{"id":1064,"date":"2011-04-05T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2026-06-28T19:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:00:30","slug":"four-hours-on-a-windy-musical-monday-in-athens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1064","title":{"rendered":"Four hours on a windy, musical Monday in Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A clean, restless wind wended through downtown Athens Monday night, the lasting effects of a sun-kissed day and a telltale sign of an impending storm. The streets were alive, a bit unusual for the start of the week, but a pair of concerts, a basketball championship, and soothing climes made being downtown almost a necessity.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had tickets to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the 40 Watt, it was one of those rare Monday Watt shows where a band sneaks a day in on its schedule (Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Eat World and Band of Horses have all done this), adding a little money to its pocket and (oftentimes) playing in a venue its heard plenty about. But a perusal of the night\u2019s gigs showed Caledonia boasting a fine little soiree itself, highlighted by The Agenda! and New Zealand\u2019s Surf City.<\/p>\n

What to do? Why not both.<\/p>\n

Four hours Monday night revealed what makes Athens special, for where else can a person watch seven bands from five cities and two countries play half a block away from another? A telling of a Monday night in Athens:<\/p>\n

9:10 p.m. \u2014 I walk into the 40 Watt while the Gold-Bears, a pop band out of Atlanta, is just at the start of its set. The front doors of the Watt are open as 30 or so people drink in the spring breeze in various spots throughout the venue. The tables and couches are out \u2014 a sure sign this will not be a huge crowd \u2014 but 30 people at 9 p.m. is a good start.<\/p>\n

9:25 p.m. \u2014 The lead guitarist of Gold-Bears is on the mic, giving a small speech about the importance of power chords and capos while the other guys tune up for the next song. It\u2019s kind of funny, but it keeps going on. \u201cDude, what are you talking about,\u201d the lead singer says, just as the band starts into another song. I like the Gold-Bears (a hyphen? Why a hyphen?), it has that poppy thing going on, and I just read where it signed to slumberland Records, a label created by a friend of mine from college. I might grab a song or two. Out of the corner of my eye I see Dan Geller at the 40 Watt bar, and I want to know when The Agenda! is playing. I would think the bassist might know.<\/p>\n

9:37 p.m. \u2014 Gold-Bears is over, and they were loud. I run to the car to get some earplugs, a necessity in Athens for old people like me.<\/p>\n

9:45 p.m. \u2014 Two spots down from the Watt is a record store called Lo Yo Yo Stuff, which opened in October. The guys there open late on nights when there\u2019s a show, and it\u2019s a great place to drop in between sets. As I walk in, owner Todd Ploharski is in the back looking at a wall of buttons with Peggy Wang, the keyboardist\/singer for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. \u201cWho is Dreams So Real?\u201d she asks. I amble up to the collection of power-pop albums from the 1970s and \u201980s, a carton of records which includes selections from Peter Case, The db\u2019s, Big Star, The Records and The Romantics. It\u2019s the best grouping of albums from this era I\u2019ve ever seen in a record store. He also wants $20 for The Records album. Peggy leaves Lo Yo Yo with a Belly button. Dammit if Tanya Donelly isn\u2019t a sexy singer.<\/p>\n

9:56 p.m. \u2014 I leave Lo Yo Yo and head for Caledonia. As I walk by Flicker Theatre, Madeline Adams is approached by someone while she\u2019s in mid-conversation. \u201cI hate to interrupt, but you were so great the other night at the 40 Watt,\u201d he says to her. \u201cThanks so much,\u201d she says with a smile. I wasn\u2019t there to see her the other night, but her set probably was great. It usually is.<\/p>\n

10:02 p.m. \u2014 The Agenda! takes the stage, but without lead singer Justin Robinson. \u201cGordon Lamb, get up here and sing,\u201d guitarist Ryan Lewis yells from the mic. Lamb, who mans the door at Caledonia (in addition to many other things), jumps on stage and lets loose as Geller and the Lewis brothers rage around him. Gordon does his best Robinson impersonation, running into the crowd and flopping on the Caledonia stage. Not sure if I would ever let anything but my feet touch the Caledonia stage. Just saying.<\/p>\n

10:05 p.m. \u2014 Gordon\u2019s reign as The Agenda! lead singer is over, as Justin is found. \u201cThat was awesome,\u201d he says, while taking over the front man role. The band rips into a handful of raucous songs, including \u201cDanger Danger Love\u201d and \u201cOnly the Young Die Young\u201d. Former American Cheeseburger lead singer Jeff Rapier dashes to the side of the stage and rocks along while checking out the setlist at Geller\u2019s feet. Justin is in the crowd screaming.<\/p>\n

10:18 p.m. \u2014 I\u2019m back at the Watt to watch New York\u2019s Twin Shadow move through its set. Twin Shadow is really the work of George Lewis Jr., and the music is hard to figure, it sounds a bit dated but not in a bad way. It doesn\u2019t help he looks a little like Ray Parker Jr., which is fine but I kept thinking of the Ghostbusters theme.<\/p>\n

10:32 p.m. \u2014 George asks if anyone in the crowd has heard any R.E.M. jokes, which is odd because I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever heard an R.E.M. joke. I\u2019m not sure how one might go. How many R.E.M. members does it take to screw on a light bulb? One? None? 40 Watt? It\u2019s a timely reference, though. April 5 marks R.E.M.\u2019s 31st birthday. Happy Birthday Mike, Michael and Peter. Lewis ends the banter and dives into \u201cCastles in the Snow,\u201d it\u2019s a nice song, and the crowd is invested.<\/p>\n

10:48 p.m. \u2014 Turf War takes the Caledonia stage. A band from Augusta, it has a firm, loud grungy sound with a hint of Southern rock, not unlike Dead Confederate. The bass drum has a painting of a cobra ripping through a rebel flag, and I\u2019m trying to figure out what it means. Is it a snake attacking the flag, or is the snake attacking you with the flag as its emblem of power? I stay for a couple of songs, but I knew someone had to get the short straw tonight, since I know Pains will be onstage soon.<\/p>\n

11 p.m. \u2014 Pains is up, all dark floppy hair and indie clothes in tow. I first saw Pains in Athens in 2007, when the band played a day set during Popfest. It was 102 degrees out, and Little Kings was steamy from the sun beaming in. I remember Pains being good, though everyone else seemed to remember the Black Kids, who played that same day and went on to become Internet sensations. On this night, lead singer Kip Berman takes front and center, waves to the crowd, and opens with the song \u201cBelong,\u201d which is the first song on the newly-released album called Belong<\/em> (a coincidence?).<\/p>\n

11:25 p.m. \u2014 Berman dedicates the song \u201cHeart in Your Heartbreak\u201d to Blink 182 lead singer Mark Hoppus. \u201cHe says he likes the song.\u201d He should, it\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n

11:37 p.m. \u2014 \u201cI like your little town here,\u201d Berman says. \u201cYou have the best record stores. I was next door and got a Helium 7 inch, an Ash 7 inch.\u201d He lives in New York City, and yet the little record store in Athens has what he\u2019s looking for? Strange. Then he plays the song \u201cStrange,\u201d which is the last song on the new album, to end the set. A one-song encore follows, and by 11:45, the band is done. Berman runs off stage and over to the merch table. Smart man.<\/p>\n

11:52 p.m. \u2014 The wind outside is picking up. I walk past a sports bar and see Connecticut beat Butler for the NCAA title by the ridiculous score of 53-41. My first two thoughts \u2014 1. That\u2019s the score of a girls\u2019 basketball game in Central Pennsylvania and 2. This is what happens when all the best teams are beaten before the championship game. As much as I hate the BCS, at least the team that wins is generally considered to be the best team (or one of the best teams) in the country, not the ninth best team in the Big East. Sorry for the sports aside, sometimes I just can\u2019t help it.<\/p>\n

11:55 p.m. \u2014 I\u2019m happy to have my earplugs in, because Abby Gogo (where does this name come from, I\u2019m sure if I look I can find the story) is shredding Caledonia. Paced by twin brothers Jon and Bon Allinson, these guys are pure, driving, rising noise makers. I see Kurt Wood out of the corner of my eye, the longtime Athens DJ, who is also the first guy to play Rock Lobster on the radio. How many shows has that guy seen in Athens? As the noise stirs about, the Allinson twins tear off one guitar and quickly switch to another, in a unison that can only be shared by twins. The band has a song called \u201cLouder Than Dreams\u201d \u2014 that has to be one loud-ass dream. You can\u2019t sleep through that dream.<\/p>\n

12:17 a.m. \u2014 It\u2019s getting nasty out and the weatherman on TV at a bar near Caledonia is standing in front of a large red line edging closer toward the word \u201cAthens\u201d on the map behind him. Surf City is up soon, looks like surf is going to up in the streets of Athens in no time.<\/p>\n

12:32 a.m. \u2014 They have to play now. The weather outside, well it\u2019s frightful (sorry), and Caledonia being set up like it is, an extreme electrical storm could spell doom for the people playing instruments. So wasting no time, Surf City gets going. I like them right away, it has a bit of Sonic Youth vibe, but fresher and poppier. How they managed to make it all the way to Athens to play music is probably a good story. But for now I\u2019m happy to see what they have to offer.<\/p>\n

12:37 a.m. \u2014 It\u2019s over. \u201cSeems like we have to stop playing or we might get electrocuted,\u201d Davin Stoddard says to the crowd. Man, they get to Athens, Georgia and play one song. That\u2019s a long way for four minutes<\/p>\n

12:39 a.m. \u2014 I make a dash to the car, the weather is madness with the wind and rain and lightning. But it feels right. A night like tonight should end with fireworks from the sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A clean, restless wind wended through downtown Athens Monday night, the lasting effects of a sun-kissed day and a telltale sign of an impending storm. The streets were alive, a bit unusual for the start of the week, but a pair of concerts, a basketball championship, and soothing climes made being downtown almost a necessity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[208,207,61],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-lo-yo-yo-records","tag-the-agenda","tag-the-pains-of-being-pure-at-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","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=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}