Metro Spirit - 09.28.17

V28|NO39
Athens comes to Augusta
Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre will host the 30th anniversary screening of
“Athens, GA: Inside/Out” with special guest Pylon Reenactment Society
LOYAL FANS of the music coming out of Athens, Ga.,
more than three decades ago won’t soon forget when
Rolling Stones declared R.E.M. as “America’s Best Band”
in 1987. But drummer Bill Berry insisted another Athensbased
band deserved the title: Pylon.
Back then, Athens was full of new rock bands, from the
B-52’s to the Method Actors, and a documentary called,
“Athens, GA: Inside/Out” in 1987 tried to capture the heart
of the college town’s music scene.
The film, which features concert footage and interviews
with several Athens bands such as Kilkenny Cats, Flat
Duo Jets, Love Tractor, The B-52’s, Pylon and, of course,
R.E.M., will be a part of Westobou this year.
Augusta University’s Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre
will host the 30th Anniversary screening of “Athens, GA:
Inside/Out” on Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. with a special guest
performance by Pylon Reenactment Society.
While Pylon — a fiercely independent, post-punk band
in Athens — had actually already broken up by the time
the documentary was released in 1987, the group was
prominently featured in the film because it was one of a
handful of bands that put Athens on the map.
Formed in 1978, Pylon released such unforgettable
albums as Gyrate in 1980 and Chomp, in 1983, but
eventually broke up in late 1983.
The group played a “final show” at Athens’ Mad Hatter
in December of 1983 before disbanding for what would be
the first of three times.
“What was the genesis of all of that was when we
opened for U2 (in 1983),” Pylon’s singer Vanessa Briscoe
Hay recently told the New York Observer. “It was a painful
experience in some ways being the opening band. They
weren’t quite the monster they are now, but they were
pretty big and their audience didn’t like Pylon at all.”
“Most of the experience was the audience yelling ‘Get
off the stage!’ and things like that,” she added. “It wasn’t a
lot of fun, but (U2) asked us to open the rest of the whole
tour with them and we turned them down.”
The band’s agent was shocked, but the members of
Pylon had made a personal decision, she said.
“We were like, ‘Let’s just quit while we’re having fun,’”
Hay reportedly said. “That was kind of the idea in the first
place. We were just going to perform as long as it was
fun. So we broke up, and it was a decision we all made
together.”
Uncontrollable fame and the band’s music simply just
didn’t go hand in hand, explained Pylon’s bassist Michael
Lachowski.
“We didn’t necessarily want to do what a lot of people
suggested we had to do,” Lachowski told the Observer.
“Everybody had these notions of a prescribed pathway
for us and we were like, ‘O.K., we’ll just show you guys that
By Stacey Eidson
we were serious about doing it on our terms.” So we quit.”
The band had a brief reunion in the 1990s and then
again in 2004; however, when guitarist and founder,
Randy Bewley tragically died of a heart attack in 2009 at
only 53, Pylon permanently disbanded.
“Pylon died when Randy died,” Hay told The Observer.
But, while Pylon will always be Curtis Crowe, Hay,
Lachowski and Bewley, members of Athens bands Casper
& the Cookies, The Glands and pianist Damon Denton
joined with Hay in 2014 to form a Pylon tribute band (of
sorts) called Pylon Reenactment Society.
Basically, Athens’ musician Jason NeSmith was in
charge of a music committee for the Art Rocks Athens,
an event exploring the connection between the art and
music scene in Athens between the years 1975-1985.
In 2014, NeSmith approached Hay about performing
a short set of Pylon songs at Art Rocks Athens and the
crowd loved it.
As a result, Pylon Reenactment Society was born.
30th Anniversary Screening of “Athens, GA: Inside/
Out” with Pylon Reenactment Society
AU’s Maxwell Theatre
6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6
$15, advance; $20, day of show
westoboufestival.com
14 METROSPIRIT AUGUSTA’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1989 28SEPTEMBER2017