Culture
Adyn’s Dream Brings Pokey LaFarge, The Judy Chops, To Athens
By: Emily Votaw
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Adyn’s Dream is an Athens-based non-profit founded on the basic belief that, in hope, there is potential — and that potential is a simmering thing, precariously tipping between the now and something, better, grander, larger.
For the past several years the organization has been raising funds for families living with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), an disease that destroys the motor nerve cells that live deep in the spinal chord, operating our ability to move or breathe. The illness robs those afflicted with it of even their most basic physical strength, often making breathing a true difficulty.
The group has done enormous good for a number of families with children who have been diagnosed with SMA; everything from paying for basic medical necessities to financing trips for families to the annual Cure SMA conference.
Saturday marked yet another art-centric fundraiser for the organization.
“Adyn’s Dream was created to incorporate the arts, in the form of live music, into each fundraiser that we host,” said Brian Bucher, Adyn’s father and the executive director of Adyn’s Dream. “This was done because of Adyn’s love and passion for attending live music events like concerts and festivals, since she was five years old.”
The event kicked off with a well-attended kid’s afternoon art carnival and an interactive set by the lively Mt. Solon, VA based “mountain swing” act The Judy Chops in Ohio University’s Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium. Throughout the afternoon, young attendees were treated to hands-on art activities with members of Athens-based Guardian Aliens. Hula hoopers and jugglers also supplied entertainment for those who attended afternoon’s festivities.
Around 7:30 p.m., The Judy Chops returned to the stage for yet another raucous performance; peddling through fierce rockabilly tunes peppered with artful mastery of baritone saxophone and stand-up base.
Vocalist and guitarist William Howard bellowed red faced through the powerful set, accompanied by masterful sister duo Molly and Sally Murphy. Percussionist Jess Burgh stood through most of the tunes, her black dress speckled with a red cherry print under an inky black cardigan.
The group wrapped up around 8:30 p.m., and before too long, members of Pokey LaFarge’s road crew started setting up for the evening’s headliner – legendary for their explosive live performances. The crowd grew thick on the right end of Templeton-Blackburn’s stage as time grew nearer for LaFarge’s set.
It’s difficult to describe LaFarge’s music. His vocals twist and heave with a mid-century timbre, painting images of rustbelt factories in all their splendor and the aching pecularities of the American pursuit of happiness and the ever-elusive social construct of love. The instrumentation treads a thin line between nostalgia and something palpably, terribly new. The first time you hear a Pokey song (his birth name being Andrew Heissler, nicknamed ‘pokey’ by his mother in part because of his perpetual slowness, perhaps yet another sign that Heissler is actually a gift from the prohibition era,) you wonder if you’ve ever heard the tune before – and you imagine it leaking from a crackly AM radio in your grandfather’s car; even if you never actually drove anyplace with your grandfather.
LaFarge, decked out in soft hewn denim and wide legged pants, hair slicked back, broke out immediately into song after greeting the enthusiastic audience. Throughout the set, LaFarge would bust out crowd favorites, like “Something In the Water,” from the 2015 album of the same name; and “Central Time” from his Third Man Records self-titled debut; as well as tunes from his forthcoming May 19 release, Manic Revelations.
“In two or three years, you guys are going to be requesting these songs,” joked LaFarge of the new material. “And we aren’t going to play them. You’re just like our little guinea pigs.”
LaFarge sang of topics that are truly universal – sky high doctor’s bills (“Close the Door,”), the warm relief of tasty liquor (“Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight”), and political unrest (“Riot in the Streets”).
The band closed the night with a three-song encore, leaving the shimmying, shaking, and all ages audience trembling for more.
“In regards to fundraising, with both of the day’s events combined, Adyn’s Dream brought in more than double what we had raised in our past largest event,” said Bucher, stating an estimated 250 people attended the afternoon Art Carnival, and an estimated 400 people attended the evening performance. “To be able to involve over 650 people from the community in one day is certainly an achievement we are very proud of, and is what we could consider a successful day!”
Check out the following photos, taken entirely by WOUB’s Drake Withers, of the high-energy LaFarge show from last night.
