I just got this from my good friend and former boss, who has been an Athens resident since the mid-eighties. I love it. Aside from the fact that I have always loved Chunklet anyway, the music is super cool, and now I feel inspired to go watch Athens, GA Inside Out again. I still haven't finished reading Party Out of Bounds, largely because I was afraid it would be too depressing as I was heading out, but there are serious gaps in my knowledge of Athens music in the early days.
One of the reasons for this is because the music scene is still (and, it seems, has aalways been) so vibrant that I didn't have time. I was so busy watching history being made that I didn't have time to go back. I recently discovered a couple new bloggers who are just getting started on their musical journeys, and I felt a little jealous. I remember when I wasn't lazy and jaded. I remember the shock of hearing, for the first time, somebody saying they didn't want to walk "all the way" (half a mile, at most) down to the 40 Watt to see a really great band. And I remember feeling the same way not long after that.
I remember the first show I saw in Athens. Cafeteria played at Allen's when I was visiting a friend. The first show I saw after I moved there (huh- I just typed "here", because I still feel like I am there) was The Lures at The Caledonia. I called my friend in Chicago from the patio to tell him that the drummer had sung every note of "Joey" by Concrete Blonde and not missed a beat. I was floored. But now Clay is well, just Clay.
In the nine years I spent living in Athens, I saw brilliant bands come and go. I watched FFS become Modern Skirts an The Redbelly Band become Dead Confederate. I saw the first show The Whigs ever played, Caught Patterson Hood solo for two bucks at Nowhere Bar on a Thursday night(and bought his solo CD, which at the time was a burned copy from his home computer in a cardboard sleeve), and watched The (shirtless) Star Rooms Boys play their last show to a packed Tasty World. I saw the Glands there, too, as a matter of fact. I can't say which show had more people, but I'm glad the fire marshal didn't show.
These are just a few of the hundreds of amazing shows and bands I've seen, and mine is an experience that encompasses just a tiny sliver of what was happening during the time when I lived there, which in itself is a tiny sliver of time. And yes, I admit that I got lazy. I just got spoiled having good bands playing so often. It wasn't until I knew for certain that I was leaving that I started going out to shows several nights a week again. I guess it's better that I got away for awhile. Living in a place with little or no music scene has already upped my appreciation of Athens.
I wonder if anybody will ever make another Athens music documentary. And if they do, I wonder who'll be in it. No matter who it is, things will be left out. You just can't capture it all.