ACRN's Lobsterfest 2011: Day One / June 2 / Casa Cantina

ACRN’s Lobsterfest couldn’t have kicked off better this year. Not only is every night free for festival-goers and those who randomly stumble into the right bar on the right night, but the lineup is a virtual who’s-who of the Athens music scene as well as a few fresh faces from out of town.

Last night was a meat and potatoes kind of evening. The venue: Casa Cantina, an Athens staple and a personal favorite of yours truly. The performers: Stomp The Condor, The Kyle Sowashes, Scubadog and Tin Armor, all acts that have developed a particular following here in town.

Unfortunately my arrival was delayed, and I was only able to catch Stomp The Condor sing happy birthday to a fan in the crowd. I was disappointed to say the least, those guys seemed like fun.

After settling in, one thing became abundantly clear to me--the place was packed, and there were more people constantly filing in. I’m not a regular on the bar scene, but I can’t remember the last time I saw Casa that full in the three years I’ve been going there.

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been so surprised . The Kyle Sowashes were about to go on, but before last night I wasn’t aware of what a big deal that actually was. The bands upbeat lo-fi indie-pop is infectious. Some of the lyrical content can get lost in the loud distortion, but the brand of music and the quartet’s excellent instrumentation (guitar solos from Mr. Kyle Sowash, himself, on nearly every track) leads to such a great live show that it’s hard to care. I’ve had people simply gush about this band to me, and I’m now starting to understand why.

Nearly everyone stuck around to see Scubadog, but there was no sense of mystery surrounding it all for me this time. If you’ve trolled around the local music scene in the past few years, these guys have become all too familiar. Teddy Humpert and Jake Householder are now in their second band together. It was the first time I’d seen them with new drummer Chris Mengerink, but I honestly think this is the best show I’ve seen out of them. Maybe these journeymen are ready to break through.

To my chagrin, Casa seemed rather cavernous just minutes after Scubadog finished. The band playing the late slot unfairly has to deal with tired eyes and the need for rest from fans more so than the other acts. Most times you don’t miss anything particularly spectacular, but then again Tin Armor doesn’t normally fill the late slot. The Columbus pop act remains one of the best kept secrets. I’m starting to see the same devoted faces when Tin Armor comes to town, a sort of cult following, if you will. That sounds strange coming from a pop act, normally there’s an instant universal appeal. Consider me baffled, but hopefully soon more and more people start to notice.

Lobsterfest continues tonight (June 3) at The Union at 10 P.M. and then Saturday in front of South Green campus starting at noon.

Like I said before, it’s all free, so your broke ass doesn’t have an excuse not to go.

--Scott Smith, Album Reviews Editor

ACRN St. Jude Benefit Show / May 5 / The Smiling Skull

A sleepy brain and a game of “Would You Rather” later, and we were on our way to the Smiling Skull. We were apprehensive of the price at first, but morally we couldn’t allow ourselves to use that excuse, given the show was a benefit for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. We had to think of the children.

The Athens-famous, omnipotent, flawless Nurser took the stage (of sorts) first. Things went better than the last time I saw them, but their music is so weird that it’s hard to tell when things aren’t going well. I mean that in the best way possible. There are definitely some inventive sounds coming from them, particularly from Shane Riley’s guitar. He finds the most obscure notes to play, but stirs them together so that they transition solidly.

They had some new material to lay on the growing crowd, one song in which bassist Sam Mink had to step out because he hadn’t learned his part yet. To that, Riley said something along the lines of, “Our bassist can’t play to this song because it’s such a rager.”

Blithe Field was next and to my and everyone else’s dismay, he was having technical difficulties. He tried to push through as best he could, but the beats weren’t quite the way they were meant to be. Still, he had a supportive crowd that wished him well, but his set was forced to end too soon.

Stomp the Condor, very much unlike Blithe Field, was a weirdo, rambunctious bunch. Or, really just the lead singer/keyboardist/guitarist was. They played rowdy tunes that the crowd greeted with rowdy energy. It was punk rock and other stuff at its finest. A couple of them took off their shirts, too, and of course that’s always a good time, even more so when the shirtless are wearing jorts.

The crowd was at its largest with Brothertiger, which usually is the case every time he plays. I only stuck around for a couple of songs, but left a trippy, happy, dancing group of people. That’s alls yous gotta do, anyway.

Apparently we raised $300! May good causes be benefited and may good music be cherished for all of eternity.

--Hannah Cook, Managing Editor

Friendship Show

It’s Wednesday, and 10:30 p.m. is past the point of the night's being young. The night is old. An old old man, slouched over on his floral sofa, glasses askew and falling asleep to the mid-morning news with his gray-muzzled Terrier doing the same on his lap. Alas, I’m going out anyway because sometimes you just gotta live life on the edge. And if the night is old, then I may as well not be. So, off to the Union I go.

I smoothly hand the man at the front door a five-dollar bill. No permanent marker tonight, Ba-bee! It doesn’t matter, though. It’s Wednesday.

Alone, I walked up the stairs and stood pretty awkwardly in front of the stage, which was taken up by three young men playing some punk rock-y tunes. The Ghost of Asa Phelps were they (Yoda?), and it was my first time seeing them after hearing their name so many times around town.

Although I’m not quite that into punk rock-y tunes, I still found them entertaining. They brought me back to my earlier days. Before one of their songs, the singer/guitar player said, “This is a song about getting drunk and fucking up. I think I’m getting a degree in that here in a couple weeks.” It was funny. I laughed internally because I had no one to share the humor with at the time.

After those guys, Stomp the Condor came on, and me -- oh my -- were they a goofy group of dudes; lots of goofy dudes, at that. Their music reminded me something like Man Man mixed with ska and punk, and -- quite honestly -- I can’t think of a genre to perfectly squeeze them into because I’m bad at that.

One thing’s for sure, though: They moved in peculiar ways, sometimes taking their saxophones and other brass who-nots and strumming them like guitars. Sometimes they bounced up and down and distorted their faces. Basically, they were perpetually being weirdos.

I left for a moment to step outside with my friend Danielle (HAPPY BRTHDAY!), hardly expecting to miss much. Upon return though, it appeared that the men had removed their shirts, which I’m assuming happened either because the crowd (probably mostly the guys) requested it, or maybe they just got hot and bothered. Or just more goofy, which I didn’t think was possible (more on that later, though, because turns out it’s entirely possible). Regardless, they were playing shirtless. And they were playing wildly. And they gave me a free CD. Thanks, guys!

And next was the one-and-only, lovely lady, dollface, peach, cupcake, sex-kitten (wait. sex kitten a synonym for cutie? I don’t think so, Thesarus.com) Laura Stevenson, and of course the four men with her who made up The Cans, I’m assuming. I’m finding myself becoming more and more in love with Brooklyn bands, and these guys only heightened the infatuation.

They were SO good. That’s my lazy way of putting it. In more detail, Laura’s voice was charmingly adorable. She could fluctuate it from dainty falsettos to coarser yells. She could pluck around chords to make them sound entirely unique and then, without hesitation, turn it into a harder, fuller strum. There was a man on a squeeze box and if that statement alone isn’t good enough, too bad because I don’t know how to describe one of those.

Beside the music itself, Laura had such a delightful-ness about her. She was so kind, very thankful, and downright hilarious, able to literally turn anything said into a comical relief even if the songs she was playing were sort of sad. I could sit here and name all the jokes and wits she threw at us, but I won’t because communicating it through a blog will make it lose all its appeal. Besides, you should have been there anyway.

Last but not least were She Bears. The crowd, unfortunately, had dwindled by then. But those who chose to stay were not disappointed, because they got to hear a new song, if not, two (I’m not sure).

Oh, and about the Condor men, I noticed two of them were choreographing dance moves to the songs She Bears were playing. That’s where they proved they could be stranger. I sort of got distracted by it for a while even, and cracked up a lot. On top of that, there were a lot of jokes about Stephen’s drunkenness and a lot of mentioning the set’s dedication towards Shea, as it was his last She Bears show for a long while.

It was like watching a friendship show. In fact, the entire night was like watching a friendship show! Aw, how nice.

2:00 a.m., and the night is on the verge of death it is so old. But when it happens, it will be a peaceful death. The sort of one we all hope for.

--Hannah Cook, Live Reviews Editor

When love takes over The Union

The date auction (hosted by yours truly, ACRN) was a smash among the bands, their fans and the love-filled hopefuls looking for a special companion. Before Athens' The Ghost of Asa Phelps hit the stage with reminiscing, feel-good punk a la Hot Water Music, the Union was half-filled. Seeing the crowd downing drinks and PBR was the tip-off to an interesting night ahead of us.

Promo Director Aaron Vilk and fellow Lobster/MC David Massimini took the stage to auction off the first round of available companions. As they scoped the room, I was an immediate target as a first contender. (I really should start mixing in the crowd more.) With my head perched high and a perky, marketable smile, I took the stage with a $15 Donkey coffee gift certificate. The dollars climbed and it was Vilk who succeeded the auction at $13.

Throughout the night, the bands catered the kind of music worthy to put on a love-drenched mix tape. Columbus' Stomp the Condor had an off-step sort of punk, guitar and drum madness layered with slammed piano keys - even more so with vocalist falsetto cries. The "ballad" they had for the night, of which afterward the band resumes from the "love bullshit," took my mind to a scene of a punk-a-fied Romeo and Juliet, of which Juliet is actually a 17-year-old Husker Du fan named Sheena and Romeo is on his knees singing this Stomp the Condor song. So fitting.

The other Columbus band, Tin Armor, returned to Athens two years after a Smiling Skull gig. Instead of sticking to a set list of the pop-punk/indie hybrid in "A Better Place Than I Have Been" and "S/T 7," the surprisingly long set heavily consisted of newer tracks, which leaned towards the latter genre. Fans of Tin Armor were nonetheless enthralled of the band's return, and the onstage charm gave them no reason to fall more in love.

ACRN successfully raised money for the 2010 Lobsterfest. While some auctions faltered towards the end of the night, those who didn't spend too much money at the bar bid generously. Some of the top auctions that night included a pair of Black-Eyed Peas concert tickets, Sales/PR Directors combo pack and ACRN's own Melissa Burant.

--Rika Nurrahmah, Senior Writer

Photos courtesy of Melissa Burant