by Hannah Twery, contributor
Skaters played their first show in Atlanta last weekend … and it was AWESOME.
The New York City- based band performed on Saturday at the Drunken Unicorn with two local bands, Baby, Baby and Turf War. If you’re unfamiliar with the infamous venue, it’s the building right next to MJQ underneath the tattoo parlor on Ponce De Leon Avenue. You know, across from Murder Kroger.
Skaters is currently on a tour to promote their new album, “Manhattan,” which came out in February. Their sound from previous EPs translated well into their first studio album. Think a harder version of Wavves. They’ve got that skate-rock-surf-punk sound that’s pretty popular right now as they follow in the same path as bands like Fidlar and Bass Drum of Death.
Since their existence is relatively underground, at least around these parts, I wasn’t expecting the turnout to be huge, and it wasn’t, but it was bigger than I expected it would be. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because if you’ve ever been to The Drunken Unicorn during a big show you know you’re going to come out with several large bruises and look like you just came back from a sweat-filled water park. Either way, they really got the crowd dancing. My friend and I were even doing classic dance moves such as the sprinkler and the shopping cart. It was such a fun and sexy time.
I’m always pleasantly surprised when a band performs and they sound like they do on the album. Skaters proved their recorded voices are authentic. They played pretty much every song off their new album, including my personal favorite “Miss Teen Massachusetts” which, like many of their songs, is about special lady friends and love. They also played another one of my favorites, “To Be Young in NYC,” which made me want to run around the city and pretend like my life is a perfect Instagram picture complemented by the perfect filter (like Mayfair, maybe Valencia. Definitely not Toaster). Another positive about the band’s stage presence is that they all look like thrift-shopping greasers and that is SO hot. But back to the music, they were jamming out so hard and it’s obvious that they are all super-talented musicians. Even the lead singer, who doesn’t play an instrument, has got an awesome voice that was clearly gifted to him by the hipster angels of skateboarding.
The only bad thing I have to say about the show is the banter sucked. I like decent stage banter, but they complained about Florida even though one of their members is from the state. It could have been funny, but it totally wasn’t. Come on Skaters, I know y’all are funny! Talk to me!
Other than that little detail, it was a great show! Skaters is a great band and if you haven’t already heard about them, go download their album ASAP.