Saturday, I attended the East Atlanta Strut* in, obviously, East Atlanta. For Propeller Skies readers not familiar with Atlanta, the East Atlanta Strut is basically a standard neighborhood festival complete with artists selling their wares in tents and several bands that play throughout the day. As the festival is in East Atlanta, it attracts an unusually large number of indie rockers, hipsters, and people with a higher than average number of tattoos and piercings.

Between shows I ran into my friend and former colleague Joie, who I have not seen in quite some time. We chatted for a bit and she clued me in that The Sudden Rays would be playing later at the Star Bar.

spy rocks the festival

The reason I went to the East Atlanta Strut, besides to get drunk, was to catch a Spy show. After suffering through the obligatory opening band that sucks, I was thrilled when Spy opened their set with a bitchin’ Sonic Youth cover. They also played my all time favorite Spy song, Break My Mind. Like the last Spy show I went to, I will not be writing a full review of this one, because Andy from Creative Loafing was there. However, I will take a minute to criticize the sound quality. Mark Skinner’s guitar was far too bright and more bass in the mix would have been appreciated.

By the way, all five Propeller Skies readers can hear the awesomeness that is Spy for themselves by following the previous link. I highly recommend catching a Spy show.

uva isn’t exactly charm school

I arrived at the East Atlanta Strut early to catch Charm School, who I had previously heard on the always excellent Album 88 several months ago. After missing several of their shows, I was elated to finally get a chance to see them play.

Charm School consists of four members, two vocalists and guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer. The band plays somewhat sunny pop, which I am not overly fond of. However, Charm school does it well and I enjoyed their show.

They played an all right show, but did not really fire on all cylinders until the last three songs. Additionally, the sound man was not their friend.

I recommend catching a Charm School show. They are worth making a trip to see, and absolutely worth arriving early to catch as an opening act.

notes:

* WARNING: The circa 1996 design of this site may cause seizures. Do not view if you suffer from: epilepsy, migraines, or explosive diarrhea.