Hard Rock Cafe (Atlanta, GA)
Atlantis Music Conference
Paul’s Adventures in Atlantis
First off, from my experience at a lot of the showcases turnout was really poor. Previous to this year I’ve only actually caught one showcase that I recall, and turnout was very light for that, so I didn’t know how well these things were attended. But it is pretty bad across the board. I feel sorry for the bands that are making a long trek from out of state to play for a conference that presents itself as being a big deal and clearly is not (not to be confused with the bands I feel sorry for who expect a lot more than they’re going to get out of ANY music conference). There seems to be very little promotional push outside of the conference attendees, so the city itself doesn’t attend the shows. And I’m not even sure that what little industry turnout the conference has (and really, it seems pretty light) even comes out to the showcases.
Thursday I actually went out to four different ones. There were five bands playing who I know, each of them at a different time (thankfully) and at a different club (not so thankfully). Alastor played a great set at the Dark Horse to about 5 people. Kenny Howes and the Yeah! played at the Star Bar to a decent sized crowd of maybe 30 people, a bit light for a big show at the Star Bar, though. He was just back from playing IPO and had a great set. Gentle Readers played at the Echo Lounge to about 30 or so people, and everytime I see them they really do sound better and better, and it always catches me off guard. Then I caught Jeff’s (former bass player in Radiant City) band the Accusations at the Hard Rock, which had the biggest turnout I saw (about 40 or 50 people, the same as our turnout the next night at the same club). Jeff smiles a lot in that band which I find very gratifying. But I was too wiped out to make it to the Young Antiques show after that.
Friday I freaked out all day. It’s not so much the show itself but the lead up to it. I was stressed about things coming together, everyone showing up for load-in, nothing setting anyone off. Clearly, I have a lot to work through about my days in Radiant City. But load-in was no big deal, and even the minor crisis we had was handled easily.
The show itself was… well, it was good. But it was rough, too. I told someone later that I recognized it was a step forward, but it was a rough step. But it was all there, and that really does mean something to me. A lot of it was having only rehearsed twice up to that point. A lot of it on my part (and I think it was rougher for me than anyone else) was just not having been onstage with a band in so long. I have shows sometimes where I feel like, when I start, I’m not ready to start yet and I feel like the show is constantly 5 seconds ahead of me and I can’t seem to catch up. We launched into “Guy Fawkes Day” and I knew I was never going to feel caught up with the show. But it was okay. We were good. A little sloppy, but good.
And it felt so good to be there again.
A lot of people came out and I had my usual feeling that I wasn’t able to talk to anyone long enough. So for the record let me say that if you talk to me after a show and I ever seem not quite all there it’s because post-show I’m not all there but I’m really trying to be. Always come talk to me after a show, I live for that. weaklazyliar and Gina (M Records) brought me a card and a bottle of champagne to celebrate the grand re-opening of my band days, which I thought was really flattering. So once again I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that you need to get out and see weaklazyliar while you can. They’re one of the best bands in Atlanta and their new CD is due soon. You only have so much time left to catch them at this level before you have to shell out twenty bucks to catch them at some lame festival show where you can barely see the stage.
Thanks to everyone who could make it out. There’s more to come, thanks for sticking around.