Shaky Knees Retrospective, Day 2 Part Two

Okay, we're back to reviewing last weekend's Shaky Knees festival now.  Last we talked, we were at the Ponce de Leon Stage having enjoyed a belated but rewarding set by Shaky Knees.  As the crowd filed away from the Ponce stage to parts unknown (Deer Tick? Wild Nothing?), we took advantage of the empty space and grabbed a good spot near the front of the stage to wait the short time between sets for Phosphorescent to take the stage (a short wait since Shaky Graves had a late start due to a power failure and was allowed to run late).  Before too long, we were rewarded for our patience with a great spot to watch and hear

Phosphorescent (Ponce de Leon Stage)

Phosphorescent, of course, is Athens, Georgia resident Matthew Houck, but the audience was having fun during his set by enthusiastically calling out "Keyboards!" and insisting on a solo from Jo Schornikow.

Houck conceded, of course, but that only led to more calls for solos from "Bass Guy!" and "Steel Guitar Man!" and even "Auxilliary Percussion Guy!"  It was all done, and received on stage, in friendly good cheer, and as a measure of the warm rapport between the musicians and the audience.

Other than the song It's Hard To Be Humble When You're From Alabama which pretty much requires a horn section, Houck performed everything you'd want to head form a Phosphorescent set, including stand-outs Los Angeles, Song For Zula, and Ride On/Right On as the three-song set closer.

After Phosphorescent, we stayed at the Ponce stage again, and got an even slightly better, almost front row, position to watch

The Decemberists (Ponce Stage) 

We saw The Decemberists (twice) last year during their two-night stand at The Tabernacle, and their stage looked similar to that show, although their set list included fewer songs from their recent What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, but instead reached throughout their discography, opening with a medley from The Hazards of Love, and including The Crane's Wife Parts 1, 2 and 3, Calamity Song and Down By the Water from The King Is Dead, and closing, as always, with The Mariner's Revenge Song.

The Decemberists are one of our favorites, so perhaps we're prejudiced, but their set stands out to us now as one of the highlights of this year's Shaky Knees festival

After The Decemberists, we finally left the Ponce Stage (we had been encamped there for almost five hours), and headed for the Peachtree Stage and the comforts of the VIP pavilion (free beer!) for

My Morning Jacket (Peachtree Stage)

By the time we made it over there, the band was already in full gear.  Of course, arriving late we weren't able to get as close as these photographs suggest (it's called telephoto lens, folks), and were still in a Decemberist frame of mind, so despite Jim James' best efforts and the steam jets fired off during songs and the confetti cannons and all of the other bells and whistles of a My Morning Jacket set, we never quite connected.  

Alert readers will recall that back in 2012 we saw MMJ in the Oregon countryside at a McMenamin's winery on the lower flanks of Mount Hood and were blown away, considering it one of the best shows we saw all year.  We bring this up to remind the reader that we're fans, but after a long day in the sun and the emotional experience of back-to-back-to-back sets by Shaky Graves, Phosphorescent, and The Decemberists, it was hard to get on board the already run-away locomotive that was the MMJ set.  It's us, not you, and by the time they got around to covering Purple Rain, it was time for us to leave, although we were still able to enjoy State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) from the street outside the festival as we left.

They didn't perform Holdin'  On To Black Metal, another song which, like Phosphorescent's It's Hard To Be Humble, pretty much requires a horn section, but here's a video of My Morning Jacket performing that song anyway, and what the hell, as long as we're at it, here's Phosphorescent as well.

So that was it for Day 2, two days under our belts and one to go.  I hope we can cover that last day over this weekend.  Meanwhile, here's your parting shot:

This Week's Shows (Shaky Knees Edition)

So this is it - Shaky Knees week, time for the fourth edition of Atlanta's annual indie and alt-rock festival.  There's only a handful of other shows this week as most clubs and venues aren't even trying to compete, and others are hosting official Shaky Knees Late-Night Shows.  We've listed a few of those other shows that are happening this week, but most of this post consists of our picks for Shaky Knees - it's not meant to be a comprehensive guide but just one fan's strategy to get through the five stages and three days of music.  Your preferences, we're sure, will differ.

As always, please keep in mind that musicians and night-club proprietors lead complicated lives and I'm prone to errors, mistakes, typos, and fubars; it's advisable to confirm any of the information below on your own before making plans.

MONDAY, MAY 9

Dead Meadow, Reverends, Midnight Larks (The Earl)

Dead Meadow are critically praised hard rockers who blend Black Sabbath riffs and dreamy layers of guitar-fuzz bliss with singer Jason Simon's high-pitched melodic croon.

TUESDAY, MAY 10

Uncle Van & The Buzzards of Fuzz, Blue Tower, Bleach Garden, '94 Broncos (529)

Atlanta's Uncle Van and the Buzzards of Fuzz refuse to let rock and roll die with their fuzzed-out psychedelic tunes and gritty, lo-fi aesthetic.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11

Born Ruffians, On An On (Aisle 5)

Born Ruffians are a clever and tuneful Canadian indie rock band fuses hooky guitar jangle with moody, folk-influenced melodies.  Minneapolis' On An On consists of former Scattered Trees members Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci and Ryne Estwing.

Born Ruffians at The Earl, April 24, 2013

On An On at The Drunken Unicorn, April 10, 2013

Collective Soul (Music Room at Smith's Olde Bar)

First of two sold-out nights where Georgia-based post-grunge band Collective Soul, who rode strong hooks to the charts in the '90s and beyond, will be filming a live documentary.

THURSDAY, MAY 12

Maya, Kudzu Kids, Pallow (The Earl)

Maya are three "psychedelic punk musicians from Atlanta, GA with some sonic finesse for your entertainment."

Dromez, Filth, Ironing, Dux (Mammal Gallery)

Four industrial/noise bands for your mid-week entertainment.

Collective Soul (Music Room at Smith's Olde Bar)

Second of two sold-out nights where Collective Soul will be filming a live documentary.

FRIDAY, MAY 13

Beach Slang (12:30-1:00, Shaky Knees)

Beach Slang are a punky indie rock trio from Philadelphia heavily influenced by the Replacements. Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can still catch them at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at The Earl on Friday night.

Saintseneca (1:00-1:45, Shaky Knees)

Ever-evolving group from Ohio that began as a folk band, but evolved to become a mercurial folk-rock ensemble,  melding folk music from Appalachian and international traditions to postmodern pop and acoustically driven indie rock.

Kaleo (1:45-2:30, Shaky Knees)

Kaleo are an indie folk-rock quartet from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. we've never heard them before, but their video on the Shaky Knees web site sounds promising.

The Front Bottoms (2:30-3:15, Shaky Knees)

This eclectic indie rock duo from New Jersey blend punk, pop, and rock with witty, surreal lyrics, and are probably worth the long walk to the far-distant Boulevard Stage.  Or we could always break for lunch. 

Wolf Alice (3:15-4:15, Shaky Knees)

Led by vocalist Ellie Rowsell, this North London act mixes folk and electronic elements with vintage '90s indie rock.

Crystal Fighters (4:15-5:15, Shaky Knees)

Spain's Crystal Fighters, a folktronic band that combines Basque folk instruments with drum loops, heavy synth, and lilting vocals, were formed after singer Laure recovered a diary of her deceased reclusive grandfather while visiting his Basque country home. Inside his notebook was the skeleton of an incomplete opera, whose name the band took as its title.  Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can catch still Crystal Fighters at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Vinyl on Friday night.

Against Me! (5:15-6:15, Shaky Knees)

A onetime solo acoustic act that evolved into a full-fledged old-school punk band by 2007.  More changes followed a May 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, when lead singer Tom Gabel announced his gender dysphoria, plans to transition to living as a woman, and assumption of the name Laura Jane Grace. Against Me! release their album Transgender Dysphoria Blues in 2012.  On the other hand, nothing against the transgender issue (good for her!), but I've never been a big fan of their music, so this might be a good time to get some refreshments and find a good vantage spot for Savage's set.

Savages (6:15-7:15, Shaky Knees)
OMG, Savages.  The British all-female post-punk quartet plays its own brand of noisy, blistering music.  A festival highlight, in my opinion.

Bloc Party (7:15-8:15, Shaky Knees)

A chance to finally see one of my favorite bands of 2005, an ambitious and eclectic art punk quartet based in London that mixes angular, percussive tracks with edgy pop and atmospheric ballads.  One more to check off the bucket list.

The Kills (8:15-9:30, Shaky Knees)

The Anglo-American duo of Alison Mosshart, formerly of the Florida punk band Discount, and drummer/guitarist/vocalist Jamie Hince, plays fiery garage rock with blues grit, new wave cool, and loads of feedback.

The Kills at Crystal Ballroom, MFNW (RIP), 2011

Jane's Addiction (9:30-11:00, Shaky Knees)

Innovative rockers led by Perry Farrell, who united hard rock and alternative in the late '80s with their critically acclaimed work and who pretty much invented the DIY festival with their Lollapalooza shows.

SATURDAY, MAY 14

Speedy Ortiz, Charlie Hilton (529)

In the best non-Shaky Knees show of the weekend, the Massachusetts quartet Speedy Ortiz combine creative songwriting, quirky time signatures, and all the brash artiness of '90s indie rock, led by singer/guitarist Sadie Dupuis.  Opener Charlie Hilton was the frontman of the band Blouse.  If you don't have tickets to Shaky Knees and for some reason don't want to go to one of the official Late Night Shows, then by all means go to 529 to see Speedy Ortiz up close and personal in the intimate confines of 529.

Speedy Ortiz at Shaky Knees, 2015

Son Little (12:50-1:15, Shaky Knees)

If we don't wind up oversleeping and getting to the festival late on Saturday, we can catch Aaron Livingston, the potent and deeply personal soul/R&B collaborator with Roots and Rjd2.

Strand of Oaks (1:15-2:00, Shaky Knees)

Strand of Oaks is an Indiana-based band that specializes in bold and anthemic indie-Americana that draws from classic rock and folk.  We missed them last year when they played The Earl, so this is a good chance to make up for what we missed.

Drew Holcombe & The Neighbors (2:00-2:45, Shaky Knees)

Drew Holcomb is an earnest songwriter. That’s his strength, and his somewhat melancholy tenor voice -- which can get husky and smoky when he needs it to -- makes everything seem intimate and urgent. Holcomb and his band, the Neighbors, work a sort of folky pop-country territory, sounding at times like a muted, less vital Nashville version of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and like Petty, Holcomb's lyrics only occasionally match his attitude.

JJ Grey & Mofro (2:45-3:45, Shaky Knees)

Florida band that mixes funk, soul, rock, and blues for a rootsy, swampy sound with a reputation as an exciting live act.

Shakey Graves (3:45-4:45, Shaky Knees)

Shaky Graves is the stage name of Austin-based "hobo folk" singer, songwriter, musician, and actor Alejandro Rose-Garcia.

Deer Tick (4:45-5:45, Shaky Knees)

Veterans of Shaky Knees 2014, Deer Tick are indie roots rockers from Rhode Island, led by the intimate songwriting and ragged but tender vocals of John McCauley.

Deer Tick at Shaky Knees, 2014

Phosphorescent (5:45-6-45, Shaky Knees)

The brainchild of Athens-based singer-songwriter Mathew Houck, Phosphorescent have released a string of critically acclaimed, country-tinged rock albums.  Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can still catch Phosphorescent at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Terminal West on Friday night.

Phosphorescent at Center Stage, January 25, 2014

Silversun Pickups (7:15-8:15, Shaky Knees)

These L.A. alternative rockers have been weaving layered guitars and effects around surging, melodic tunes for years now, but they still get our fists up and pumping every time we hear the violent part of Lazy Eye.  Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can still catch the Silversuns at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Center Stage on Friday night.  However, this might also be a good time to take advantage of all the Dads over at the Peachtree Stage watching Huey Lewis and the News, and sneak over to the Ponce Stage to get a good spot for The Decemberists. 

Silversun Pickups at MFNW (RIP) 2012 

The Decemberists (7:45-9:00, Shaky Knees)

There's a time overlap between The Silversun's set and this, so some hard choices have to be made, but we're intent on catching this sophisticated yet folk-tinged indie pop band from Portland with a hyperliterate edge provided by vocalist Colin Meloy. These American treasures show what the presence of something like Powell's Book Store can do to a city's music scene.

The Decemberists at Variety Playhouse, April 11, 2015

My Morning Jacket (9:00-11:00, Shaky Knees)

My Morning Jacket are a revered Kentucky combo that stands halfway between indie rock and alt-country, combining twangy, rural sounds with a thick rock onslaught, and a jam-band approach to live sets.  The opportunity to catch back-to-back sets by The Decemberists and MMJ is one of the main reasons to attend this year's Shaky Knees.

My Morning Jacket at McMenamins Edgefield, October 2012

SUNDAY, MAY 15

Julien Baker (12:00-12:45, Shaky Knees)

A cruel lineup choice:  the festival planners are forcing us to choose between Brooklyn's Caveman and Memphis' Julien Baker for the Sunday opener, not even letting us consider sleeping in on the morning.  I'm not sure how Baker's sensitive and emotional ballads, which span a shaky middle ground between heart-wrenching and cathartic, will hold up in a festival setting, but that's part of the reason for picking her set over Caveman's.

Julien Baker at Aisle 5, January 29, 2016

Ought (12:45-1:30, Shaky Knees)

This Montreal-based, hyperliterate, occasionally Fall-esque indie quartet merges the frenetic energy of dance party pop with the politics and urgency of the D.I.Y. scene, and is fast becoming one of our favorites, so we're looking forward to catching this early Shaky Knees set.

Murder By Death (1:30-2:15, Shaky Knees)

Shadowy and narrative indie rock band blending plaintive Americana and rootsy folk influences, Murder By Death feature a female cellist, so you have to love that.  Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can still catch the band at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Vinyl on Saturday night.

Murder By Death at MFNW (RIP) 2013

Frightened Rabbit (2:15-3:15, Shaky Knees)

Scottish indie rockers marked by sparse arrangements and the plaintive singing of Scott Hutchinson. Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can catch Frightened Rabbit (with Caveman!) at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Terminal West Saturday night.

Parquet Courts  (3:15-4:15, Shaky Knees)

Another cruel lineup choice, with Parquet Courts on at the same time as Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Even though it's been sounding like UMO is playing at the top of their form lately, I can't resist the idea of a day with sets by both Ought and Parquet Courts. Spinning off from Fergus & Geronimo, Brooklyn-based Texas expats Parquet Courts makes a jaggedly noisy sound they dub "Americana punk." Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets can still catch Parquet Courts at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at The Earl on Saturday night.

Parquet Courts at The Earl, January 29, 2015

St. Paul & The Broken Bones (4:15-5:15, Shaky Knees)

St. Paul & The Broken Bones are a tight sextet with a gospel-tinged neo-soul garage sound complete with horns and a dynamic lead singer who can sound just like Otis Redding when he wants to.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones at Egyptian Ballroom, December 27, 2014

The Black  Angels (5:15-6:15, Shaky Knees)

Shoe-gazer swirliness and old-fashioned psychedelia meet in Texas-based Black Angels' music.  We haven't seen these guys live in over 5 years now.

Black Angels at The Earl, November 14, 2010 

The Head & The Heart (6:15-7:15, Shaky Knees)

The Head & The Heart are a Seattle-based group whose music splits the difference between acoustic folk, Americana, and pop. After the pretentiousness of their show at The Buckhead Theater, we vowed we had gone to our last THATH show, but what else am we going to do at this hour, go watch The Deftones?

The Head & The Heart at Buckhead Theater, November 12, 2013

Explosions In The Sky (7:15-8:30, Shaky Knees)

Explosions In The Sky are a popular Austin-based instrumental post-rock quartet known for moody, cinematic compositions drawing from a number of sonic sources. Those of you without Shaky Knees tickets might still be able to catch EITS at a Shaky Knees Late Night Show at Variety Playhouse on Saturday night, provided you already have tickets to the sold-out show.

Explosions In The Sky at The Tabernacle, September 29, 2011

Florence + The Machine (8:30-10:00, Shaky Knees)

Hailing from South London, Florence Welch writes songs that occupy the same confessional territory as gossip-loving, genre-bending contemporaries like Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Adele, and Lily Allen and the moody, classic art rock of Kate Bush, blending pop, soul, and Baroque arrangements into a sound that has earned the young artist considerable buzz.

Music Is Dead, Part III

After the disappointing lineup announcements for Coachella and Governor's Ball, the announcement came out today for Atlanta's Shaky Knees Festival and . . . it doesn't suck!   Only one of the three headliners is a 90s nostalgia act, and there's nary a hint of hip-hop or EDM.  It's all good, solid indie rock and includes a lot of bands I would go to see and have gone to see on their own.  My faith in the restorative powers of rock 'n' roll is renewed!  Music's not dead after all (it just smells funny).

Sure, we could quibble about Huey Lewis and the News performing their album Sports, but a) it's not a headlining set, and b) it'll be good to know where all the d-bags are.

But on the glass-half-full side, Florence + the Machine!  And My Morning Jacket puts on a great live show, as does JJ Grey and Mofro.  And, oh look, The Decemberists!  And we'll finally get to see Bloc Party (even if they are a decade past their prime).  And Savages and Parquet Courts on the same bill! 

It's like every time I look at the lineup, I see another band I'm excited about:  The Kills and Explosions in the Sky (haven't seen either of them in a while). Phosphorescent. The Black Angels. Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Ought. St Paul and the Broken Bones. Shakey Graves.  Even Eagles of Death Metal to show that the terrorists didn't win! I could go on, but I'm close to reading off the entire lineup.

Meanwhile, with David Bowie passing away yesterday, it makes Thursday night's TT Mahoney's Bowie In Sweats show less campy and all the more relevant.

The Last Bison at Terminal West, Atlanta, August 13, 2013

Okay, remember that day last year when I was in Portland for MFNW and got talked into leaving the festival to go out to someplace called Troutdale, Oregon, to see My Morning Jacket perform at McMenamin's Edgefield? I missed most of the show that I was planning to see that night, which included Kishi Bashi at the Doug Fir Lounge, although I did get back in time to catch Sad Baby Wolf and the headliner, Moonface.  My Morning Jacket were terrific, though, and I don't regret my decision for a moment.

The bill that night at the Doug Fir was actually quite full, and included several other bands in addition to Moonface, Sad Baby Wolf, and Kishi Bashi.  In addition to missing Kishi Bashi, I also missed the opener, a band called The We Shared Milk.  But there was a fifth band on the bill, one I found intriguing (at least by the MFNW write-up), performing in between The We Shared Milk and Kishi Bashi, that I also missed. Last night, I finally got to see that band, The Last Bison, when they played at Terminal West. 

Sean Spencer opened with a solo set of songs on acoustic guitar.  Sean normally plays with a band called Seven Handle Circus, who are scheduled to play Terminal West on September 14.  They'll be playing The Georgia Theater in Athens this Friday.  But even without his band, Sean played a pleasant and compelling set of songs, including a cover of Paul Simon's The Only Living Boy in New York. 

The Last Bison took the stage a little before 10 pm.  They play an interesting amalgam of indie rock, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and chamber music.  The usual comparisons are to Fleet Foxes and Mumford and Sons, although I heard and saw a lot of similarities to The Lumineers, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and Typhoon.  There were so many people on the stage (seven) that it takes two pictures to capture them all.

There's a lot to like here, including the percussion which gives potions of their songs a tribal vibe.  They don't employ a traditional drummer, but several members of the band, including frontman Ben Hardesty, take turns banding on a bass drum or a floor tom.

My only complaint is the outfits.  They dress like historical reenactors from Colonial Williamsburg.  The Lumineers do this too, but its all a part of their otherwise elaborate stage show, but when The Last Bison does it, it feels contrived and derivative.  For some reason, Amos the cello player was the only one who wore modern clothes.

Ben Hardesty has a decent singing voice and writes interesting songs (I assume he's the songwriter), which often build up into mini-epics.  A nice touch was when the string section, Teresa (violin) and Amos (cello), offered a little chamber piece to fill in the time it took Ben to re-string his guitar after a string broke (it happened at least twice).  These passages provided lovely, meditative, little oases of sound during the show.

The set ended with their song Setting Our Tables.  Here's the video:

For the encore, Ben played a few songs accompanied only by his guitar and Amos, the cellist.  Then they called Teresa, their violinist, out to the stage and performed an unamplified song on the floor with the audience gathered around them.

And that was The Last Bison.  More pics are posted over at the Flickr page.  Since that day last September, I've now managed to catch Kishi Bashi and The Last Bison, and only have The We Shared Milk remaining, and they're not currently touring.

Jim James

Jim James, one of the headliners of the upcoming Shaky Knees Festival (VIP tickets have already sold out!) and frontman for My Morning Jacket, appeared on The Jimmy Fallon teevee show the other night with house band The Roots and a few fellow friends.

It was this kind of anything-can-happen attitude that made the My Morning Jacket show in Oregon so memorable.

Shabazz Palaces, The Helio Sequence at Terminal West, Atlanta - Jan. 19, 2013

Last night's performances at Terminal West had a strong yin-yang quality to them: fire and ice, or the sun and the moon.  The meeting of the three disparate bands brought to mind the 13th Hexagram of the I Ching, Thung Zăn, or "Union of Men," with its imagery of the starry but dark heavens above and bright fires or the Sun below.

The opening band, Atlanta's DeadCAT (not to be confused with Seattle's palindromic TacocaT), started things off by balancing the two forces, combining the dark and the bright.  The band features a rock solid rhythm section and vocals with the reverb so heavy that not only were the lyrics undecipherable, so was most of the stage banter.  The result was a strange and distorted (but in a good way) set of garage psych-rock.  The bass and drums moved the feet, the vocals opened the mind.

This was actually my third time seeing the next act, Seattle's Shabazz Palaces, but oddly my first time seeing them at night.  I previously saw them in a daytime performance at Bumbershoot 2011, and then again opening just before sunset for My Morning Jacket at McMenamin's Edgefield in lovely Troutdale, Oregon during MFNW 2012.  I've seen the band's Ishmael Butler perform with Thee Satisfaction at Bumbershoot 2012 (coincidentally on the same day is saw TacocaT), and going way back in the time machine, I saw Butler perform as Butterfly with the Digable Planets at Pittsburgh's Rosebud back around 1993 (sorry, no link to that pre-internet performance). Admittedly  the last two were evening performances, but then again, they weren't Sahabazz Palaces performances either.

Anyhow, last night, Shabazzz Palaces played on a nearly dark stage, with just a couple spotlights roving the perimeter of the stage and the audience, as was fitting for their artistic and avant garde take on hip hop.  A duo, the band transcends the usual hip-hop convention of one MC and one DJ, with both Butler and multi-instrumentalist Tendai 'Baba' Maraire handling vocals, electronics, and percussion, although Butler dominates the vocals and Maraire the percussion.  This is a dark, spooky form of hip hop, perfect for late night listening, the spacey, upper trigram of the Thung Zăn hexagram.

For the record, their nearly 45 minute set was the best that I've heard yet from this innovative band.

The bright, lower part of the hexagram was provided by the indie pop of Shabazz Palaces' Sub Pop label - and tour mates, Portland's The Helio Sequence.

The Helio Sequence are touring for the first time in four years behind their first album, Negotiations, in as long a time.  The band consists solely of guitarist/singer Brandon Summers and drummer Benjamin Weikel, who, it's been noted, may quite possibly be the happiest looking drummer on the face of the planet.  Taking the stage with only two guitars, a drum kit, and Weikel's laptop, it's hard to believe the amount of music they're capable of generating.  I have no quarrel with, and in fact rather enjoy, the Black Keys stripped-down rock using the same instrumentation, but The Helio Sequence produces a spacious wall of sound that someone just listening to a recording might mistake for a much fuller band.  I kept watching to see how the magic was done, but couldn't figure out how Summers got so many simultaneous lines out of his guitar.

As befitting their sunnier sound, the Terminal West stage was more fully illuminated for the Helio Sequence set, which provided a luminous counterpoint to the dark Shabazz Palaces set, the yin to the yang, the lower trigram that completed Thung Zăn.

For their encore, The Helio Sequence provided two folk-pop sounding songs, featuring Summers on harmonica.

  

I couldn't help but notice a large turnover in the audience after Shabazz Palaces' set.  At least three-quarters of the people standing around me for Shabazz Palaces left after their set, and the people surrounding me during The Helio Sequence had either been further back in the audience (I had managed to find a spot in the second row from the stage) or had just arrived.  I don't know if it's the difference between hip hop and rock, between the avant garde and the mainstream, or a racial distinction (this is, after all, still Georgia), but it's  nevertheless unfortunate that there are those who's personal feng shui is still not balanced between the light and the dark.

In his commentary on Thung Zăn ("Union of Men"), Deng Ming-Dao notes that in our present era, we isolate ourselves from one another and allow our society to stratify into different classes.  It is hard to remember that a true community, a true Union of Men, should be as easy as growing plants or sailing down a river.  As easy as enjoying music together.  In fact, a community that is hard to assemble or that must be maintained by coercion is not a true community.