The last night of Athens Popfest was my favorite–I only saw three acts, but they were all phenomenal.
First up was Athens rapper Lingua Franca. I had seen her before, but she was really on her game at Popfest. Her fast paced lyrics were delivered with energy and emotion. She performed a set that was full of anger, with references to politics, feminism, and race relations–all timely subjects that provoked a big reaction from the crowd.
The second act I saw was noon:30, a truly spell binding trio. They opened with a gorgeous a cappella rendition of “A Change Is Going To Come” in honor of the events that occurred at Charlottesville earlier in the afternoon, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect after that. Their next few songs were a little poppier, but it was their final song that really brought the house down. The singer leapt into the crowd and let loose with anger and vigor and pure noise, it was really something to witness. I didn’t know anything about them previously but will for sure be looking into them now.
My night ended with Pylon Reenactment Society–my first time seeing them. They’re an interesting group, made up of members of several popular Athens bands and fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay, the lead singer of legendary Athens rock group Pylon. The group plays Pylon songs and performs with Pylon’s signature traffic cone on stage, but you can’t really call them a cover band when they have the same lead singer. A lot of people were attending the festival solely to see PRS–the band is very popular in Athens and doesn’t play very often. I’m not going to lie, I was completely underwhelmed when they first came on stage, but by the time their set ended, I was having a blast (along with everyone else in the audience). They’re a really fun group that doesn’t take themselves too seriously and it was obvious they loved what they were doing and had a real respect for the source material.
More pictures after the jump.
