I went underground (literally) to the Drunken Unicorn to catch the Black Kites. This was my first time at the Drunken Unicorn. It is a fairly small venue, with surprisingly good sound for what is essentially a concrete box. A bit more guitar in the mix would have been nice, as Mike Barnes, the drummer, is inherently quite loud.

I arrived a bit late and missed the first couple of songs. About ten seconds after entering the venue, I ran into recurring Propeller Skies character and Envie guitarist Chris. After chatting with him a bit between songs, I busted out my camera and started taking some pictures. In contrast to the sound, the lighting at the Drunken Unicorn is fucking terrible. There was decent lighting on Joie Hoke, the lead singer. However Michelle Cox was almost completely invisible, since there was no light on her corner of the stage. Michael was also invisible due to lack of lighting and the massive drum kit he was hiding behind. I most likely will not shoot there again.

Enough about lighting. The show was excellent and it was great to see them live after missing their last show at The Earl. To keep things interesting, they played a couple of new songs that are not available on their cd, one of which was really awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed their set and can’t wait to see them again.

There was a good crowd for a Tuesday night, I was expecting maybe five people to show up. In the aforementioned crowd there were no post-ironic hipsters sporting trucker hats.

notes:

PHOTO: Susannah Barnes of the Black Kites at Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA. May 11, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.