Athens pilgrimage 2000

" I have got to find the river, bergamot and vetiver, run through
my head and fall away. Leave the road and memorize,
this life that pass before my eyes, none of this
is coming my way"

And so the story goes. In a way, I guess I did actually find the river. And I'm not only talking about the Oconee river. But I found a place where I can belong. I had never been in Athens before, still it was almost exactly as I had thought; the town, the atmosphere, the clubs, the people, the music. The music.....of course, that's what brought me there. Over the last few years I've involved myself so much in R.E.M.s music, that I just HAD to see what inspired them to write the music on Chronic town, Murmur, Reckoning and Fables. These are the albums that I've always connected with the south. It sounds like a cliché, but I had the southern spirit before I'd even been there, and I will credit the music for that.

We arrived on a Friday. On the way there I tried to soak up every impression, struggling with myself to realize that I in fact WAS going to Athens. The first thing I did, was looking for the remains of the church. It wasn't that hard to find. I could see the steeple as I was walking down the road, and my first thought was that it was much smaller than I had thought. It looked a bit out of place...standing there alone, looking like it tried to hold on to the edge of the parking lot. It felt so weird to be there, it was like I had memories of things I had never experienced, yet it all felt so real. I wanted to see all the other R.E.M. related landmarks as well, but I didn't quite know how to find them. Until I met Paul.

When I was walking in the streets of Athens in the evening, a man suddenly stopped me. He pointed at my T-shirt (which said "Meat Science", which is my nick on the internet) and asked if my name was Stine. He said that he remembered seeing my nick name on the internet and that he had heard that I was coming to Athens. I guess I seemed to be a little confused, but I am so bad with names so that I didn't realize until later that I had actually seen his name on the rmr news group. Anyway, he told me that he was the drummer in the Side Effects, the band that opened for R.E.M. in the church in 1980! I thought that was quite amazing.....

Paul took us on a sightseeing tour in Athens, we walked for 4 and a half hour in about 99 degrees (almost 40 Celcius), and he showed us places which I would not have been able to find by myself. He even helped us so that we could get into the fan club office, and talk to Kevin O'Neill who works there. That was something I'd NEVER expected, as I know not many fans are allowed to get in there. Kevin even gave us Man on the moon T-shirts :-)

The sightseeing tour and the fanclub visit were the highlights of my trip. But it was great to go record hunting at Wuxtry and Low Yo Yo records as well. I've never seen so much R.E.M. stuff in my life. I even did some kind of a bargain, as I bought Reckoning on vinyl for 15 dollars. Which is not such a big thing, if it wasn't for the fact that it was signed by all 4 members!! And I didn't even realize that until I took it to the counter. But the owner thought that I deserved it, since I was such a big fan. He also said that he liked my Monster tattoo. At Wuxtry I also finally got the Hib-tone single.

What is it to say about Athfest.... I don't think the bands I saw on the outdoor stage were that good, but all the people who were there seemed to enjoy themselves so I thought it was fun anyway. I went to a couple of the indoor venues, and I really liked the Fountains who played at the Athens music factory on Friday, and the Possibilities who played at the 40 watt on Saturday. Michael Stipe's sister's band, Flash to bang time, was also quite good. But what makes me want to go to this festival some other time, is the atmosphere and the surroundings of the festival, it is not too big and the people are very nice. It's very cool that you can just walk around in the town and be almost certain that you will meet someone you know from the day before or so.

We liked it so much in Athens that we decided to stay one day longer than we had planned. It took some effort to rearrange our hotel reservations, but it was worth it! :-)

We left on a hot and humid Monday evening. It felt like leaving a place where I've lived for years. I wanted to listen to Fables, and all I had to do was to dig out my Discman from my bag, but I couldn't. I knew that if I did, I would only end up crying. It was hard enough to sit on the Greyhound as it drove away from the town, and listening to R.E.M. would only make it worse. So I just closed my eyes and pretended not to be there. But from that point I just knew it: I had to go back.

" Nothing could bring me closer, nothing could
bring me near. Where is the road
I follow, to leave, leave.