Curt Castle Interview
Six strings and five stripes
Curt Castle had his release party for his new album “If I’m Here at All” last night at the Earl, and he invited me out to talk a little Atlanta United. He sent me over the Soundcloud link to his new album to listen to before coming out.
As soon as I walked in, Curt greeted me with a hug. His bandmate was having to perform solo as the opening act due to a last minute flu cancelation. Curt is a huge ATLUTD fan and was excited to talk about the team with me for a long time leading up to when he was due to get on stage. He was most excited about how many games the Five Stripes have this year that are nationally televised since he is often out of state.
We laughed about the story of Frank de Boer hiding low in a Starbucks drive through while Darren Eales was the one the cashier recognized. He got to prove to his guitarist that former die-hard Braves fans were now loving Atlanta United since the Cobb County swap screwed over anyone needing to use MARTA (I was a season ticket holder when they were still at Turner Field). Then we recapped the preseason domination of Pity, Barco, and Josef. Oh, and the depth of this team. I argued that we could split into two squads and each make the playoffs. But let’s just concentrate on that CCL tourney first.
He had friends coming up to him the whole time, each of which were as easy to talk with as Curt. When it was time for me to tape a quick interview with him, he made sure to go grab his Almirón jersey to wear under his blazer. He thanked me for coming out and went to get ready to go onstage.
“Ok guys, we’re gonna ease you into it” he introduced himself to the crowd, and put on a hell of a show. The other four members of his band were having a great time, and you could tell how well they get along musically and personally. Their upbeat version of Across State Lines (Supernova) was a highlight of the show. As you can see below, every member in the band is grooving in a different way like a Charlie Brown dance number. Clearly their bassist is the Snoopy of the group. I don’t know which Peanuts character the others are, but that dude is a Snoopy soul in a Steve Zissou uniform.
I don’t know whether more people were at the show because they were fans of Curt’s music, or fans of Curt. I saw our bartender from earlier in the crowd nodding his head to a few songs on a meandering trip to the bathroom. There were a handful of older people joyously taking selfies while the band was setting up, and they looked like they picked the perfect activity for a late weeknight. I couldn’t tell who was a friend and who was a fan. But everybody there had a great night.
Curt is a super entertaining musician, a great dude to talk with, and will always be a friend of the site. Check him out at curtcastle.com