Pickwick at The Earl, Atlanta, October 23, 2107

So this happened: after a four-and-a-half year absence, last night, Seattle's Pickwick (the best band you've never heard of) played a near-empty Earl. Where the hell were you?  

Before we get to that, though, we had a set by Toronto's The Elwins.  The Elwins play fun, high-energy rock 'n' roll, but to my tastes, they sound just a tad bit too much like some house band from an Orlando, Florida Sheraton Inn or from some suburban Chicago roadhouse, who've developed an adoring but local fan base due to their frequent appearances at said Sheraton or roadhouse, but who, when they have to stand on their own in front of an audience not already predisposed to partying down with them, don't really have that much to offer.  Don't get me wrong - they were fun and they were energetic; unfortunately, they were also fairly generic.   

So, Pickwick.  The band's gone through some difficult times and as noted above, it's been almost five years since their last record or last tour.  The last time we saw Pickwick was at the 2014 Bumbershoot Festival in their hometown Seattle, where they played unquestionably the best set I've ever heard by them, and with a five-man horn section backing them up to boot.  The last time they played Atlanta was at this very same  Earl back in April 2013.

They played a great, 60-minute plus set of their blue-eyed soul set at The Earl last night, including a cover of the Talking Heads' Take Me To The River, despite the fact that there were only 20 or so people in attendance, a heartbreakingly small turnout for such a great band. And only about half of that 20 were really into it, watching from near the stage for the entire set.  I don't know if it was a lack of publicity by the promoters, the nearly 5-year absence by the band, or a general lack of knowledge by the Atlanta community of this band, bu I've seen more people in the clubs for open-mike karaoke nights. 

We can do better than this.  We are better than this.

To rub it in a little, here's what you missed:

We've been calling Pickwick "the best band you've never heard of" ever since we first heard them back in 2011, but we didn't mean it as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you don't discover this band - and soon - you're only depriving yourself.