I understand. People get tired of hearing the words \u201cAthens\u201d and \u201cR.E.M.\u201d bandied about like a single unit, as if one simply can\u2019t live without the other. The two are indelibly linked, but there\u2019s always someone in the back yelling \u201cget over it already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or maybe that was someone grousing about the election.<\/p>\n
But then you get nights like the one at the 40 Watt, when \u201cR.E.M.\u201d and \u201cAthens\u201d came together, and it reminds you that when paired, it\u2019s more than just one town and one band \u2014 it\u2019s a community that gathers for a love of music and an appreciation of one another.<\/p>\n
Seems like we can use that right now<\/p>\n
Alejandro Escovedo and The Minus 5 were in town for one of those rare Tuesday 40 Watt shows, bringing with them a host of musical history and tons of good stories. Escovedo\u2019s recent release, \u201cBurn Something Beautiful,\u201d was created out of a collaboration with The Minus 5\u2019s Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck. When Buck (do I need to say his former band) is in town, there\u2019s always some onstage collaboration afoot. It\u2019s happened before.<\/p>\n
It happened again.<\/p>\n
Buck and McCaughey joined guitarist Kurt Bloch (The Fastbacks) and drummer John Moen (The Decemberists) for Minus 5 songs from the band\u2019s recent album \u201cOf Monkees and Men\u201d to start the festivities. But quickly, it become more than an opening band prepping the crowd for the headliner.<\/p>\n
McCaughey started calling out names.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Kevn Kinney?\u201d he asked<\/p>\n
From the back emerged Kinney, of Drivin\u2019 n Cryin\u2019, who took the mic and roared into a guitar-crunching version of \u201cHoneysuckle Blue,\u201d with Kinney, Buck and Bloch lined up center stage, powering away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Mike Mills?\u201d<\/p>\n
Donning a straw hat, the bassist strapped on the Rickenbacker, and once Bill Berry replaced Moen behind the kit, the 40 Watt crowd \u2014 many who have no doubt seen this before \u2014 were witness to a mini reunion of the band that called it quits six years ago (actually this would be Hindu Love Gods as well, if you\u2019re scoring from home). Following rollicking renditions of \u201cDon\u2019t Go Back to Rockville\u201d and \u201cSuperman,\u201d a slight pause gave way.<\/p>\n
Would there be one more?<\/p>\n
Well, no. Michael Stipe was in the house all night (c\u2019mon Michael, just one song), but the full onstage reunion was not to be.<\/p>\n
David Lowery, who hosts his three-day Cracker\/Camper Van Beethoven residency at the Watt later this month, joined McCaughey in singing Ambiguity Song, before the merry band of musicians took leave for Escovedo\u2019s time to shine.<\/p>\n
Escovedo, whose Burn Something Beautiful Band is The Minus 5, was at the top of his game, playing stellar songs from the new album (\u201cHeartbeat Smile,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Play Guitar Anymore\u201d), popular standbys (\u201cCastanets\u201d) and older pieces (\u201cSensitive Boys\u201d) that harken back to his days with the True Believers. About the latter song, Escovedo told of being stranded in Athens, way back in the 1980s, when a show was put together by Athens musicians to help him and his band get gas money to drive back to Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
Escovedo even had a surprise guest of his own, as Superchunk\u2019s Jon Wurster played the drums on \u201cChinese Rocks,\u201d with Buck taking the vocal lead.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the night\u2019s best moment came when Escovedo, onstage alone, sang a powerful acoustic version of \u201cDown in the Bowery.\u201d The room, which can be loud the later it becomes, was dead quiet throughout before erupting at song\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Berry. Bloch. Buck. Escovedo. Kinney. Lowery. McCaughey. Mills. Moen. Wurster.<\/p>\n
One night in Athens. One stage in Athens.<\/p>\n
Only in Athens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I understand. People get tired of hearing the words \u201cAthens\u201d and \u201cR.E.M.\u201d bandied about like a single unit, as if one simply can\u2019t live without the other. The two are indelibly linked, but there\u2019s always someone in the back yelling \u201cget over it already.\u201d Or maybe that was someone grousing about the election. But then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,28],"tags":[45,202,204,203],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","category-feature","tag-40-watt","tag-alejandro-escovedo","tag-mike-mills","tag-peter-buck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1052,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions\/1052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}