Everyone who has lived in Athens for longer than five years will acknowledge that it takes a certain psychological disposition to remain in a town this small, insular, and, dare I say, catty as fuck. However, I occasionally witness an event that reminds me of why I have enjoyed growing up and devloping as a musician, as well as an individual, in this town. Last night local musicians and cogniscenti got together at the Union to raise money to help Gordon E. Johnson, the fabled land lord of the House of Love, cover expenses related to a recent, unfortunate accident. Although attendence was sparce, the very act of organizing the show, thank you Scott Karn, and the participation of musicians, many of which were House of Love Alumni, represented what I love most about Athens.

Chris Biester began the show with a beautiful rendition of Warren Zevon's Carmalita, a song close to my heart if only for the reason that it includes the line "this county won't give me no more methadone, and they cut of your welfare check." I hadn't seen Chris sing in while due to both my aversion to open stages and his untimely departure from Casa. He sounded fucking great. If you like the idea of a highschool audio visual club being hijacked by a cross between the Manson Family and the Upright Citizens Brigade you would have loved the Wellbutrin Commission set last night. With a photo montage of House of Love brick-a-brack, as well as the mysterious "sewer cap" in the basement, Lowell and Tom delivered monologues about, among other things, Mr. Johnson's ability to levitate across town. Schweinhunden lent their speed freak meets pig fucker thrashing to the cause, eliciting much praise from the back of the bar. Jereme's arm appears to have healed nicely and Pencil really is local punk rock in this town. The night ended with an excellent set of Jesus Lizard stanadards performed by current and former House of Love residents Scott Karn and Bill Stamp, as well as the always killer Chris Mckee on drums and John Clift doing his best to do justice to the indomidable voice of David Yow. I missed the first half of the Lizard set because I was too busy downstairs hanging on the every word of someone who I will never know as anything more than just a good friend, and in a million years I couldn't ask for anything better than that.

BA