Atlanta 8/3/10
We woke up pretty early in New Orleans and hit the road to try and make it to Atlanta for 7pm. Although this is a 7 1/2 hour drive, we miscalculated the time change and therefore were in quite a rush to arrive at Eyedrum. Dealing with the promoter, Aaron, had been excellent because he was so responsible and on top of it, but it also made me feel strongly about arriving on time which added stress. We got there around 8, and got to catch a little of Wowser Bowsers sound check. Eyedrum is an amazing spot, and we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the abundance of awesome community/all ages spots in Atlanta (Wonderroot being another.) I wish every city was so luck to have a spot like this. Its pretty cavernous and apparently rents out practice spots and art spots all throughout the building. From what i saw there were many volunteers and artists all throughout the building all doing positive things. Which is a great segway into Wowser Bowsers set.
By 8:30-8:45 the attendance had already exceeded my expectations and no one had played yet. I could feel the positive energy building and after our New Orleans experience, very happy to be at an all ages spot and see so many young faces. When Wowser Bowser took the stage around 9:30 I was really shocked by the whole thing. Kicking off the set with a New Order cover the 40-50 person crowd immediately broke into a dance party. It was intoxicating to see so many people getting down immediately and being super positive about the whole thing. The air was definitely charged, and Wowser Bowser ate it up. Blending an interesting mix of Passion Pit stylings with Dan Deacon goofiness, these guys held down the stage and kept up the energy the whole performance. Its awesome to see such a young three piece start to build such a strong following and community of other like minded artists. Although they didn’t get to play, two others that seem to be part of this growing scene are Quirious and Reptar, both of whom we hope to share the stage with next time.
We started our set by handing out tambourines outside and gathered the crowd in circus style. We had a blast playing and Evan joined us on tambourine/vocal effects knobs. It was great seeing so many smiling faces at the end of our set, and very nice of our friends So So Death to come check out the show. Evan negotiated two kisses for me in lieu of cute girls not having enough money, and we got a chance to joke around with Aaron and George (the sound guys/music promoters.)
George from Wowser Bowser’s awesome car, and Evan licking it
Afterward we got a chance to hang out with Wowser Bowser and our friend Mattlanta at the Majestic, and had a bit of a family dinner. We threw down pretty hard on an Atlanta/Athens music conversation and got some great insight into what goes down in Georgia. Evan wandered off into the night and shared a cigarette with someone sleeping on the street. He was apparently an African immigrant who got lost in the shuffle, unable to get a visa but also no way back home, he now has stuck and trying to make the best of it.
After dinner we went with Mattlanta back to an amazing spot to sleep. He was house sitting for a friend, and it just happened to be this house was a mansion. Good things. We all got to shower at the same time, in different showers and everyone got their own room. Spots like this are such a gift to have on tour, and we can’t thank him enough for his kindness. To convince him to go to our show, and cut his date night short, we promised to make a song for his girlfriend Mara. She wasn’t able to stay for our set, so shortly before leaving we made up a song involving Nair, the bald community and the pronunciation of her name (its mair a, rhymes with sara, not mar a) Good times.
