This Thursday with Liim, zayALLCAPS, Jumplink, & KING at Nightclub 101 in the East Village. Buy tickets here.
It was just past 1 a.m. at the little bar in East Atlanta this past December when I made my decision: it was time to leave. I was initially there to see Pinkest (the greatest band in the world) but heard that they weren’t gonna start until 2 at the earliest. I was under the impression that this whole show would be wrapping up around midnight, giving me plenty of time to head back up to Cobb County and get my eight hours. I could feel my eyes closing by the minute, and pretty soon I knew I’d either have to give the old Irish goodbye and hit the highway or curl up in the corner and use the dirty bar mop as a pillow. Thankfully I was with friends, which delayed any action on my part, as I’ve matured enough now to know it’s impolite to tell people to go fuck themselves and find their own way home. So I twiddled my thumbs until the next artist came on, standing dumbly in that grey area between a plan and its execution.
Thank goodness it was Bickle. I’d heard the name, listened to the music, and read plus maybe edited Srikar’s interview with him, but I hadn’t yet felt it. His set hit me like a shot of adrenaline. It was a Sunday night and there couldn’t have been more than 25 of us in the crowd, but if you told Bickle he wasn’t at the Super Bowl he would’ve called you crazy. Without giving away any spoilers–as I’m sure what I saw in Atlanta was a practice round for what’s to come on Thursday–it was truly a pop star’s performance. The set was incredibly agile, taking us from acoustic ballads to electronic power pop, but, more impressively, he conjured a real electricity in the room. The mood shifted; we were brought back to life. As Bickle was in the middle of the crowd showing off his footwork, I felt like Doug Dimmadome when I turned to Mano and yelled, “HE’S A STAR! HE’S A STAR!”
And that night, in many ways, led us here. Bickle is headlining our show this Thursday off the strength of his newest project, Gut Feeling, which, stated plainly, is an auteur’s take on the throughlines between electronic, indie, acoustic, and Atlanta bass. He may be the only working artist who fits in the middle of that venn diagram.
We’re also stoked to have Liim, zayALLCAPS, Jumplink, and KING on the bill. It’s at Nightclub 101, the best new venue in the East Village. They were kind enough to give us the whole space for the night, so rest your legs as we’ll be going from 9:30pm to 2:30am. The top floor will have sets from Liim, Jumplink, and then Bickle, and at about midnight we’ll all migrate down to their Clockwork Orange milk bar-esque basement for a performance from zayALLCAPS and a DJ set from KING to close. Much dancing, many drinks, and mucho good times to come. Hope to see you there.