Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Athens Reminiscing - Music

(This post has nothing to do with football. Sorry.)

I'll admit, I am not the biggest music fan in the world. I've been to a few Dave Matthews Band concerts and even went to the Zack Brown show in Jacksonville last fall the night before the Cocktail Party, but I rarely attend shows live. However, there was a period in my life where going to see concerts was much more common and that was during the five years I spent at Georgia. Athens has often been called the best local music scene in the country, have produced the likes of REM, Widespread Panic, and even a couple of classmates of mine who are better known today as Lady Antebellum.

Here some of the memorable shows and bands I remember from my days in Athens:

Jennifer Nettles with John Mayer - August 2000

Yes, you read that right. In the summer of 2000, my friend convinced me to go see some guy named John Mayer, who he described as Dave Matthews-like, open for Jennifer Nettles. Little did we know that the approximately 50 people that were at that show at the 40 Watt were watching two future Grammy winners. Jennifer Nettles went on to become the lead singer for Sugarland and John Mayer went on to be come...a douchy version of John Mayer. I saw John Mayer play a few more times in Athens before he got big, including the show at the Georgia Theatre when they recorded the video for "No Such Thing."

Sister Hazel
Probably the best known band that always seemed to play in Athens about once a semester. Yes, I know they are from Florida but they sure were fun in concert.

Jupiter Coyote
I saw them play about 10 times in a two year period. My sister had their CD from when they used to play in Statesboro. Great southern rock that never took off on the radio.

Stewart and Winfield
To this day, I still love Stewart and Winfield. This is another one that my sister brought to my attention. "Catatonic" is still one of my favorite songs.

Kinchafoonee
If you wanted to hear a bunch of drunk Georgia kids sing songs that were popular when their parents were young and watch grown men cry when they played "Amazing Grace", the Kinchafoonee Cowboys were your type of band.

And, the last band I want to mention is one that seemingly fell into obscurity since I cannot find any mention of them anywhere on the internet. The band was called BlueString they played southern rock/folk music that included like 10 people in the band playing guitars, fiddles, and banjos. I saw them two or three times my freshman year when I could stumble back to O House from the Georgia Theatre. But then I never heard from them again.

So what are your favorite memories of seeing bands play in Athens? I'm sure a lot of us saw the Dave Matthews Cover Band, Corey Smith, and may have even caught an elusive performance by Michael Stipe. Leave your stories in the comments.

5 comments:

Peter said...

One of my favorite shows I caught at the theatre was Matt "Guitar" Murphy.

Old Farting Dog said...

Eli @ B&L Warehouse

Anonymous said...

This goes back awhile since I graduated in 1988, but while in school REM would play a free concert every year at Legion Field. It was a great show and finally ended my Junior year when word leaked out and 25,000 people showed up and things got a little out of control. Also, I remember seeing Sting in concert at the basketball Colesium for his Dream of the Blue Turtles Tour, another great show. I've seen a number of concerts since then, but always remember those great shows on campus as a student!

Anonymous said...

My favorite concert I have seen in Athens was this past August right after The Georgia Theater reopened. It was the Colt Ford and Friends benefit concert. It was AWSOME when Brantley Gilbert and Corey Smith showed up. And it was great to be back in the greatest venue in Athens!

Paul said...

Michael and Peter were classmates in Franklin College so there were quite a few memorable shows with REM, the B52's and Pylon back in the day. I also remember a lot of shows at the Georgia Theater: Asleep at the Wheel, Muddy Waters, John Prine, Sea Level, the Dixie Dregs, David Allan Coe and Jerry Jeff Walker come to mind. We also listened to Gamble Rogers fairly often at the Last Resort.