Raising the bar at the Beer Olympics

This weekend, the fifth annual Beer Olympics — a two-day festival of hardcore punk — brings together an effervescent brew of veteran acts including Agnostic Front and Iron Cross, along with up-and-coming stars and promising locals. Among the Atlanta musicians especially excited about the event is Chet Knight, frontman of the provocatively named local combo Adolf and the Piss Artists, who will perform on the closing day.

"The first festival was very much a family affair," Knight says, "featuring mainly Atlanta people, but now we get fans flying in from other countries for this. We expect about a thousand people will attend each night."

The Beer Olympics began back in '96 as the brainchild of Knight's former business associate, Mark Noah, the founder/owner of Atlanta-based punk record label GMM and leader of the Anti-Heros. "Mark lost money on the first Olympics," Knight says, "but we've done a little better since then. The Anti-Heros and my band have played it for free, though, just to help make sure the other groups can get paid something."

Knight points out that Noah also extensively assists the punk-rock scene through his nonprofit label. Originally created to release material by the Anti-Heros, GMM (an acronym for "Gimme My Money") Records since has issued more than 75 discs featuring other artists, including vintage material by Iron Cross, impressive new releases from the Hudson Falcons and the Templars, and Skins & Pinz, Vol. II, a 26-song compilation sampler packaged as a Beer Olympics souvenir.

"I worked at GMM for several years, handling operations," Knight continues, "but they just signed a deal with Victory — who are allied with Sony — so they're out of my league now. Victory's putting their CDs into places like Best Buy, Media Play and Tower. We hope this means more kids will pick up on acts like the Templars, since Blink-182 is not what's happening."

Parting ways with GMM has given Knight more time to concentrate on his own business, 45 Revolutions, a production company which books national touring punk acts. "We used to put on about two shows a week at Club 513," he says, referring to the former all-ages punk club in downtown Atlanta. "But we've really been hurting since they closed."

Knight hopes to open his own club soon and take up some of the slack. He compares the current disenfranchised state of Atlanta's punk scene to a similar period of homelessness it endured after the Metroplex closed at the end of the '80s. "I've talked to other clubs about punk shows," he says, "but it's hard to find ones that will do all-ages events."

Fortunately, the Masquerade — site of this year's Beer Olympics — has a longstanding policy of admitting the under-21 set. "They're really good about checking IDs and keeping the younger fans out of the bar area," observes Knight. "The focus of this show is the music — it's about seeing popular, hard-working bands. Parents should realize that their kids are much safer here than at an unregulated warehouse party. Despite the 'beer' in the name, this not about providing a place for kids to drink."

So why call it the Beer Olympics? "Back in the beginning, the name originally had a lot do with making fun of the 1996 Olympic Games," Knight says. "Plus, we do attract a lot of drinking-age fans."

Though no medals are awarded at these Olympics, Knight recalls one band a few years back printing, "I Won the Gold at the Beer Olympics" on their T-shirts. There is also plenty of what qualifies as a high-diving competition.

"The winners are usually the losers by the end of the evening," Knight says. "In '98, Mark himself got a little too much in him. He was out in the audience and dived right on top of a table, busting it. Beer splashed everywhere. The next day he called and told me he couldn't walk. I call that suffering for your art."

The Beer Olympics take place at the Masquerade Sat. and Sun., July 21-22.??