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Sleepy Horses, Popfest 2006, Little Kings, 8/8/06
by Waites Laseter  photo by Waites Laseter As of this moment, Sleepy Horses is possibly my favorite local band. I first saw them back in the fall of last year, when they opened for Harry and the Potters. I went to people watch and see what all the fuss was about (OK, that was a lie, I'm a total Potter-head), and was absolutely blown away. Since then, I've made it to far too few of their shows, so when I saw they were playing Popfest, I was a happy little boy. If the bastard love child of U2 and the Ravonettes went for a drive through the Texan badlands in Raoul Duke's red convertible from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, that would be Sleepy Horses. The sound smacks you hard in the face, like you just tripped over a cactus and got a mouth full of sand, but in a good way. It is simultaneously noisy and melodic. You can sit back and enjoy the wall of sound or focus really hard on the minute melodies woven in thanks to the steel guitar, dueling six-string guitars and the assorted effects pedals. As with most things in Athens, Popfest was running late. Approximately an hour late, which, considering the number of bands performing, isn't too bad. Hell, Woodstock ran late, and if it's good enough for Woodstock it's good enough for me. Sleepy Horses kicked off at right around midnight. Maybe "kicked off" isn't the best word for this band. They didn't "kick off" the way MC5 means in "Kick Out the Jams," but more in the way Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would while doing a Johnny Cash cover. Regardless, Sleepy Horses played flawlessly, at least as far as my ears could tell. The general vibe of the crowd gave me the impression that Sleepy Horses were no strangers, that the average patron of this show had seen the band before. This gave the room a very comfortable vibe; no one was shocked or confused by the rampant use of feedback as instrumentation or the sheer power of the music. It was Sleepy Horses in their element; small venue, almost packed crowd, volume levels cranked up all the way past ten to 12. Just another night in the back of the convertible. Comments [post a comment]Comments are closed |
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Tuesday, September 07, 2010
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