What Up In The ATL?

The news I was dreading finally broke today, and The Mars Volta concert scheduled to be at the Tabernacle next week got canceled because of the tornado damage. I guess I am going on another road trip. Also, Ticketmaster, thanks for not refunding our processing fees. As always, you suck.

The Explosions In The Sky show at The Variety Playhouse on April 13th has Sold Out. If you did not heed our warnings, you are still in luck. They have added another EITS show that same day at 4:30pm at The Variety Playhouse. Go here and buy tickets.

The free SoCo Music Experience thing that took place in Centennial Place last year is happening again on May 17th with Queens Of the Stone Age, Ghostland Observatory, Supersuckers, Bang Camaro, and Ryan Shaw.

I have been trying to catch a Liars show unsuccessfully for some time now, but I think I will finally get my chance as they are opening for Radiohead at the Atlanta show. That show is gonna be sick.

Tomorrow night there are two stellar shows that Ohmpark will be splitting up to catch. First there’s Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks with John Vanderslice opening at The Variety Playhouse. Then there ’s new-hypes-on-the-block The Dodos, fellow SXSW act Silje Nes, and Atlanta badasses The Liverhearts at Lenny’s.

Thursday night my picks of the night are at Lenny’s featuring Battlecat, Thy Mighty Contract, Gold Painted Nails, Chopper, and Lay Down Mains and at the Drunken Unicorn featuring Ahleuchatistas, Sorry No Ferrari, and 13 Day Mission. Either one of those will be a winner.

Friday night I’m picking The Earl show with Silent Kids, Luigi (their last show for who knows how long), and The Preakness as the place to be. Saturday at the Drunken Unicorn starting at 4pm is the WREK 91.1 FM 40th anniversary party featuring all sorts of ATL bands.

The Dodos : Paint The Rust

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks : Gardenia

Liars : Sailing to Byzantium

Silent Kids : Neptunist’s Revenge

Ahleuchatistas : K-Bit

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 3/Wrap-Up

The final day started with Deerhunter and I was interested to see what they would do on what was probably one of the biggest crowds they’ve played to. They brought their A game and Bradford Cox shined on stage. They even got some of Grizzly Bear to jam with them at the end. There’s something special about seeing two of the best young bands today teaming up like this and gives me even more optimism about the state of music today. We watched The Ponys from far away and they sounded good with the exception of the entire PA system going down for half of it. Seriously, Pitchfork Fest’s sound system seemed to get even worse as the days went on and I’ve never seen anything like that at a music festival. Next up we watched Menomena put on a really good show. They seemed especially loose and maybe over excited or something but that seemed to work favourably for their sound. This is another band that if you haven’t got into yet, i strongly urge you to check them out. The next band I went to see was The Sea And Cake. It was hard for me to believe how bad it was considering how much I like this band. In their defense, the sound system did seem to be especially terrible for their set, but I do not like the direction this band has gone in. The show and the new album both seem like their missing the magic this band used to conjure up. I caught a little bit of Stephen Malkmus playing a solo set. It was good but it’s just not exactly my thing. The best show of the day for me was Of Montreal. This band combines art with fun like no other. They did a few new songs, Kevin Barnes wore a few outfits, they even played a little football on stage. I waited a really long time to see Klaxons next. They were good but the weak sound system on the third stage made it seem more underwhelming than it should have. We ended the night watching De La Soul do a solid performance.

Overall, the fest was fairly interesting and a good experience. They must do something about the sound system because it was way too amateur for a festival of this size. I know the ticket prices were low, but if I have to pay another ten or twenty bucks to get to listen to more than the band’s monitors for half the shows, it might be a good idea. The actual line-up mostly delivered on the hype, but I think Pitchfork could do a little better job scheduling. The venue was nice but if they want this event to get any bigger they’re going to need to relocate. I will say that the security was extremely light and well behaved, and I am always a big fan of that. Overall, Pitchfork Fest gets a thumbs up from me but need to improve some things for next year.