Remember forgetters

By Summer Stanley.

Kudos to Author’s Apology, truly a band of bleeding hearts, for displaying good form and sweeping their opening act last Tuesday.  Aside from the emo blend and sappy sound, the songs resemble more a prayer booth confession than an apology. Nevertheless, the boys deserve praise for their enthusiastic performance and their oft-expressed gratitude for sharing the stage with such esteemed acts as forgetters and Gentlemen Jesse and His Men.

Luciano Giarrano especially maintains the spotlight when Author’s Apology frontman’s pesky guitar string busted after the first song.  Giarrano banters for the crowd while technical errors are rectified.  With his guitar, keyboard, and tambourine skills, as well as his penchant for letting out an occasional yawp, Giarrano epitomizes the uniqueness and range of a star on the rise.

Gentleman Jesse and His Men, a headliner in their own right, are reminiscent of an edgier, unapologetic Beach Boys.  Blending punk lyrics and rock ’n’ roll doo-wop, these guys have a good-time singing about having a good time.  Atlantans don’t just love Gentleman Jesse’s stuff because of local pride but also because of the band’s relating to the young party set through carefree lyrics such as “All I need tonight is you.”

From their tatted-up bassist onstage, bumming a cigarette off his girlfriend, to their drummer’s inexplicable black eye, this band is the face of Atlanta’s new local hip boy.  Gentleman Jesse is a fresh return to happiness in indie rock, memorializing the good times just as they are in “Xmas Song”: “I’ll be getting over my hangover/on Christmas morn’/ and that’s the way I’ll celebrate the day Jesus was born.”

Before Gentleman Jesse’s star track has risen completely out of your humble native reach, this is definitely a band to get behind—or at least get a date with—if you’re feeling lucky.

The Drunken Unicorn reaches full capacity for forgetters.  The legendary Blake Shwarzenbach, formerly of the so-raw Jawbreaker, and Kevin, Against Me!’s first drummer, teamed up with bassist Caroline Paquita for a powerful new trio.  Gone are the days of Jawbreaker. Gone are the (good) days of Against Me! forgetters, true to their name, leaves little room for nostalgia.

In fact it is greatly due to their diminutiveness in number and in name (the “f” is purposefully lower-cased) that this band oozes understated swagger.  Mahon’s gangster trills and punctuated beats are the punch behind Shwarzenbach’s gravelly declarations.  When united with Paquita, who more than holds her own on the bass alongside two of modern music’s greats, forgetters pumps out one finely crafted punk anthem after another.

forgetters plays a respectably lengthy set, but the crowd still craves more.  Shouts of “When’s the album coming out?!” are finally met with a hesitant answer of February. Until then, this was not a show one could easily forget.

Tags: Against Me!, Atlanta, Atlanta bands, Atlanta clubs, Atlanta concerts, atlanta georgia, Atlanta indie, Atlanta indie music, Atlanta live music, Atlanta rock band, Atlanta rock music, Atlantans, Author s Apology, Authors Apology, Author’s Apology, Beach Boys, Blake Shwarzenbach, bleeding hearts, Caroline Paquita, emo, forgetters, Gentlemen Jesse, His Men, Jawbreaker, Kevin, Luciano Giarrano, Mahon, Summer Stanley, The Drunken Unicorn

More articles by Summer Stanley

This article was published on Friday, January 1st, 2010 and is filed under Atlanta Character, Bands, Music, Pubs, Clubs, Bars, Restaurants, Reviews. You can follow any comments to this article through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.