Customer Appreciation Night at Safehouse Coffee/The Storm Cellar

I think that we have the best customers in town and we want to show you just how much we love you...

With a KILLER FREE SHOW tonight!!

Our friends, Death on Two Wheels, are on their SXSW Tour right now and are pulling through town for one day, so they called last night and asked if we would do a show with them, Hymns, Ben Ratliff, and just maybe, The Bridges tonight!! Of course, we said no doubt, so tonight at no cost to you, we present them in their full rock glory!

We have a lot of shows here at the Storm Cellar, but doesn't mean that our goal is quantity. No, in fact, what we feel is the best course of action is to focus on the quality of the shows we put on. We really do appreciate all of you who come out, and this is the best way we could think of to show our deep thanks to you, so come out and enjoy a show that will soon be setting the stage of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on fire!!

      With Sincere Gratitude,

                             Hunt, Jacob, and the whole Safehouse/Storm Cellar Staff

The Music Scene is Larger Than You Know

In writing this, I will exert myself to keep from becoming the bear that some of you have seen from time to time. That being said, I welcome all canings, flamings, and comments of all kinds.

Here at Safehouse and The Storm Cellar, we have become aware of the reality that a large portion of our local music show-goers have a substantial flaw: many of you are closed to new music. At the risk of offending and running off some people, I will go on to say that the dozen or so bands that you go see regularly (and heard, mostly, the same set each time), are, in fact, NOT the beginning and end of quality music in this area. Are they musically talented? For the most part, yes. Are they genuinely passionate about their music? Again, for the most part, yes. I am not impugning the quality of their work or the validity of their fans' affections. What I impugn is the narrow scope of what is deemed "show-worthy" around here. Not convinced? Okay, case in point:

Within the last month, The Storm Cellar has had shows from the following:

* Atlanta phenom and premiere female artist, Heather Luttrel with her family band. Amazing country/rock  show filled with bluegrass undertones fueled by her father and his slide flat top. They pack out venues in Atlanta constantly - we had about 40 people.

* Atlanta powerhouse, The N.E.C. - psychrock pumped out by the best conflagration of vintage equipment we've seen here - so good Jacob didn't even tell them to turn the amps down! Members of a band of past Atlanta fame, Sovus Radio, reformed with top-level musicians to make The N.E.C. It would be a hard show to even get into in Atlanta, but we had about 75 people.

And finally, last night's show - 

* Enigma Machine. Simply jaw-dropping. Guitar rock-god, Lamont Sudduth, heads up this totally unrehearsed jazz/psychrock improv group. Griffin's own Bo Morgan, with a history of death metal, on very tasteful drums, and Jonathan Drawdy on deadhead bass with Atlanta's consummately sought after jazz saxist, Ollie Patterson filling out the group. Their sets are simultaneously mind-blowing and face-melting. Then, as if that weren't enough already, after EM's first set, something nigh mystical happened. Dr. Dixon, yes, The Blues Physician, walks into our shop and says, "I heard there was music going on here tonight." Heart racing, I ushered him downstairs and introduced him to Lamont. They knew each other by reputation and Lamont invited him to sit in on the next set. Don't bother googling Dr. Dixon unless you have mad google skills because history may hold our country's true bluesmen as national treasures, but this pop-driven music industry doesn't. Dr. Dixon has played blues harp (harmonica) with the likes of Muddy Waters and a whole pantheon of vintage bluesmen that you might know if you listened to your grandparents' records.

Now, I have been in the presence of musical genius more than a few times in my life, but what unfolded over the next half-hour left my giggling like a little boy, and I'm not ashamed to say it. They launched into the most impassioned and skillful blues I have ever stood witness to in my lifetime thus far. Dr. Dixon's harp had conversations with Lamont's guitar and Ollie's saxophone that we will be decoding for years to come. It was nothing short of euphoric, and how many people were here? About fifty. By the way, where were you? What was so stimulating that you missed what will be talked about around here from now on? We had a seat for you and we will next time, too, because Dr. Dixon dug our scene so much, he wants to come back and do a full show.

I am pleased to tell you that we got last night's show recorded in fine CD quality thanks to Shane Killingsworth who gets most of our shows here, even though he just got off of a 70 hour work week. The musicians also gave us permission to put cuts from the shows on our upcoming first release on Safehouse Records, A Safehouse Collective, Volume I.

So that's my piece and take it how you want. In the meantime, you know where we are and we will keep providing you with the finest in local and metro music. Flame on.

Hunt Slade for Safehouse Coffee and Tea & The Storm Cellar

What is this entity in America's youth called "Hardcore"

What is this new hardcore scene, and why is it so prevalent in Griffin? When I was a teenager, we used to go down to Barnesville to The Depot and watch bands like Blue Druids - even then hardcore held the majority position, musically, around here. Back then, we would get in there and let the music pump us up until we were all good and worked up - the air heavy with perspiration and pheromones. The conflagration of bodies in front of the stage would start to churn and slowly come into a common consciousness that began to rotate (usually counterclockwise, for some reason). Gaining both speed and intensity, it became a vortex not dissimilar from the process of properly texturing latte milk. There was an understood respect for one another in the pit - depending on the band, you might've found yourself like a kid suddenly thrown into the deep end of the pool without your water wings - watch out for the younger kids and don't mow down the girls. Then there were the peripherals - the guys that would stand in the corners of the room, face upturned, arms out, palms up, in some kind of grotesque effigy, soaking up the energy that splashed out of the vortex - then, without warning, the peripheral would break loose in that high-kneed run right through the middle of the pit, a maelstrom of elbows and fists. Those in the know would be on the look-out for these types that were especially nasty and would apply a good stiff arm to them as they tried to come by, effectively ending the transitory tirade.

I'm going downstairs to see what the vibe is - be right back.

Okay, that was not what I expected. There was some type of action at the front, but not much. Maybe it's just being in a new, unfamiliar venue, but there was not the vigor that I had hoped down there. I remember going to my very first hardcore show, aged fifteen, and the music and the kinetics pulled me into the maw of unbridled teen expression as if against my will. I was a classic rock kid - I didn't even know it was a hardcore show that night. Nevertheless, I found myself drawn into the vortex even though it wasn't "my kind of music". We all shuffled and milled around to the unnaturally quick beat like the infected of some viral pandemic movie and at the end of the night, we all left as friends and felt, somehow cleansed through our physical exertion and emotionally vulnerability.

This crowd has not these things, from my vantage point. Anger aplenty, but the soul-wrenching vulnerability of honest teenage angst seems to be vacuously absent. I'm not putting these kids down, I just sense a lack of genuine commitment to what's happening down there. Maybe I'm caught in the, "we did it better in my day" fantasy. Maybe I'm not. Maybe the scene isn't delivering what it used to and maybe that disconnect deprives the kids of the release they are here looking for at seven dollars a pop. Maybe they just need a heavy dose of Blue Druids and Hot Water Music. Maybe it's something else altogether.