georgie james @ the earl

[atlanta music]

posted by catherine / July 13, 2006 /

first off, the venue: the earl is adorable and, luckily, a quick drive from where i live. it reminds me of a black cat without the main stage upstairs. the front is a spacious bar and restaurant that's supercute with good music (i didn't have time to check out if it was a jukebox or merely a bartender's playlist); the back is the concert area, which is probably about three or four times bigger than the backstage at the black cat. it is also HOTTER THAN BEEJEEBUS. jeanie was kind enough to take some pics of the outside of the earl, which are here.

second off, georgie james: i missed the early part of georgie james' set due to the very important act of Sitting In The Sun In The Backyard, but when i showed up there was already a pretty good crowd checking them out. my impression: they're okay live. they weren't rocking my socks off or anything. i guess since i came in the middle of the set they were playing their more boring songs, but things definitely picked up the last five songs or so when they played all the good songs off of myspace that i knew. laura burhenn sounded pretty good, i thought, or maybe i just enjoy the songs she sings solo more.

third off, atlanta hipsters: cute! friendly! no shoving. of course, we were at the twee-est fucking show ever, so i wasn't expecting rude, angry jackasses. also, absolutely everyone drinks PBR tall cans.

i watched about 25 minutes of camera obscura's set then went out front to mooch off of jeanie's fries and burgers. i've never really gotten into camera obscura. please correct me if i am wrong, but i have always though of them as a more boring belle & sebastian. sorry.

AND as a totally unrelated aside, my coworker m. who was at the show has a record label on the side which is home to a few d.c. bands, including the positions, who natalya just recommended. also pagoda, who were featured not too long ago on dcist. so check 'em out!

after the show, i joined jeanie at the east side lounge across the street for wednesday poker night. to watch. and drink. because i don't for the life of me know how to play poker, though it is a fond dream of mine, and i hope it will become reality this summer, because jeanie is apparently an effing poker ringer and wins thousands of dollars all the time in vegas and will become my poker mentor. it was fun to watch for a while - there were certainly a few interesting characters there. very salt of the earth. or something. what does that mean? i don't know. but it was wednesday night, and a lot of the guys were doing quite a few shots. awesome.