Grade: C- | Genre: Alternative Rock
Summary: Wild painters flailing about, Teddy Ruxpin morphed into a boy and endless blathering about sheer nothingness. How did this sure thing show go so wrong?

Date: April 25, 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA
Blue Merle was a great band just peeking onto the musical horizon before they came to an untimely end. You could say they were aping Coldplay's sound, but couldn't you say the same of Stone Temple Pilots to Pearl Jam and John Mayer to Dave Matthews when they first hit the scene. They were a talented group with great potential, and it's sad to see them fizzle out after one brief album. After missing Blue Merle's swing through Atlanta countless times, I finally got a free evening to checkout lead singer, Lucas Reynolds, playing an intimate show at Smith's Olde Bar. Smith's holds in the neighborhood of 300 people so that's quite a change from the venues three times this size that the collective played when they made their way through Atlanta. I was pretty jazzed about the possibilities inherent in this show. Little did I know about the bizarre world I was about to cross over into. Wild painters flailing about, Teddy Ruxpin morphed into a boy and endless blathering about sheer nothingness. How did this sure thing show go so wrong?