Friday-Day 2

I last saw The Make-Up at what amounted to a house party my friends put on in Nashville "back in the day". Ex-Nation of Ullysses frontman Ian Svenonius on vocals took a sip off from a soda, and proceeded to go absolutely berserk on early onlookers that were in no way prepared when he jumped into the crowd and danced along the front barricade like a tightrope. Great to see this band active again.

Atlanta's Run The Jewels are huge. They don't need me to sing their praises. If you are still out of the loop on these guys, check out Run The Jewels 3 and work your way back to their accidental beginnings when Atlanta hip-hop artist Killer Mike and producer EL-P decided to make their obvious chemistry a permanent thing. They were the only act to lure me over to the festival's largest venue, Red Hat Amphitheater. I would have definitely have been there for Big Boi, Solange and Angel Olsen were I able to stay longer.

I'd only heard rumours about what would happen next with Har Mar Superstar. My decision to stick around after the other photographers left paid off. Sean Matthew Tillmann aka Har Mar Superstar pouted and preened his soulful offerings to an adoring crowd. I get the feeling though, some of ladies in the front row were just there for the beefcake. Superstar did not disappoint. Check out the pictures.

North Carolina's own Lee Fields, along with his Impressions turned out some Stax/Motown sounds that made me forget what decade it was. Fields has an incredible voice and is a master performer. Its so easy to fall into the trap of James Brown comparisons that get tossed his way, but you can't help but notice his nickname "Little JB" is well earned and well deserved. Over 40 years of soul personified.

Running a few streets over, I caught the tail end of Preoccupations, the Canadian band that began life as Viet-Cong before changing their name in 2015. Killer post-punk noise. Drummer Mike Wallace was particularly exciting to watch.

I'm pretty sure you had to be a pudgy middle aged white guy in a black t-shirt and cut-off camos to get in to see The Afghan Whigs at the Lincoln Theater. So I fit right in. My clone army knew all the words and devoured the palpable electricity from our long departed heroes as if our raggedy Converse All-Stars were brand new. And although they never had any real "hits", the Whigs didn't play anything close to what might be considered one. Because that's the way they raised us. Hell yeah.

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