Reptar at the 40 Watt Club in Athens (February 22, 2013)

Today's concert review comes from a great show put on for a great cause. Reptar headlined a show at the 40 Watt last night that was a benefit for a charity called Songs for Kids. They do fantastic work in helping kids get involved with music that may not have an opportunity to otherwise. The show raised $10,000 for the charity, and was a rockin' show, so it was a 2 for 1!

The openers were Wowzer Bowzer (an up and coming band out of Atlanta) and the other was Athens staple Five Eight (who have toured with REM in the past). Wowzer Bowzer definitely showed a lot of promise and look to be a band that is still developing their own sound, and Five Eight was just what was expected, a solid show that was neither amazing or terrible. Honestly though, I was here for Reptar and the other two bands were just there for me.

Reptar opened with their biggest hit "Houseboat Babies" and it definitely got the show going in the right direction. The thing I love about this band is that they have grown up right in front of me. Their shows did not have near as much fluidity or structure in the beginning, but now they flow seamlessly from "RainBounce" to "Blastoff" to "Isoprene Bath" and so on and so forth. Once the set was "over" , the crowd (which was great as seen here) did 

 

 something that has become commonplace for shows in Athens, the Tomahawk Chop (Braves season is right around the corner). The band came back out and performed a two song encore of "Sweet Sipping Soda" and "Cannabis Canyon", which I hadn't heard them play live in a while which was nice. The only qualm I had with last night's show (and their last few shows for that matter) is that they have not played the first track off their first full length album entitled "Orifice Origami", which is a really good track. Seeing as that was my only issue however, this show was really good (not as good as their show at the Georgia Theatre in November, but still really solid). Overall, I give it an 8 out of 10 and am looking forward to the boys from Reptar representing Athens at Bonnaroo this year. I leave you now with the song "Sweet Sipping Soda" (which is actually featured on the latest installment of the FIFA video game series). Hope y'all enjoy and in the words of the incomparable Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the end of their set at Bonnaroo 2012: "Support Live Music! Little kids, old ladies playing violins and harmoniums, Bulgarian Polka music, reggae, punk rock, hip hop, electronic music, underground Avant Garde weird music, Britney Spears pop music, all of it. Support live music go on out it's the word of God! Thank you we love you GOOD NIGHT!"

        

Sweet Sipping Soda - Reptar