Elf Power and Tobin Sprout at the Georgia Theatre rooftop, Athens (19 May 2017)

The rooftop of the Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA was packed to the gills on May 19^th to partake in Tobin Sprout’s laid back performance and Elf Power’s rowdy one. A friend of mine even drove from Indiana to see the show. It was a regular townie reunion.

I remember the sweltering heat up on that rooftop, but what I most vividly recall is the beautiful and sometimes haunted face of a man who has most likely experienced and emoted much more than the average person through his music, his visual art and his influence on countless other musicians… not to mention his magical voice.

Tobin Sprout

Us longtime friends were flooded with memories of Guided By Voices– one of the best bands of all time- and of the incredible talent Tobin Sprout brought to GBV during his days as guitarist and co-vocalist alongside Robert Pollard. Sprout retired from GBV in 1996 to pursue a solo career. On Friday he played an excellent balance of older solo work, songs recorded with Guided By Voices and cuts from his new album, The Universe And Me.

Tobin Sprout is currently touring in support of The Universe And Me, which was released on January 27 via Burger Records.

Elf Power is old school Athens townie to the core, and the influence of Tobin Sprout and Guided By Voices shines through their music even as they continue to cultivate a psychedelic sci-fi punk sound that is nearly impossible to pin down and place into any one category. There is simply no other band quite like Elf Power.

Singer/guitarist Andrew Rieger payed homage to departed Athens musical genius Ross Shapiro by playing “When I Laugh” from Ross’ band The Glands. Elf Power then rocked us with “I Wanna Destroy You” by Robyn Hitchcock, and brought out some glam attitude as they launched into David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch.”

Then they dug up some punk roots by kicking things up a notch with their rendition of “Drugstore” by punk madmen The Dwarves. Elf Power has been playing this song live since the mid 90s and have pretty much done for it what Johnny Cash did for Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt;” they have made it their own.

Elf Power played 6 songs from their new album Twitching in Time interspersed throughout the show, as well as songs from When the Red King Comes and A Dream in Sound, among others.

Then they blew our minds with their encore. The band dug deep into their back catalog and brought out “Temporary Arm” from 1995’s Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs (their first album). This is by far my favorite Elf Power song- in fact, it’s one of my favorite songs- period. Something about the line: “Miss you flesh arm so much, oh God” just makes me want to howl with happiness. And dance.

Elf Power is touring in support of their new album Twitching in Time, released May 12 by Orange Twin Records. The band will be returning to Athens Popfest on August 9th.

Remaining tour dates: