Show of the Month

500 Songs for Kids

Smith’s Olde Bar

Atlanta, GA

May 1-10, 2008

Quite an unforgettable experience, 500 Songs for Kids was by far perhaps the best event for local music in Georgia this year. Josh Rifkind, whose baby is the successful Open Mic Madness each August, again pulled off an extraordinary feat, bringing together the best musicians in the Georgia music scene, throwing in a few stars, raising money for children and families in need.

This is year two of Rifkind’s 500 Songs for Kids benefit of 10 nights and 50 songs per night with this round featuring the 500 greatest sing-along songs of all time, as referenced by Rolling Stone magazine. So here we go.

It was good to hear and see some passionate Prince tunes, like the cordial “Little Red Corvette” and “When Doves Cry.” Sister Hazel jumped in, humbly performing its own hit “All for You” with great energy. Television and movies found a way in the countdown, with a happy sing-a-long of “The Jefferson’s” theme and a brilliant solo rendition of “Star Wars” on baritone sax by Dave Freeman.

Such energy was noted on Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So,” performed by the stunning Martians See Red. One could not miss out on Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” perfectly executed by Blake Guthrie and the Getaway Cars. Captivating. John McNicholas performed a heart breaker, in glorious fashion, as the crowd sang along to Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman.”

There was a charming pause from the instruments. Woodstock band Leadcar Holiday masqueraded as a five-piece choir and brought charm and humor to “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone-Loc with great style for a fun moment. The Lost Boys were back and better than ever with the Karate Kid’s “You’re the Best Around,” delivering four-part harmonies and really charging up the crowd, boosting the room’s sizzling atmosphere.

Algebra was riveting, delivering lovely female voices in the 1950s hit, “Leader of the Pack.” Pure rock began to spark up the benefit, as Mike Lowry and company stirred up ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man.” We

even got some ballet dancers on stage to artistically express INXS’s

“Never Tear Us Apart.” More great rock was on the way, including Def Leppard’s “Photograph” performed by Roxis and Alice and Chains’

“Would” performed by Mister Fernando. Buzzing. Mesmerizing. Gozon displayed great talent, playing “La Bamba” flamenco style, as the Latin singer changed tempos.

The crowd never fails to cheer for Cher, as “Turn Back Time,” performed by Chris Downs, found a special place in their heart. You can’t forget Green Day’s “Good Riddance,” a high school memory maker, thanks to Angie Godell.

Another tearjerker, the excellent rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” made the night special, a huge favorite of Rifkind and the foundation team. Beautifully done. Chad Yochum and Corner Kid were mesmerizing as they played Radiohead’s “Karma Police” with such vibrant color and sultry vocals.

Like every night, eventually it was closing time, as Jim Hodsun played Semisonic’s “Closing Time” with great fervor.

Gwen Hughes sang a jazzy “Singin’ in the Rain.” Rebecca Logan was in the zone with Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” a breathtaking tune. Libras raised the roof of Smith’s with Nirvana’s grunge anthem, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” A very memorable, atmospheric piece rained on the audience, as Ryan Waters delivered with “Purple Rain.” Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Leavin’ on a Jetplane” was such a happy moment.

A powerful moment featured four bass guitars and the cool vibe of Chemically Challenged Awesome on Beck’s “Loser.” Lefty Williams and company lifted the venue’s spirits, singing a graceful version of The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.” Stacey Lee was charming in her keyboard rendition of The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun.” A soothing, dreamy “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by The Reeds found its way as another gem of many wonderful memories. Another rocker exploded into fruition, with Death on Two Wheels delivered a gripping “Born to be Wild.” Stonerider found

great chemistry through their arrangement of “Paradise City.” Who wasn’t laughing during Rifkind’s witty version of Adam Sandler’s “The Hannakah Song?” There were many famous artists that made the trip, too, yet let’s not forget the importance of Georgia’s local musicians.

Each night got better and better, sometimes more bizarre, yet the musicians worked together through respect, building a great sense of camaraderie. With such spontaneity and fun, you never knew what was going to happen next. So much emotion, so many tears, and so many laughs. This event really strikes up friendships. The night ended early in the wee morning hours, song number one, the greatest sing-a-long, “Hey Jude.” Cheerfully, the event’s motto became “We’re doing this for the kids!” as everybody there got on board.

-Review & photos by Shawn M. Haney

Florida Music Festival

Orlando, FL

May 15-17, 2008

Florida Music Festival is a veritable banquet of live music: three days, 15 stages and 250 bands. The hardest part is deciding which band to see.

Opening night kicked off at BackBooth with Clock Hands Strangle, a five-piece prog rock band from Melbourne, Fla. Later at Cafe Annie, Lakeland, Fla.-based Terra Terra Terra literally blew the power during its first song, but power was restored and the band continued on with its energetic rock set. At Voyage, Fairweather Friend, a five-piece band from Winter Park, Fla., was getting a terrific response from the crowd with its indie pop rock.

At Central Station, Afterglow Radio was rocking the packed house, no easy feat with four band members on that small stage. Just around the corner at one of the Wall Street stages, Poverty Branch was bounding around with so much energy that the entire stage was swaying to the beat of the band’s melodic rock. Even with the recent personnel changes the band sounded as good as ever.

The next night at Central Station Chris Burns was entertaining the hometown crowd (while in his socks) with a spirited solo acoustic set, while at the main stage on Wall Street Orlando-based Pop Suicide was banging through a frenzied set of punk rock. As soon as the band’s set was over, Nashville and Orlando-based Travis James and the Truth took over the other Wall Street stage with their southern flavored rock complete with catchy lyrics and toe-tapping music.

Later on that same stage, No Circus completely amazed the crowd. The four-piece band from Deland, Fla. injected blues with a rock attitude. Lead guitarist and vocalist James Killgallon was astounding. His big, powerful vocals coupled with his total

mastery of the guitar had everyone in the crowd (other musicians included) awestruck.

Closing out the night on Wall Street’s main stage was the dual guitar rock of another hometown band, Vonray. Since the band went on hiatus in 2003, there haven’t been many shows, so

this was a treat for its fans. The band took the stage to the persistent crowd chanting “Vonray Vonray.” Lead guitarist Paul Smith was pulling double duty; he had just finished a set with

Megaphone and stayed in place for Vonray’s set. The band was joined onstage by American Idol top finalist Robbie Carrico (who had played earlier) for their song “Drifted Away.”

Saturday afternoon, Orlando’s A Cover Story started things off at BackBooth with a playful high energy set of hooky, melodic rock. At The AKA Lounge Lakeland, Fla.-based Woodale played a set of engaging piano rock. Later at Tanqueray’s Nashville’s Derek Stroker brought the house down with his inspired blues jams. Tampa reggae band Tribal Style had the crowd dancing to the island beats during their set on Wall Street. City Arts hosted an acoustic duo from Clearwater, FL (Steve Alex), followed by a full band show from Orlando-based rock band Dagnese, playing its second set of the festival, the first being Friday night at Cafe Annie.

All three levels of The Cheyenne Saloon were packed as Thomas Wynn and the Believers closed out the night with a spirited set of Southern rock. It was all over too soon. This was just a taste of the talented musicians gathered to perform and attend the many conferences held over the three days.

-Review & photos Kat Coffin

John Frank / Matt Mackelcan / Clayton Senne

The Social

Orlando, FL

May 10, 2008

The Social was rapidly filling up as Orlando-based singer/songwriter Clayton Senne hit the stage. As soon as the solo keyboardist started playing, the audience abandoned all thoughts of anything else as they stood in rapt attention seemingly afraid to miss even a single song. He started off his set with “Back To Me,” an attention grabbing upbeat song with a big jazz vibe that also revealed his powerful, passionate vocals. The rest of his set was packed with his original songs, showing an obvious blues, soul and pop influence including “Mercy,” “Walk Out The Door,” “Cry” and “Wonderland.” He also included a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” proclaiming it to be “The song that changed my life.”

Winter Park-based Matt Mackelcan and his band was up next. The fourpiece band, Matt MacKelcan (vocals/guitar), Chris Floyd (lead guitar/ vocals), Marc Carusiello (bass) and Jeremy Katelenic (drums) kept up the attention-grabbing powerhouse musical theme with their southernflavored indie rock, complete with many guitar laden rock ‘n’ roll jams. They played several songs from his sophomore CD, No Turning Back, including “Waiting” and “Drive.” They also played a new song “So Far,” featuring an impressive lead guitar solo from Chris Floyd. They closed out their set with “These Days,” about which MacKelcan joked “I wrote this song about John Frank. It really sums up the way I feel about him.”

John Frank was up next, celebrating the release of his sophomore CD The Spaces Between. The Orlando-based singer/songwriter has a large following and The Social was packed for his party, as he explained many times during the show “I don’t have a fan base, I have a mad base.”

The four-piece band of John Frank (vocals/guitar/ piano), Jared Leevanus (bass),

Patrick McKinney (guitar) and Greg Hunkins (drums) played several songs from the new CD Undone, including “All The Way To New Orleans” and “Colder” with Chris Floyd and his guitar joining them on stage for the latter. They also played songs from Frank’s debut CD “Anywhere But Here” including “This Town,” “Jenna” and “Never Surrender” all of which turned into massive audience sing-alongs.

To the repeated chanted demands of “one more song” John Frank came back onstage and performed a rousing solo acoustic version of “Victim Of The Heart.”

-Review & photo by Kat Coffin

Be Your Own Pet

Variety Playhouse

Atlanta, GA

May 23, 2008

It’s hard to be an opening band. It’s even harder to be an opening band

on a national tour, spending months at a time sandwiched between lesserknown

bands and the tour’s crowd-drawing headlining act, realizing that, no matter how well your group plays, the crowd’s response to your set will never approach the adoration received by the tour’s stars. Be Your Own Pet’s Friday night show at Variety Playhouse was a perfect example of the toll taken by the stress of always opening and never headlining.

Be Your Own Pet took the stage accompanied by a few serious audio/setup problems: PA system glitches, a broken guitar strap, non-functioning microphones, misadjusted levels and a mysteriously collapsing floor tom. The band wasn’t phased by most of the problems; front woman Jemina Pearl explained, “This stuff happens to us all the time on tour. We’re that band.”

The technical problems may help explain the audience’s lackluster response to Be Your Own Pet’s normally infectious garage punk sound. Set against Variety Playhouse’s seizure-friendly stage lighting, Pearl and her band were in constant motion, jumping and writhing around a sea of amps, almost forcing the audience out of its seats and into the Playhouse’s packed isles. Unfortunately, that’s where audience participation ended Friday night. Apart from three moshers desperately careening against each other and off the stage, the audience was rooted in place. Frustrated, Pearl began one song by asking, “You guys like rock?” And, after the audience had roared back a resounding “Yes!” Pearl exclaimed, “You don’t act like it! Let’s see some feet moving!”

Apart from the normal problems associated with opening for a bigger act, Be Your Own Pet played a good show, performing a mix of favorites from their self-titled 2006 LP and 2008’s Get Awkward. “Food Fight!” and “Black Hole” were clear crowd favorites. Both songs benefited from Jemina Pearl’s piercing vocals, which have that special ability to make songs with lyrics like “Living in this city, I get so bored / Wanna kill

myself on a telephone cord / I guess we could go drive around / What’s the point?” into anthemic summer hits. Backed by a great guitar/bass/ drum combo, Pearl delivered a performance, which reached out and grabbed her listeners, the sort of “performance in the midst of adversity” that makes casual listeners into real fans.

-Review by Ben Grad; photo by Skyler Waldrop

Sean McConnell / Micah Dalton / Jon Black /

Garrett Moore

Vinyl

Atlanta, GA

May 23, 2008

If May 23’s concert at Vinyl was a showcase of current singer/songwriter talent in the Southeast, then Garrett Moore was the undiscovered diamond-in-the-rough, Jon Black was the odd-man-out, Micah Dalton was the up-and-comer and Sean McConnell was the veteran-that-hadall-of-the-tools.

Moore kicked off the night with what appeared at first to be the same old song and dance by the same old guy and a guitar act. His voice was strong but what made you notice him was his work on the guitar. From slower, easier love songs to more upbeat acoustic pop songs, Moore had it all in his arsenal, including a memorable, foot-tapping, head-bobbing closing cover of “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder.

Black was up next, and though the entire night was a treat to the audience, Black showed some room for improvement. Black chose an electric guitar as his weapon of choice for most of the night, the fast pace and high volume of the rock ‘n’ roll that he attempted left his voice strained on the high notes (think Tom Petty trying to hit the high notes in “Free Fallin’” with a head cold).

A suited and mustached Micah Dalton came out after Black and quickly picked up the crowd’s attention where Moore had left it. Throughout the concert, Dalton’s witty crowd interactions kept everything flowing smoothly, but even good jokes and banter didn’t help as much as Dalton following through on his promise to “play some summer jams.”

He showed off his range in the falsetto-laced “I’ll Find You in Ohio.” Even though the range was impressive, what was even more impressive was his songwriting and his band’s ability to keep the crowd moving with songs that were impossible not to dance to. A daring cover of “Isolation” by John Lennon and Dalton’s own song “The Autobiography of Milton Burrows” brought out the pure soul in Dalton’s voice and left not a body still in the whole room. Without a doubt, Dalton is a man of many genres and he exploited all of his capabilities perfectly in concert.

Sean McConnell came out last and did not disappoint the crowd that had been waiting to hear him all night. To say that McConnell and his band moved throughout their set list effortlessly would be an understatement. The only hitch in the night came when McConnell bent to the wishes of the audience, deviated from his set list and played his epic fan-favorite, “If These Walls Could Speak.”

McConnell’s band showed the tightness and high-skill level that you would expect from a band that has been at it as long as they have. McConnell himself showed great stage presence and his voice did not falter once throughout the show. Considering he claimed to be debuting plenty of new songs throughout the night, McConnell fans new and old have something to look forward to in 2008.

-Review & photos by Michael Aguilar

Holdcell / Noxious / Deception

Three Bears Café

Marietta, GA

May 17, 2008

The fact that Three Bears Cafe has one of the better sound systems in the Atlanta area made this show a treat. The whole vibration of the place circled around the horseshoe bar and sectioned off standing area. It looked like an in-ground pool for crowd surfers or moshers. The layout of Three Bears rivals even bigger venues like The Masquerade for pure sound quality.

Deception was added to the bill as the opening act at the last minute, but pulled off an impressive show after just releasing its first CD a week prior to the show. Deception lead singer, A.J. Sams, invited the crowd into what would certainly become a hell pit by the end of the night. As Deception played a ballad, sexy females filled in the front rows holding up cell phones and cameras to record the moment. Sams announced the song “No More” and played through the aptly-titled closing song.

Anxiety and anticipation filled the room as bodies packed the room from the floor to the second tier overlooking the stage.

The crowd grew slowly throughout Deception’s and Noxious’ impressive sets like the feeling of anticipation rising in fans waiting for the drinks to take hold. Holdcell fans packed in wearing the band’s T-shirts up until the curtains closed after Noxious’ impressive cover of Tool’s “Schism”. At that point, a calm-before-the-storm feeling took hold and fans awaited the opening of the show.

The point of seeing any show live is to simply feel alive and connect to the moment in time where musicians onstage sing and pound out honest feelings. Fans sang along with lines like “swing from the barrel” as they pushed against sweaty strangers all around them. From the impressions of the three band members and the variety of styles in their music and appearances, the band’s style should be labeled “cowboy punk.”

Holdcell’s acoustic performance during “King” really showed the dynamic in difference of song styles. From tunes with a Latin feel like “El Gallo” to hard driving songs like “Ride” and back to acoustic ballads, Holdcell entertained Three Bears Cafe fans for a full two-hour set.

-Review & photo by Ellen E. Aldridge