July 2 — It all began with a cocktail. Just one cocktail. One really enormous
punch bowl of a cocktail. And five straws. “I think of it as the Night
of the Flaming Volcano,” says Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s. She’s
the blond one, with the yearling eyes.
‘There were always eccentrics in Athens, but we took it out onto the
streets.’
— KEITH STRICKLAND
B-52s drummer “We all pitched in for this giant rum drink at a Chinese
restaurant,” says Keith Strickland, the band’s pretty-boy drummer
and guitarist. “It had a Sterno can burning under it.”
“It was all very ceremonial,” says Wilson. “Then we went
and played.”
And played. And played. And played.
And they’re playing still. Wilson, Strickland and three other young arty-party
hangabouts — Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson and the late Ricky Wilson, Cindy’s
brother — left that restaurant for a rum-buzzed jam session at a friend’s
house.
Sometime in the wee hours, a lean surf-guitar vibe began to coalesce around
an irresistible dance groove and an outrageous lava-lamp sense of fun. By morning,
a band had formed that would lay down the funk-pop dance beat of an era. The
B-52’s were born, and a small Southern college town — Athens, Ga.
— soon emerged as the center of the expanding underground universe of
alternative rock.
That was 1976. More than 25 years later, Athens has only grown as a place
that celebrates and creates music of every kind, especially live music. On any
given night, touring and local bands may be playing at an astonishing 40 clubs,
theaters, bars, cafes and other venues in this town of more than 100,000 (including
30,000-plus University of Georgia students). From the capacious Georgia Theatre
to broom-closet-size coffee houses, Athens is the Branson, Mo., of indie rock.
And it shows no sign of slowing. Decades after the debut of local-bands-made-good
like the B-52’s, R.E.M. and Widespread Panic, this year Rolling Stone
magazine anointed Athens the “best college music town in the country.”
(Take that, Austin.)
ATHENS ROCKS
“An incredible array of bands play here,” says Pete McCommons,
publisher of the Flagpole, the weekly chronicle of Athens’s arts and music
scene. “It’s not just alternative music either. There’s a
pretty active jazz scene, there’s country rock, bluegrass. It has given
downtown Athens just an incredible liveliness.”
But it’s not just music and nightlife that make Athens such a beguiling
little burg. America’s hippest music scene happens to thrive in a town
that also boasts a generous stock of Old South architecture, beautiful and walk-able
campus quads, and all the art and cultural goodies spawned by a major university.
You can find an excellent used-book store, first-rate fried chicken (and fancier
food, too) and a vast selection of Birkenstocks. It’s a town of old trees,
long views and verbena airs.
“I just love the feel of it here,” says Wilson. “It’s
built on hills and it gets the best light, the most beautiful sunsets.”
On a recent spring morning, she and Strickland — the only two Athens-born
members of the band — are rocking at the Foundry Park Inn, an upscale
hotel and restaurant complex. Not rocking, but rocking, as in chairs, on the
front porch of the hotel, looking out into a soft Georgia rain and talking about
their home town.
“It isn’t like other southern towns; it isn’t now and it wasn’t
then,” says Strickland, handsome in a white cotton shirt and jeans. He
cuts a much different figure than the partying townie he was in the late ’70s,
roaming the streets in wild thrift-shop getups. “The university draws
people here, and it’s full of outrageous characters and all this creative
energy. There were always eccentrics in Athens, but we took it out onto the
streets.”
Now, Strickland lives mainly in Woodstock, N.Y., and Key West, Fla., but he
keeps an apartment here for trips home to visit his mother. Wilson lives in
Atlanta but plays in Athens occasionally with her new group, the Cindy Wilson
Band. (They still tour steadily with the B-52’s, who are playing Thursday
at Washington’s 9:30 club and at Baltimore’s Pier Six on July 5)
“There are so many great places,” says Wilson. “I like to
go to Tasty World [a nightclub] and, of course, the 40 Watt Club [one of the
oldest and most famous of Athens’s venues].” Without her signature
beehive, she looks almost preppy in blond bangs and a ponytail, a green sweater
over a floral print dress.
TOURING THE TOWN
It’s not just family that visits the grave of Ricky Wilson, who died
of complications due to AIDS in 1985. It’s something of a rite for Athens’s
many music pilgrims.
Braving the drizzle, the two of them — still hooting and finishing each
other’s memories — climb into Wilson’s black Saab for a tour
of the old places. A few blocks away, they point out Morton Theater, site of
the band’s first rehearsal space and of the Kress (long since out of business),
where Wilson once worked as a waitress. “I had to get a job because it
was my job to buy a microphone,” she says.
This is the edge of downtown, the two-dozen square blocks at the northern edge
of campus that has become the city’s French Quarter. During the day, students
and shoppers mix on sidewalks lined with boutiques and cafes. In the evening,
the outdoor tables get crowded and the bar hoppers come out. It’s more
bohemian on the west side, Strickland says (at such bars as the 40 Watt and
the Manhattan), more fraternity to the east (Flannigan’s, the Firehouse)
and laid-back conversational in between (the Globe, the Georgia Bar). But the
quarter really comes alive around 11 p.m., when the bands crank up. The zip-light
marquee of the Georgia Theatre casts a bright neon shadow across Clayton Street,
and muffled indoor bass lines rock the district until 2 a.m.
Driving on, they pass the main entrance to the university, a black iron arch
leading into the shady grove of giant magnolias and grand columned buildings
known as Old Campus.
“I love Old Campus,” says Strickland. “I sat and took mushrooms
once and got so overwhelmed by those trees I ended up going into the library
to read about trees.” He and Wilson erupt in laughter. “Psychedelics
definitely had a lot to do with the B-52’s.”
Just down the street is the old site of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church,
the practice space where Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Pete Buck and Mike Mills
got their chops together as R.E.M. Then, winding around campus, Wilson pulls
down a small lane across from the football stadium. This is Oconee Hills Cemetery,
a handsome tree-filled graveyard near the Oconee River. “Let’s go
see Ricky,” she says.
It’s not just family that visits the grave of Ricky Wilson, who died
of complications due to AIDS in 1985. It’s something of a rite for Athens’s
many music pilgrims. “People leave little things,” says his sister
in a soft voice, looking at the small drawings, pennies and various trinkets
of tribute surrounding the simple knee-high pyramid gravestone.
On the way to lunch, Wilson drives out of the way to pass a disheveled two-story
green house on Milledge Avenue, a street otherwise lined with big southern mansions
and a few sorority houses. “That’s where we played our first party,”
Wilson says. “It was Valentine’s Day. People were dancing so hard
the floor was like a trampoline.”
Lunch is at the Grit, a venerable vegetarian hangout with heavy home-cookin’
influences (the turnips and corn pudding are both exceptional). The 1800s storefront
owned by Stipe (one of several buildings the R.E.M. boys have bought and restored)
is famous as a musicians’ and filmmakers’ hangout. “Good cornbread,”
Wilson says with respect. She’s known in the band as a fine southern cook
herself.
Athens has always been a good vittles town (including a truly sublime meat-and-three
called Down Home Cooking and Weaver D’s, a southern diner made famous
when R.E.M. adopted the house catchphrase, “Automatic for the People,”
as an album title). But lately its reputation for more upscale restaurants is
growing, too. The versatile and wine-rich Five & Ten, for example, is credited
with singlehandedly stopping the weekend flight of foodies to Atlanta.
And of course there’s Allen’s, the timeless burger dive in the
Normaltown neighborhood made famous by the B-52’s song “Deadbeat
Club.” It is without irony or pretense that Wilson, after finishing her
sweet tea, looks up and says brightly, “Let’s go to Allen’s
for a beer!”
Ten minutes later they are sitting around a sticky table on split vinyl seats,
under walls crowded with Georgia Bulldog posters. There’s a Braves game
on TV. The two band mates — whose “Love Shack” and “Rock
Lobster” have been jumpstarting wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs for
decades now — toast each other with bottles of Miller Lite. There’s
no 25-cent beer special anymore, but everything else is basically how they left
it.
“That’s one thing I like about Athens,” says Wilson. “It’s
always amazing how much it stays the same.”
Details: Athens, Ga.
GETTING THERE: Athens is in northern Georgia, about 70 miles
east of Atlanta. US Airways flies to Athens, usually via Charlotte, with fares
from $275 round trip. Fares to Atlanta, about a 90-minute drive (I-85 to Route
316, to Epps Bridge Parkway to Route 78 or 10), are about $235 round trip on
Delta, AirTran and United.
WHERE TO STAY : The Foundry Park Inn and Spa (295 E. Dougherty
St., 866-928-4367, www.foundryparkinn.com) is a pleasing combination of motor
court motel, brewpub and upscale inn within strolling (or staggering) distance
from downtown. Rooms start at $94. For other options, contact the Athens tourism
office (see below).
WHAT TO DO: To get a handle on the nearly endless live entertainment
ops, pick up a copy of the Flagpole, the free weekly newspaper widely available
around town, and online at www.flagpole.com. It also publishes an annual guide
to all things Athens and collaborated with the visitors bureau to produce a
28-point walking tour of the town’s musical history. Pick up the free
brochure at the welcome center (280 E. Dougherty St., 706-353-1820).
For the musically inclined or not, downtown Athens is the place to be. The
shops along Clayton and surrounding streets range from boutique leather goods
to vintage clothing. Nearby is the University of Georgia’s main campus.
There are some hidden garden paths behind the English building, as well as the
excellent Georgia Museum of Art (706-542-4662, www.uga.edu/gamuseum; suggested
donation $2), housed in its new digs at 90 Carleton St.
WHERE TO EAT: The Grit (199 Prince Ave.) is a classic college-town
vegetarian cafe with a Southern accent. For genuine Southern comfort food, the
modest Down Home Cooking (840 N. Broad St.) is the real thing, as is the famous
Weaver D’s Fine Food (1016 E. Broad St.). Higher on the cuisine chain
is Five & Ten (1653 S. Lumpkin St.), which has made a splash with a nationally
ranked chef; most entrees in the teens.
Cindy Wilson’s favorite spot is the Last Resort (184 W. Clayton St.),
a former music club serving upscale American cuisine in the low-teens range.
Après-clubbing, there’s no beating the retro-diner excellence of
the Grill (171 College Ave.), open 24 hours.
INFO: Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau, 800-653-0603,
www.visitathensga.com.
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© 2003 The Washington Post Company
