Show Preview: Blackout Fest Day 1
The Union / Thursday, April 17, 2014
By Travis Boswell, Contributor
Blackout Fest, The Union's yearly rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza, is celebrating its 19th anniversary. The guests of honor are bands from all over the country, and they're bringing three evenings of live music for anyone fortunate enough to be in attendance. The first night of Blackout Fest brings together bands from Ohio, Mississippi, California and Illinois.
Unwed Teenage Mothers from Oxford will take the stage on the first night of Blackout Fest, bringing their up-tempo garage punk to the party.Guitarist and vocalist Colin Sneed said that the band's goal is to make every show fun and fast.“It's fast and as loud as they'll let us be,” said Sneed. “It's fun pop music played by four not very good musicians.”
Unwed Teenage Mothers have been to Athens before but never played Blackout Fest. However, Sneed has played the festival as part of another band.
“I played Blackout Fest a few years ago when I was in Bass Drum of Death,” said Sneed. “Unwed Teenage Mothers have played there two or three times and it's been pretty good. Last time we played, we played with Weird Science.” Weird Science is also scheduled to perform at Thursday night's show.
The band recently toured with Lover!, who will also be at Blackoutfest on Thursday. After the current tour ends, Sneed is focusing on releasing the Mothers' latest album, Goodnight Girls.
“It's gonna be 12 songs and 30 minutes. It'll be our first full-length record,” said Sneed. Unwed Teenage Mothers have a few music videos that accompany their brief songs with their off-kilter sense of humor, and are planning to release more.
“We've got some friends that do some really cool videos,” said Sneed. “We just need to find somebody that wants to put out the record and get some dumb videos to put out with it.”
The Motel Beds are also performing at Blackout Fest's opening night. The Dayton rockers recently returned from a series of shows at South By Southwest in Texas.
“We did three shows on a Thursday and one show on a Friday night,” said bassist Tod Weidner. “It was a pretty full schedule while we were down there.”
The Motel Beds have been to Athens before and Weidner himself has visited more than once.“It’s been a while since I've been here, and I'm looking forward to it,” said Weidner. “First time was back in 1994. I've been there several times with my bands.”
Tod Weidner says the members of The Motel Beds share common influences in The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Who and The Pixies but they don't compare directly to them.
“We sound like us,” said Weidner. “It's really nice to be in a band where people don't automatically think of other bands when they hear you.”
The Motel Beds are featured on two compilation records to be released on Record Store Day and are recording their next album. “Hope to see everyone at the show, I'm looking forward to playing Athens again,” said Weidner.
Haffa's Records at 15 W. Union Street is selling Blackout Fest tickets in advance, at the cost of $8 for one night or $20 for all three. Thursday's lineup is Lover!, The Motel Beds, Unwed Teenage Mothers, John Brothers Piano Company, Hex Net, Total Blam Blams, Weird Science, Method Air and Nuddhist Monks. The show starts at 6 p.m.
