So it’s been established that everyone that made the bus trip to Macon’s Bragg Jam had a blast. Personally, I would do it again in a heartbeat, and truly appreciate everyone that made it happen.
In a nutshell, the Bragg Jam lineup was great, Macon welcomed it with open arms, the food trucks were awesome, drinks were fairly easy to get and a couple of the venues were swelteringly hot.
Here’s my favorite shots from the day, with a little commentary.
After the new Shovels and Rope documentary, which I really enjoyed, we made our way to Grant’s, to soak up the old school rock club atmosphere and have a few drinks while waiting for the music to start. I haven’t seen Col. Bruce Hampton since about 1992, but some things don’t change much. The band name may change, but Col. Bruce still looks the same and still jams. Boy, did that room fill up quickly!
Caught Tha Hugs, Madre Padre,and The Apache Relay in fairly rapid succession, then headed to The Hummingbird Taproom to see Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires. For some reason I was expecting another Americana act (I like Americana well enough, but prefer a little more “bite” to my rock), but thankfully I was way off base. Punky, bluesy, and definitely rocking. I’ve talked to several people who said that this was the set of the day for them, it most definitely was for me. Totally high energy awesomeness, I’ll be digging into their catalog this week.
I was really impressed with Friends and Family on the Revival Fest stage and look forward to checking out a full set at the upcoming Revival Fest.
I always forget how much I enjoy Cusses live. Oh, yeah, now I remember…..I love them live.
The drum corps — Macon’s own Streetline — marching down the street was really a cool treat, but the Empire Strikes Brass band coming out and playing right into the middle of the marching band made for a joyous, surreal scene that I loved. It was kind of moving to me, to be honest.
I was going to go into this place, but apparently the tailor at the door didn’t approve of my positive attitude. Geez.
I saw both American Aquarium and The Black Cadillacs earlier in the week, but both bands put on another great set, exactly as I expected. One beef: American Aquarium claimed that The Jinx was their favorite bar in the country on Friday, but then said that The Hummingbird was their favorite bar on Saturday. Hey! What gives?
I really dug Royal Thunder‘s set at The Wall, but holy moly was it dark in there.
For the life of me, I can’t remember why I missed Those Darlins set at the 2014 Savannah Stopover, but after hearing the buzz about the set, there was no way I was going to miss this chance to see them. I was not disappointed. Jessi Zazu is a totally magnetic frontwoman, truly a rock star on stage.
What an awesome trip. Over the course of a very long day I saw 16 acts, made some new friends, ate a (temporarily) life changing empanada, had some great, nerdy music conversations and got very little sleep. Like I said, I would do it again in a heartbeat, but next year (I sure hope the bus becomes an annual thing) I’ll take a pillow.