ATL Concert Roundup — September 6-11

Earth

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET:

Earth
w/ Mt. Eerie, Flap
Sunday, September 11
The Earl – 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $12 ADV / $15 DOS / Purchase Tickets

Even at the peak of their heaviest drone metal doom, Earth was about conjuring mood and atmosphere. Buried beneath all the crushing noise and the layers of fuzz and feedback, there were riffs — painstakingly slow, deliberate, monolithic — and a semblance of structure, but the music thrived on luring you in and holding you in a meditative trance. For music so glacially-paced and bleak, this was revelatory; how could two people manage to create something so captivating using only a couple down-tuned guitars and bucketloads of reverbed-out distortion? Over time the group would move away from the stark but beautiful simplicity of their drone metal assault and inject their songs with elements borrowed from jazz, country, spaghetti Western sountracks and post-rock. But still the music remained spacious and elegant, somehow both epic and minimalist at the same time. The band’s latest album, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light: I, is a sprawling, somber work that leans more heavily on folk influences than anything the band has done in the past. The addition of cellist Lori Goldston marks yet another musical coup for Earth; her playing adds a unique texture to the music and fills it with a sense of dark foreboding that provides a strong compliment to Dylan Carlson’s patient guitar sculpting. Of all the iterations this band had brought forth, for me, this one holds the most promise in a live setting.

THE BEST OF THE REST:

John Vanderslice
w/ Richard Parsons
Tuesday, September 6
Eddie’s Attic – 515 N. McDonough Street in Decatur 30030
Admission $15-75 / Purchase Tickets

Ruby Velle Trio
w/ Hill Roberts & Naked Monkey
Wednesday, September 7
Eddie’s Attic – 515 N. McDonough Street in Decatur 30030
Admission $7-35 / Purchase Tickets

Ninja Gun
w/ Tornado Town, Ben Trickey
Wednesday, September 7
The Earl – 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $7 / Purchase Tickets

The Old Fourth (Album Release Show)
w/ Eller, Ricer
Wednesday, September 7
529 – 529 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $7

Superchunk
w/ The Dodos, Times New Viking
Thursday, September 8
Buckhead Theatre – 3110 Roswell Road NE in Atlanta 30305
Admission $20 / Purchase Tickets

Santah Santah
w/ Ocean is Theory, This Piano Plays Itself, Slowriter
Thursday, September 8
Drunken Unicorn – 736 Ponce de Leon Place in Atlanta 30306
Admission $6 ADV / $8 DOS / Purchase Tickets

Royal Baths
w/ Grave Babies, Cassandras, Shepherds
Thursday, September 8
The Earl – 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $7 / Purchase Tickets

Carnivores
w/ The Clap, Mood Rings, Red Sea
Thursday, September 8
Star Bar – 437 Moreland Avenue in Atlanta 30307
Admission is FREE

J. Roddy Walston and the Business
w/ StoneRider, Dead Rabbits
Friday, September 9
The Earl – 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $7 / Purchase Tickets

Cloudeater (Album Release Show)
w/ Diverse, Dark Room, heRobust
Friday, September 9
529 – 529 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $8

Sealions
w/ Machines Are People Too, W.I.C., Il Abanico
Friday, September 9
Star Bar – 437 Moreland Avenue in Atlanta 30307
Admission $7

The Beach Boys
w/ TBA
Friday, September 9
Cobb Energy Centre – 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway in Atlanta 30339
Admission $40-100 / Purchase Tickets

Twin Shadow
w/ Diamond Rings
Saturday, September 10
The Earl – 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $12 / Purchase Tickets

Death of Kings
w/ Demonaut, Lazer/Wulf
Saturday, September 10
529 – 529 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316
Admission $5

Braids Braids
w/ Pepper Rabbit, Painted Palms
Saturday, September 10
Drunken Unicorn – 736 Ponce de Leon Place in Atlanta 30306
Admission $10 / Purchase Tickets