Musical artists of Athens are coming together to support another form of art — the Athens International Film Festival. Tonight marks the second of three weekly concerts at The Union, 18 W. Union St., to raise money for the festival.
"I'm a big film-fest supporter. It's one of the big events that attracted me to living in Athens in the first place," said Lou Lemart, owner of The Union. "I'm happy to do whatever I can to further the success of the film festival."
Tonight's show features the Pretty Weapons, Deodorant Dave and the Smell Good Guys, the Wailing Ellroys and the Pullouts.
"This is a way to engage the whole community in the film festival. I often say that it's 'our festival,'" said Ruth Bradley, director of the Athens Center for Film and Video and festival organizer. "A lot of people work on it — all students by the way, and they work for months on putting it on. (These concerts are) another way for people to be involved and say "this is my festival too."
"The festival is part of a larger kind of arts culture in town, and part of that culture is The Union with the visual art downstairs and the music things upstairs."
The Union's booking manager Scott Winland said The Union has been hosting the benefit concerts for as long as he can remember. He said that everyone involved with the shows seems very enthusiastic about the festival.
"We (also) did a film-fest benefit in the fall. It was a Tom Waits tribute show," Winland said.
Southeast Engine is scheduled to appear next week at the final spring benefit concert. Drummer Leo Deluca has played at two film-festival benefit shows with his other band, Kim Casio.
"We feel like the film festival is a unique experience and event to have in Athens, and we want to be able to promote that and continue its existence. We feel like it's a really worthwhile thing and we want to sustain it and have it keep coming back to Athens," Deluca said.
Joining Southeast Engine on the April 16 bill are The Story Of and Like Spies. Kim Casio and The Lemming played last week to begin the series.
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by Chris DeVille
