Being Amber Rhea

So, I’m back in the ATL. And after a 3-hour nap, I have uploaded all my AthFest photos and am ready to write my obligatory recap post.

This was, easily, the best AthFest I’ve been to (I think I’ve been to four total).

After lunch at Five Points Deli, we checked into our respective hotels (Cari’s two friends had to stay at the Howard Johnson because the Holiday Inn Express didn’t have any vacancies [we had a reservation]), and then headed downtown to meet David a.k.a. eponymous at Flicker. The bar was deserted when we arrived, and the area around the mainstage on Washington St. was looking pretty empty as well. It was 4:30 PM; AthFest would kick off at 5:00.

We sat outside Flicker, talking but not too much, because the heat was of the sort that makes you not want to move a whole lot. Mostly we people-watched. One cool (but sometimes disturbing) thing about Athens is that you’re always seeing people who you either know, or at least recognize. Often you can’t place where you recognize them from. Maybe you had a class with them once, maybe they worked somewhere… it’s hard to say. But there are definitely a lot of recycled faces. I spotted Dr. Dan and he came over to chill with us for a few minutes.

Tangent: Neither Cari nor I had been to Athens in a while, and you know what we realized? Stuff is fucking cheap there. I mean, obviously we knew this already; but after living in Atlanta for over a year and getting used to things here, it really smacked us in the face upon our return. I mean, yeah, I lived there for 3½ years, but I was a broke college student - now that I have graduated to the actual “middle class”, the contrast between Athens and Atlanta is even greater. Two drinks cost as much as one in Atlanta. 25 cents gets you an hour on the downtown parking meters. A good meal for two can be had for under $10.

The first band to go on was a band from Chapel Hill called SNMNMNM. I thought they were really good - and they had a tuba, so that’s pretty cool already. I didn’t have my camera with me at that point so I don’t have a picture of them.

At around 6:30 Cari and I went to dinner at the Grit. It was time for me to have the fateful first grilled cheese sandwich. I have photographic evidence of the event (before, during, after). We originally took a picture of me actually taking a bite, but it looked obscene, so we had to delete it. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that I actually ate it. You know what? It wasn’t half bad!

Tangent #2: We did a lot of walking, and realized that the distances seemed a lot shorter than when we lived there. We attributed that to living in Atlanta as well. But I mean, really… the Holiday Inn Express is really only 3 blocks from the 40 Watt. Prince Ave. is not that far from Broad St. I don’t know why it seemed like a much bigger deal when I lived there.

We got back from dinner just in time to see Elf Power. David was still camped out in front of Flicker, but the crowd was much more substantial. Elf Power played for 40 minutes and they totally rocked. Actually I think this was the first time I’d ever seen them live.

The crowd got thicker as 9:00 approached, which was when Pylon was scheduled to go on. At around 8:45, some girls emerged from the 40 Watt carrying scores upon scores of pink balloons. The balloons had “Pylon” printed on them, and just about everyone in the crowd got one. Washington St. was soon a sea of pink balloons.

Pylon took the stage right on time. What can I say? They put on a freaking awesome show. Pylon is one of the few bands that make me want to dance; and not just make me want to dance, but they make me get up off my ass and actually dance. After 25 years they’ve still got it going on. They rocked out for about an hour, and then did an encore.

This is now getting long to the point where I wouldn’t read the whole thing if it were on someone else’s blog. So I’ll go ahead and bring it to a close. In summation: I had an awesome time, and am looking forward to AthFest 2006!

(Cross-posted, with edits, at Athens World.)