A flashback to 2012: The Grizzly Atoms

Author’s note: In October 2012, a month before I began this blog, The Grizzly Atoms allowed me to accompany them to a gig in Melbourne. I took field notes and assured the band that I’d write about them. That was until I moved a few times and lost them. Somehow after all this time I discovered those exact field notes in a pile of old class assignments. So, finally, here it is.

Upon entering the residence of The Grizzly Atoms, even a stranger can tell that musicians live there. A front room void of furniture is littered with various musical equipment. There’s a  graffiti covered beer pong table and a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas poster is the kitchen area. As the band members wander the house doing their various chores, they communicate through curse littered banter. Lead singer Nik Sidella can be heard singing in the shower while a roommate [not in the band] plays a war-themed video game. Later on in the kitchen, Sidella drinks a mix of apple cider, lemon, honey and vinegar to prepare his voice for the night’s performance. Just as he tosses the lemon towards a garbage can on the other side of the room, drummer Nicholas Roe walks in just in time to get hit by the flying fruit. Everyone in the room started laughing.

“Goddamn you fuck!” Roe yells at Sidella.

“What’s the problem? You’re all lemony fresh now!” Sidella teases.

It took 2 vehicles to get everyone and everything to their gig at Debauchery, a bar in Melbourne. On the road, nature welcomed the band with an orange sunset framed by streaks of lightning. It was dark when we found the destination, surrounded by old houses and large oak trees covered in Spanish moss. The actual gig was very underwhelming because the band’s atomic energy did not seem to faze the people in attendance, who were old enough to be our parents but were dressed like they were at a Greek Life party. It was not a pretty sight. Near the end of the set, the manager complained to Sidella that he needed to turn the volume down a little. So in the way of rock n’ roll, Sidella turned the volume even louder during the last song. As the band packed up, bassist Terran Fernandez complained, “This place has no spirit. We were halfway through the set and I was already bored.”  Half the band went home and the rest of us went to the beach, where we lounged on an abandoned lifeguard station to stargaze at the cloudless night sky until 2am, when we had to return to the bar at closing time to collect the band’s earnings. 

Since then, the Grizzly Atoms have released an album, performed at a Planned Parenthood benefit concert, and most recently played an outdoor house party that was cut short by the cops. Isn’t it a shame that the neighbors didn’t appreciate the free rock music on a Saturday night? Check them out this weekend at the Lil Econ Festival taking place at the Maddox Ranch in Lakeland, FL.