Last night The Greatest Hits played with Dirty Johnny and the Make-Believes and the Caspian Sea Monsters at Kings. But since it was a school night (so to speak), I just caught the first two bands. The best part of the evening, though, was being introduced to Horniblow's (pictured above), a weird little brew pub in a warehouse in this industrial complex off of Atlantic Avenue. There's free pool and ping pong, and awesome site-brewed ales and lagers in a hidden-away place that looks like someone's rec room from the 70s. I ran into my old pal Dave Rogers who now manages away-team.com who described the bar's aura succinctly: "This place looks like the bar that someone's dad decided to put in his basement." The place was pretty empty, but I hear that it gets busy on bluegrass nights (usually Tuesdays). I will definitely be going back. Now for the videos:

Caspian Sea Monsters from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Caspian Sea Monsters

Dirty Johnny & the Make-Believes from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Dirty Johnny and the Make-Believes

Catching up

(Colossus) I know, I've been totally slack for the past couple of weeks, so now I'm forced to do a round-up of what I've seen. Thursday, Sept. 4: The T's at Tir na Nog The T's sounded great as always, but the sound on my video sucks. Evidently I was too close to Andy Kerr's amp. Anyway, here's video of "Mr. Rebel."

The T's from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008: Suburban Sweethearts at Slim's I didn't get video of this show, but I can tell you they sounded great. This was the band's last show with guitarist Joe Yerry. Andy Kerr is joining the band, and according to singer/guitarist Erik Sugg, they will likely change their name. I'm looking forward to hearing the new incarnation. BTW, I didn't catch much of the downtown live stuff, but did manage to hear part of the Annuals, who played to a small-but-dedicated crowd in front of Raleigh Times.Saturday, Sept. 6: Black Skies and Colossus at Slim's The best show I saw all week. Black Skies were heavy and powerful. I've been listening to their new CD non-stop. Colossus had the potential to be great, but were way too sloppy. There's a difference between having a great time without worrying about the details, and just plain being out of tune. These guys are too good to let themselves sound like this. But they did have a lot of energy, and they were obviously enjoying themselves. Earlier in the evening I tried to catch Sir Arthur & the Royal Knights and the Loners at Sadlack's, but someone in the dorm next door kept calling the cops to shut down the music. I hope that doesn't become a regular occurrance.

Black Skies from Mann's World on Vimeo.

(Black Skies) Looking way back, here's some video of Dirty Johnny & the Makebelieves that I didn't post. They were at Slim's on Aug. 29.

Dirty Johnn & the Make-Believes from Mann's World on Vimeo.

To-do this weekend

Even though I've been blogging since 2002, in some ways I feel like I really started only a couple of years ago. That's when I began taking photos and video with my trusty little Nikon and uploading the results to Flickr/Youtube. One of the first bands I documented in this manner was Dirty Johnny & the Make-Believes, who played at Slim's on Nov. 11, 2005. They'll be back in town this Saturday, again at Slim's, with the Straight 8's. As this picture from that November evening shows, they put on a rowdy show. Go see them.

The night before, the T's are playing an early show at Sadlack's for free! For those of you who hate driving to Raleigh (which is understandable, since I hate driving to Chapel Hill), they'll be at The Cave the night before. That will not be an early show, and as far as I know, won't be free.