UFO's Over Denmark @ 550 Blues

There’s a sub-genre of music in Macon that has nothing to do with the way the music sounds: bands with bartenders. Add to this list, UFOs Over Denmark, headed by Brian Nolan who I once slurred and stammered at in several drunken nights at 550 Blues where he was playing, where he used to bartend. And now with that full circle complete, I’d like to get on with the review.

It’s a First Friday, and I know where a good many of my friends will be but I’ve been waiting to hear UFOs for months, missing every other opportunity to do so until I simply decided to forego these other options, walking through a still familiar crowd to the bar at 550 as the band gets halfway through its first song. Look out, or you won’t see them coming.

It was what I expected, which is, something that didn’t sound like other music being made in Macon and Middle Georgia, wasn’t so damn bound to the music that had once been made here, particularly the stuff of the Capricorn Era (god bless its soul). I can’t say I know what to call it, but it was rock for sure and it was different, and the normally reserved Brian is a mad man of movement on stage. He’s like a little bitty Joe Cocker the way he gets excited. He struts like a guy, but he screeches just like Kathleen Turner. It’s a dynamic performance.

It helps he has some good company up there. Pat Yoe and Scott Rainwater of Revival (who headlined that night) play bass and guitar respectively, and of course they’re solid. But the other guys – dudes I can’t recall ever seeing before – were really tight. I don’t know their names, but I know that I’ll learn them soon enough. If they’re from around here, my question is where they’ve been hiding.

This new crop of local bands, new local music… Look out.