It used to be so easy. To figure out who worth seeing was going to be playing in town on any given night, in any given month, all you had to do was look at the schedule for The Earl. Now, the axis of activity has shifted just ever so slightly to the south, and as many quality acts are booked into 529 as The Earl, or anywhere else in Atlanta for that matter.
That being said, 529 still hasn't released much of its lineup for March Madness, but here's what we have in store so far:
March 1 - Lotus (Terminal West)
March 2 - Efterklang (The Earl)
March 5 - The Eels (Variety Playhouse)
March 6 - Alt-J (The Masquerade)
March 7 - The Ruby Suns (Drunken Unicorn)
March 8 - Cowboy Junkies (Variety Playhouse) Chelsea Light Moving (The Earl)
March 9 - Mount Moriah (Drunken Unicorn)
March 11 - Starfucker (Terminal West)
March 14 - Kishi Bashi (The Earl)
March 16 - Mission of Burma (The Earl)
March 16 - Mission of Burma (The Earl)
March 18 - Thao & The Get Down Stay Down / Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside (Smith's Olde Bar)
March 22 - Hey Marseilles (Vinyl)
March 26 - Javelin, Raleigh Moncreif (529)
March 26 - Javelin, Raleigh Moncreif (529)
Like Rocktober, March Madness does not really exist as an identifiable entity, but is a conceptual festival put together by stringing together as many concerts as possible during the month of March. The number of concerts during the month, according to my current, working theory, is a direct effect of Austin's massive SXSW festival on March 8-17. Bands heading to Austin from NY or other points north of Atlanta try to pick up a gig or two on their way to or from SXSW, and Atlanta is a pretty well situated to pick up a lot of those gigs. West Coast bands figure they might as well tour through the South a little as long as they're in Austin as well, so we pick up some more gigs that way, too.
It's still early and there will undoubtedly be more shows announced in the coming weeks, but I figured I might as well share what we've got so far.
Update: Apparently, I'm not the only one who's noticed the SXSW mass migration. Savannah, Georgia is holding a Savannah Stopover festival March 7-9, claiming "The best up and coming indie bands stop over in Savannah on their way to SXSW in Austin, Texas for 3 nights of music in the the city's famed historic district." The Festival takes place across multiple venues "within walking distance of all Savannah has to offer "
More than 80 bands are expected to perform, and so far of Montreal, Chelsea Light Moving, The Whigs, Mac DeMarco, Ducktails, Jonathan Toubin, Dent May, Delicate Steve, Turbo Fruits, Snowmine, The Last Bison, Ben Sollee, Ponderosa, Cheyenne Mize, Sean Bones, Little Tybee, Field Report, The Coathangers, William Tyler, and Naomi Punk are scheduled to perform.
Snowmine and William Tyler will be opening for Mount Moriah at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta on March 9, and I wonder how many other of the Savannah Stopover artists will also be stopping over in Atlanta.
