending to be Ebola, Halloween is a for make-believe and frivolity. Here’s hoping that spirit finds its way fully back in Athens next Oct. 31.
