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12/27/2004
EAR PLUGS
A new subscriber/contributor put this swell review together from the xmas show
at the Star Bar:
http://www.pbase.com/southcresent/yule_log
In other news, I’ve gotten some email from a few folks asking me to list their
shows at Underground Atlanta. Though there are bands I’d recommend seeing that
are performing their New Year’s Eve and beyond, and it sounds like some of the
clubs could be worth a visit, I will never list or recommend any event at
Underground. Why?
Well, for starters there’s the fact that it’s Underground – a glorified shopping
mall, sterile and filled with chain stores and fast food.
There’s the fact that you gotta pay for parking, or MARTA (which doesn’t run
late enough), or pay for a cab.
There’s the crowd – tourists, mall-walkers, urban youth who won’t find the clubs
to their liking, basically a lot of folks I try to avoid.
But most of all you can blame/thank the Atlanta City Council. Underground, owned
by the city, has a special exemption from the council’s law regarding last call,
cut back to 2:30 AM at the beginning of 2004. Nowhere else in the city is
allowed this exemption, but Underground gets to serve and keep it’s doors open
until something like 4 AM. As far as I’m concerned, whether it was
conspiratorial or not, it’s goddamn blackmail and graft. “Sure, you can party
‘til 4 AM in Atlanta – as long as the city is making an extra buck!”
(As if the licensing and taxes surrounding the bar biz weren’t generating enough
income…)
The funny thing is one of the justifications around the change in closing hours
for the rest of the city was the lack of funds for adequate police, but you can
damn well bet Underground won’t suffer from a shortage of Atlanta’s finest.
The sad/ironic thing is the number of clubs that were shut down by the new
closing times that have relocated or opened a new venue in Underground.
So until the city council lifts the curfew that is slowly killing the night life
in this town, I won’t set foot in Underground and I encourage the rest of you to
vote – with your wallets.
Or, to quote Jim Stacy from this week’s Loafing, “Fuck Underground.”
Speaking of the death of Atlanta’s nightlife, we got this from degenerate SG:
“There may be something to that Echo rumor... heard anything?
The schedule is looking pretty sparse. “
Now that you mention it, their online calendar only has New Years and the
Kingsized show on January 8th:
http://www.echolounge.musictoday.com/EchoLounge/calendar.aspx
Add to that the lack of alcohol (or license to serve it) the last several times
we’ve visited and I, too, begin to wonder…
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