Somewhere between Goner Records, Burger Boogaloo, and a kegger when the parents are out of town is the two day PBR soaked and whiskey fueled Atlanta Mess-Around. With current noise rock juggernaut Pissed Jeans and throwback garage rockers Flamin’ Groovies headlining East Atlanta Village’s 529 and The Earl over the weekend, there’s surely more than a few ears still ringing early this week.
The bill featured all sorts of underappreciated and overamplified rock…blues punk, noise rock, power pop, trash punk…just about any kind of underground rock that has crawled out of the garage in the last 40 years or so.
Day 1 lineup consisted of Pissed Jeans, GG King, OBNOX, WHATEVER BRAINS, GHB, WYMYNS PRYSYN, Hector’s Pets, Paint Fumes, Slugga, and Zoners. Early shows at the compact space of 529, a short break to soak up the alcohol with some food, then night sets at the larger Earl. The sets ripped, lumbered, and tore through the day while somehow staying pretty much on time. An amazing amount of beer was ingested (and thrown) and the air was heavy with smoke of various sorts.
Pissed Jeans put on what may be one the top five sets I’ve witnessed in my life, and Obnox was amazing, but really there wasn’t a sub par set all day. Energy and attitude outweigh technicality in the kind of music we’re dealing with here and there was more than enough of both to go around. Hell yeah.
There’s a bunch more pictures after the jump, and Day 2 coverage coming up.