Corndogorama 2008 Sunday (Day 4 and Wrap-Up)
Corndogorama 2008 was called “The Year Of the Mustard King”, but it should have been called “The Year of the Crybaby Hipster Haters”. I’ll get to that shortly, but first my Sunday experience. It seemed every day involved a high speed race across the city to arrive in time to catch a specific band, and today’s band that began playing just as I arrived was Lazer/Wulf. This instrumental metal power trio from Athens brought it hard and dirty. Their on-stage demeanor was subtly hilarious while displaying some serious musical prowess. They were a great start to a fun day:
After chilling out for a bit, I caught Battlecat. While their two bass, no guitar approach is something I can certainly dig, it wasn’t really my style. But they had a lot of energy and some cute matching outfits. Next up was Rizzudo. I caught them for the first time earlier this year and really loved them. Maybe it was just in the context of seeing so many great bands all weekend, but the show was a “like but don’t love” this time. Still thoroughly enjoyable though:
The biggest surprise of the weekend for me was Summerbirds In The Cellar. These Floridians seriously blew my mind. I have to hand it to Josh for making some great calls in his festival preview. Driving rhythms with sweet, melodic vocals and effect drenched guitars are a recipe I find particularly tasty. Seeing them for 20 minutes alone made my day:
While there had been some light rain here and there over the weekend, it never resulted in any real nuisance. In fact, as soon as I blissfully walked outside after the Summerbirds In The Cellar show, Mother Nature greeted me with a beautiful rainbow across the sky:
I caught Cassavetes next and they put on a pretty good set. They have this raw, emotional feel that hits me somewhere deep inside. Despite the fact that I find myself not being completely drawn in consistently from song to song, they are on to something very cool:
Finally it was time for a band I am fairly obsessed with right now, Cinemechanica. The two guitarists seemed to be out of sync for the first song, but after that they tightened up and threw down a few songs filled to the brim with sonic badassity. I’m telling you right now, go buy The Martial Arts if you don’t have it. They are an essential Georgian band:
As if that wasn’t enough awesomeness, I got to see Maserati for the first time. They have a great name, because if I was speeding down the highway in a Maserati, this would be the perfect driving music. I kid around here a lot and take some swipes at Athens since this is an Atlanta blog and I’m a Tech kid, but they have some seriously remarkable bands between these guys, Cinemechanica, and We Versus The Shark. That crew represents it hardcore. Enjoy:
I ended the day with a little Zoroaster, and outside on the main stage, they seemed a bit underwhelming relative to the small clubs shows I’ve seen where they blow everyone’s eardrums off. After a long weekend, it was time to call it quits.
Now back to the haters. Ever since getting back from my fantastic weekend, the buzz is that Corndog sucked. It seems like every single person who didn’t go had a really bad time. For instance, Creative Loafing is ready to have a funeral for Lenny’s based on someone who seemed to have caught only 3 bands all weekend and another guy who apparently didn’t even go. Hey, great journalism guys. The AJC would be proud. On the flip side, I want to shout out to Adam and Bradley of Have You Heard for their great coverage and Julia from Fear Of Arthropods for being another cool blogger. ATL bloggers unite!
But seriously, yes, it would have been great if admission all weekend long was $5, and beer was free, and Mastodon played 4 sets every year. But if you spent the weekend crying about these things instead of enjoying a banquet of astounding music and fun, you punked yourself. If you got the 4-day pass, you were paying $12.50 a day for a ridiculous amount of entertainment. I have some experience putting on festivals, and they aren’t easy or cheap to do. Those police the city force you to hire can put you back prices you wouldn’t believe.
And really, why is it so horrible to make a couple dollars putting together an enormously great experience? It’s like the kids that will go to extremes to not throw down $5 at a fun-ass keg party and band show and then go into a bar they don’t really like and put $5 down on one beer. I know the economy isn’t that great and all, and if you really couldn’t afford to go, I’m sorry and I wish you could have come out, but don’t play it off like Corndog was terrible because you chose not to go. I mean from my perspective, I’m glad that attendance was light. I got to stand up front for every show. I got to see so many bands I love. I met cool new folks and and I had some good times with my old friends. I ate various Corndogs and even downed some Busch.
And don’t think the Corndog kings have me paid off. America’s biggest festival, Bonnaroo, gave me a $250 free ticket and backstage access and Corndogorama wouldn’t even return my email, so I have no loyalty here. I just had a great time. Sure, there were specific things where Corndog fell short, such as the Gringo Star debacle. And hey you dudes putting Gin Blossoms/Soul Asylum fliers on every car all weekend, you lose. But I think it would have been very difficult to have attended all weekend long and not enjoyed it. As much as I love this city’s music scene, there are certainly some things that keep it from getting its due, and it is not the lack of talented musicians.
It always pisses me off that the only artists in this city who become very popular are the ones farting flames from their pussy, or spitting on themselves, or some other on-stage spectacle. Sure that stuff has its place, but the people in this city who actually create incredible music can barely draw a crowd. For me and this particular blog, music is art before it is entertainment, and from that perspective, Corndogorama was a win.
- Posted by Davy Minor on July 2, 2008 at 6:17 am
