Big Al rocks with JGB at Sky City

by Stoney

Can someone please tell me at what point Augusta went from having a couple of decent shows to go to on the weekend to having so many darn shows going on at once that it’s about near impossible to make a decision on which one to go to?

On several occassions this year I have had to almost flip a coin to decide what band or performer to go see that just happens to be playing on the same night.  To make it even crazier, now not only are the usual groups rocking out somewhere downtown on the weekend, now all of a sudden you got got new bands or artists that usually play elsewhere bringing new styles of music into the downtown area.  Also…it used to be that if Friday night was crazy downtown, Saturday night was the opposite and vice versa.  Not anymore.

I love it.

Let me refer to the experience I had just last weekend.  I knew my buddy (and G-City bandmate) Fred McNeal not to mention our former Family Jewels bro Patrick Turner would be playing at the Loft on Broad Street with their main band The Hot Rods.  This of course was a must see for both Jeannie and I as the guys are pretty much family to us.  But as the weekend gets closer I check out what else is going on, get a few MySpace invites, receive a few emails and before I know it I have a list of several good peeps that  I’d like to go see play downtown, each at a different location.  So Jeannie and I made up a game plan, and on paper it looked pretty good.  We would catch the Hot Rods and some of the Peepshow, stroll across Broad to check out Allgood Asylum at the Playground, hit up Sky City for some country action from the Jeremy Graham Band (who graciously donated a portion of the door to the Lexie’s Legacy Scholarship Fund!) then check out the end of Tommy O.D. & the Survivors late nighter at Joe’s Underground.  So as you may have gathered, we would try to check out a mix of rock-a-billy, metal, country, and blues ALL downtown, ALL on the same night at four completely DIFFERENT venues!  Yes folks I’m telling you, this was going on downtown all on the same night and I’m pretty sure there was live music at 1102, the Cotton Patch, and probably even at Stillwater Tap Room, 209 Cafe on the River, and possibly even at Club Sparks and Sector 7G as well!

What in the world is going on?  It’s like we all drank a case of tainted beer and woke up to a pretty far out happening groovy trip!  You can almost hear Louie Armstrong AND Joey Ramone singing “What a Wonderful World” together!

But back to reality. (which at this point ain’t that bad folks) Our plan was foiled when we realized, after seeing the Hot Rods play and about 20 minutes of the Pretty Things Peepshow, that it was after midnight.  Well decisions had to be made.  We figured that since there’s some friends we love so much and hadn’t seen in in a while in JGB, and they were kind enough to make such a nice donation, we would head down to make sure we caught a bit of “rockin” country before the guys were done playing at Sky City which was a good decision because the guys only played about five more tunes after we got here.  So you’re thinking “well dang then, plenty of time to run on down to the Playground or Joe’s!”  We maybe except that we hadn’t seen bassist Big Al and drummer Ryan Henderson in forever, not to mention ol’ Keith Ford was in the house keeping the whole show all together.  Well talk and laughter, and reminiscing ensued (as normally happens) and before you know it…it was well after 1 a.m. 

I don’t know about you but after walking a mile and a half earlier in the day, then standing in line outside of the Loft for 30 minutes (being on the guest list doesn’t always mean you get in first) then standing and rocking for three hours before even heading down to Sky City, but my old tail was pretty much tuckered out.

Besides…I’d have to do it all agin the next night!

Aaaah…what a great place to be…Augusta, GA! 

To our friends we missed…please accept our humble apologies…plan on seeing us soon…REAL soon!