[HN Gopher] An Unlikely Bohemia: Athens, Georgia, in Reagan's Am...
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An Unlikely Bohemia: Athens, Georgia, in Reagan's America (2020)
Author : tintinnabula
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-08-31 03:46 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (southernspaces.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (southernspaces.org)
| severine wrote:
| Wow, HN meets Team Dresch!
|
| I've lived 'mentally' in Athens as an European youngster, I'm
| eager to read some stories, if you were there, then, please
| share!
| quercusa wrote:
| The Atlanta equivalent of the 40-Watt was 688, which was a
| cinder block building with maybe a 9 foot ceiling. It was
| always hot and full of clove cigarette smoke. The stage may
| have been 18 inches high.
|
| REM at 688 in early 1981:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAldqnBPz3Y&t=2077s
| eventualhorizon wrote:
| i grew up in Athens and was in high school/college during this
| time (graduated hs in '83). Unfortunately I was not that
| involved in the music scene but still got to see some great
| bands.
|
| The article spends a good bit of time on the B-52's but they
| were long gone to New York by this time and didn't really come
| back for public concerts until 'Cosmic Thing'. The popular
| bands that I remember were Love Tractor, REM, Dreams So Real
| and Kilkenny Cats.
|
| The scene as I knew it from a distance revolved around a few
| venues. Foremost at the time was the 40 watt club. It started
| as a room off of a back alley (with a bare light bulb?) that
| had moved by the time I was old enough to go. Lot's of history
| there. Other venues I visited were the Uptown Lounge, the
| Georgia Theater and surprisingly house parties.
|
| My favorite memories of the time were seeing PYLON and REM with
| about 50-100 other people at 'teen night' at the I&I club, I
| didn't really know PYLON but the show blew me away. Easily the
| best performance that I've seen. The Hillbilly Frankenstein
| album release party was wild and a blast. I also got to see the
| Flat Duo Jets at a house party and several times at small
| venues. Dex and Crowe made an amazing amount of sound for two
| guys with simple instruments.
|
| It was definitely a fun time to be in Athens and I certainly
| enjoyed myself. In hindsight I wish I had gotten more into the
| scene but growing up there and being so young I had no idea
| that there was anything special going on there.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| I was a bit after your time, but the old Athens food too! I
| didn't appreciate how exceptional (and cheap!) it was.
|
| Wilson's Soul Food, Taco Stand, Mexicali, Peppino's, Last
| Resort, Inoko Express
|
| There used to be a place next to the 40 Watt. X-Ray Cafe? I
| remember hanging out with poor bands post-show, because they
| had a grilled-cheese with tomato for $2.50 or so.
|
| By the mid to late 90s, it was more Widespread Panic, Drive-
| By Truckers, and Of Montreal, as REM had already graduated to
| super-stardom.
|
| The WP outdoor free concert (in the middle of downtown!) in
| '98 was something else. 100k happy people.
|
| https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/panic-in-the-
| streets-a...
|
| PS: Long live Jittery Joe's, fuck Starbucks. :)
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jittery_Joe%27s
| snapetom wrote:
| The first "alternative" song I heard back in the 80's was Watusi
| Rodeo by Guadalcanal Diary out of Marietta. That song really
| struck a nerve with me and really guided my young music tastes.
| dhagz wrote:
| I lived in Athens (recently, not in the eighties) and it was
| almost overwhelming how much music there was at any given time.
| And not just "pop" music, but orchestral/wind band stuff. The
| music school at UGA is pretty damn good and so there's always a
| good concert available.
| echelon wrote:
| Atlanta is far from music starved (not counting this recent
| debacle that threatens our festival music scene for the
| foreseeable future [1]).
|
| Despite that, Athens still manages to pull a lot of great acts
| that never make it to Atlanta. Athens has it really good and
| truly lives and breathes its music scene.
|
| [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-
| entertainment/2022/08/02...
| the_only_law wrote:
| Not too surprised... it's a college town.
|
| I used to live in a college town you've never heard of in a
| state you don't think about and it had a pretty solid music
| scenes, decent venues, etc. and could get some of the best
| shows, particularly for stuff sub-mainstream.
|
| I now live in a much larger area, that I expected to have many
| more amenities and the music scene is surprisingly terrible.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Real estate is a huge factor in this. How many different
| sized venues are there and who controls them? If they're all
| run by Ticketmaster, you're only going to get Live Nation
| acts. If there's only a football stadium and few/no
| independent small or medium sized clubs, where are these
| interesting, but niche acts going to perform?
|
| Colleges tend to always have a diverse set of buildings,
| small theaters/bars/basements, mid sized basketball
| arenas/clubs, big stadiums and can mostly book who they (or
| the students) want.
| the_only_law wrote:
| > If there's only a football stadium and few/no independent
| small or medium sized clubs, where are these interesting,
| but niche acts going to perform?
|
| Oh they exist, they're usually just booked up by boring
| cover bands.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| > _only a football stadium_
|
| To be fair, Sanford Stadium seats almost 93,000 (9th
| largest in US). ;-) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_
| of_U.S._stadiums_by_cap...
|
| PS: Game day parking and traffic sucked, as someone who
| lived there.
| Broken_Hippo wrote:
| _If there 's only a football stadium and few/no independent
| small or medium sized clubs, where are these interesting,
| but niche acts going to perform?_
|
| A lot of areas have auditoriums that folks can rent - and
| there are generally conference rooms and conference
| centers. I saw Weird Al perform in a large conference room
| in a hotel (and the show was absolutely fantastic). I've
| seen folks perform in very small bars that many towns have.
| A lot of cities have outdoor places in parks and in the US,
| a high school will often have a place to rent. Heck, small
| festivals often have live music, though it might not be
| what you want.
|
| I don't think real estate is enough. It is much easier to
| have a Blues festival if your city puts in some work to
| plan such a thing: Same with making sure there is a music
| scene. Not all of the bands are going to play for pennies,
| either: It costs money to travel about with equipment, even
| if you are in town. It is a group effort that involves more
| than real estate.
| MisterTea wrote:
| Many musicians and artists I know were always close to
| poverty as supporting yourself with art is not easy. So
| many have menial jobs to pay the bills while their free
| times is working in their art. If they cant afford to live
| in fancy areas the bohemian scenes cant flourish.
|
| Living in NYC I watched the death of the Williamsburg
| bohemian scene in the 00's. The neighborhood was still
| rough with crummy buildings, warehouses and drug dealers
| roaming about and other sketchy shit. Small
| bars/venues/clubs dotted the area and the myriad of
| commercial buildings rented large spaces for cheap which
| people turned into art communes. I had a bunch of friends
| in that scene and it was amazing to walk into a drab
| looking brick warehouse and into a world of art and music.
| I remember going to a show which featured performers from
| side show acts who were musicians which spilled into the
| street becoming an impromptu late night street circus
| complete with acrobatics and fire breathing.
|
| Then everyone just HAD to live in WB and the cheap
| commercial buildings were razed and replaced with giant
| crappy over priced apartments ($2500 for a 1br back then
| was insane). Within a few years all the interesting artists
| left, many heading to Portland which suffered the same
| fate. Now its all faux luxury apartment buildings and
| Instagram spaces. Burn it all down.
| schnevets wrote:
| Not only is it tougher to book an act and fill a venue
| outside of a town whose economy is fueled by 20-somethings,
| but I think there is also a NIMBY factor, mostly justified
| by noise complaints. If there are any residential neighbors
| next to your pre-war warehouse turned-venue, you will get
| noise complaints... except in a college town where everyone
| is basically inoculated to that behavior.
| mikrl wrote:
| I relocated from a smallish city in Canada to SW Ontario, and
| my experience is the same.
|
| Halifax' music scene is phenomenal and although most acts
| are- and will remain- unknown, it has provided a launchpad
| for some great careers and the energy is unmatched.
|
| I think the punk and metal scenes are better out here because
| its more urbanized and developed, but of course pop music
| goes deeper than those.
|
| Toronto, of course, has a good scene, and Montreal speaks for
| itself. Those cities have 100s of things to do that aren't
| music though, so it's possible to live your life without ever
| deviating from the well known arena acts.
| [deleted]
| ginkgotree wrote:
| I lived in Athens while working on a Phd in P Chem. Looking back
| on the two years I lived there before I dropped out to run my app
| business, I didn't realize at the time what a perfect city it was
| to live in. There was _always_ an interesting show or art
| performance. And the concentration of graduate students and
| researchers meant you'd have the most interesting conversations
| in passing at the farmers market, etc.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| The joke growing up there was that it was the only town where
| an undergraduate degree was required to work in food delivery
| (pizza, this was before apps), because the population was so
| academically overqualified.
|
| But on the other hand, it also spoke to the number of people
| who graduated and chose to stay there...
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