Okay. We interrupt the self-indulgent, egotistical, and egocentric retrospective of the music of years past to fast-forward back to the here and now to post about last night's show by Atlanta's Little Tybee, who are starting off on a nationwide tour, which actually kicked off Friday night in Savannah, but came up to Atlanta last night for a proper send off at a packed and sold-out 529. But before getting into all of that, let's talk about the great opening set by Asheville's Giant Giants.
Giant Giants is a percussion-heavy indie rock band featuring the usual electric guitar, keyboards and bass, but with two drummers, one on a traditional drum kit and one on varied percussion. In addition, lead singer Reid Weigner is just as likely to pick up drum sticks himself and play a floor tom as he is to play the guitar. The result, as you might expect, is a driving, tribal, almost prog-rock sound that kicked off the evening quite nicely.
Athens' New Madrid pulled middle duty, with an exciting and driving set of indie guitar rock. I'm not sure where I've been or how I've missed them for so long, but rest assured, I will not be making that mistake again any longer.
I could go on about these guys, but I'd prefer to let their music do the speaking for me.
So that takes us to headliners Little Tybee, a great band which just keeps getting better and better every time I hear them.
Case in point is the most recent song, Don't Quit Your Day Job, that they've released from their forthcoming, fourth album.
Front man Brock Scott dedicated last night's set to WRAS Album 88, Georgia State's student-run radio station, which was on its last night of broadcast before a hostile takeover by PBS. He asked for a moment of silence, but the excited audience couldn't contain their cat calls and yells, so instead Scott had to compromise and ask for a shout out for the station, to which the audience raucously complied.
The Little Tybee tour will take them to Portland, Oregon next month, where they will be headlining at the Doug Fir Lounge, my favorite music venue in that fine city and probably one of my favorite venues overall. It really is a fine place to hear bands and serves as the MusicFest Northwest (RIP) headquarters for KEXP, and although I won't be able to make it out there for that set, I would love to hear how they're received by a Portland audience accustomed to like-minded artists such as Typhoon and Ages and Ages. If anyone from Little Tybee happens to read this, do yourselves a favor while you're there and enjoy my MFNW Breakfast of Champions of veggie chili, cornbread, and black coffee at the diner upstairs from the lounge in the Jupiter Hotel (but please don't stay overnight there in a street-level room).
Dude, I was there! Brock Scott tweeted a picture of me just before the set as the intrepid 529 soundman made a heroic, last-minute field splice on the vocals monitor, and the photo got posted to Facebook and picked up by the Deer Bear Wolf Tumblr page and points beyond (including here!).
In summary, last night was a fun evening with three great bands. The Little Tybee tour continues tomorrow at the Georgia Theater in Athens, where they open for Hundred Waters, who'll be playing here in Atlanta at The Earl on Tuesday night with the dream-pop duo GEMS opening. The Little Tybee tour heads out west after the July 4 holiday and will take them up the Pacific Coast from San Diego to Seattle, and includes a stop in Daytrotter's Illinois studio on the way back. Let's wish them a successful and safe trip, and we hope to see them here in Atlanta again when they return.
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