{"id":845,"date":"2011-06-27T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=845"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:03:42","slug":"reptar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Reptar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2011, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A band is created every day in Athens, there are hundreds and hundreds in town, and while many die before they ever get started, some wind up making a dent in the minds about town and discover moderate success. But every once in a while a band breaks out and takes the town by storm with a fervid allegiance bordering the point of worship.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been happening for years, of course, as B52s begot R.E.M. begot Widespread Panic begot Drive-by Truckers begot Neutral Milk Hotel begot of Montreal . . . you know what I mean. Recent years saw the Modern Skirts and The Whigs attract this overt fan base, filling the 40 Watt with epic shows of Athenians losing their minds.<\/p>\n

It happened at AthFest in 2011, in a way I\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\n

Reptar broke at the Watt that year, in the biggest of ways. If you were one of the people who showed up too late at the door, you missed something awesome, awesome in the way large mountains are awesome. In a 45-minute set in front of a packed crowd which never stopped moving, Reptar made a case for Athens domination, cranking out a blissful sound of funk, pop and electronic goodness. It was a melee on the floor, on the stage, and even outside the doors where people clamored to get in. It was sensational.<\/p>\n

Thing is, I\u2019ve seen Reptar before and while it was a strong band, it was never quite like this. Maybe it\u2019s energized by the release at the time of its EP Oblangle Fizz, Y\u2019All<\/em>, but I think the band knew this was the moment to be at the top of its game. As an opener for Washed Out, Reptar had an audience just waiting to be entertained. You have to feel a bit bad for Washed Out, because having to follow Reptar on this night was an impossibility. In fact, after Reptar was done, a good chunk of the crowd headed for the doors.<\/p>\n

Led by the vocal stylings of Graham Ulicny, Reptar ripped through the set with abandon, playing selections off the EP and some older favorites. Every word of every song was yelled right back at them, along with every hand clap and every wave of every arm in the house. A sign on the stage said no stage diving, which didn\u2019t stop Ulicny from doing so twice. There was crowd surfing and water splashing and outright revelry. It wasn\u2019t just the place to be that night, it was the place to be in 2011.<\/p>\n

Reptar found a base outside the Classic City, it played the Governor\u2019s Ball and Lollapalooza. But for one night in 2011, it was home in front of a crowd which loved it so, and it returned the favor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not often you get to see the moment a band goes from possible contender to actual player. I saw it on this night, it\u2019s impossible to forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 2011, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. A band is created every day in Athens, there are hundreds and hundreds in town, and while many die before they ever get started, some wind up making a dent in the minds about town and discover moderate success. But every once in a while a band breaks out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,112,111],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-athfest","tag-reptar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","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=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}