Pylon Reenactment Society to Play Barboza on December 5th
Pylon Reenactment Society began their grassroots driven career by playing what was to be a one-off show during a series of events called Art Rox Athens that explored the connection between the art and music scene in Athens,GA between the years 1975-85. Vanessa Briscoe Hay was invited to perform by one of her former Supercluster bandmates, guitarist and producer Jason NeSmith, who was organizing the shows.
He was extremely surprised when she said that she wanted to perform some Pylon songs. Vanessa did not want either guitarist Randy Bewley or the music of Pylon to be forgotten at this event. After all, Pylon had all been art majors at UGA during those years. Casper & the Cookies provided the band which included Jason as well as another former Supercluster member, powerhouse bassist Kay Stanton. Vanessa decided to call the project Pylon Reenactment Society because it wasn’t Pylon, and as a nod to what Pylon sometimes jokingly called themselves at practice.
The Art Rock Athens audience went crazy, and PRS was invited back to play a longer set the following year opening for Fred Schneider of the B-52s. PRS added a new drummer for this show after C&tC’s Gregory Sanders bowed out to have shoulder surgery. Veteran drummer Joe Rowe (The Glands, Love Tractor reunion shows) was brought in and kinetic keyboardist Damon Denton was also added to bring in fresh textures and sounds.The feedback from the audience was again very positive. Indie darlings Dressy Bessy heard about this show and invited PRS to play a few dates with them.
What had started as a one-off project, has now wowed both long-time fans who thought they would never see Pylon’s music performed live again and younger fans who have just discovered it. Besides Part Time Punks and Art Rocks Athens, in the last couple of years PRS have performed at Savannah Stopover, Sarasota Film Fest, U+N Fest, Barely Human Fest, Irrelevant Festival, Athens Popfest, Westobou and have shared the stage with the likes of Swimming Pool Qs, Richard Barone, Positive No, 75 Dollar Bill, Mitch Easter’s Project Balderdash, Ltd, Dressy Bessy, The Tissues, Cindy Wilson and many other fine indie bands,. The enthusiasm of audiences at their live shows has provided impetus to keep moving forward and to begin writing fresh material in the spirit of Pylon. They aren’t Pylon, but are maybe the next best thing.
Tickets to the band’s forthcoming performance at Barboza in Seattle can be purchased here.