The Georgia Theatre is a prominent music venue in Athens, Georgia

Athens, Georgia

Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...

, located in an old cinema

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

. Many prominent acts from the early music of Athens, Georgia

Music of Athens, Georgia

The music of Athens, Georgia, includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and New Wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M. and The B-52s, and several long-time indie rock groups...

 performed at the Theatre, including a range of folk, popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 and country acts. The Theatre is on the Athens Music History Walking Tour sponsored by the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Theatre opened as a music venue in 1978, with the band Sea Level

Sea Level (band)

Sea Level is the name of a fusion group that mixed jazz, blues and rock. It existed between 1976 and 1981. Initially, it was an offshoot of The Allman Brothers Band, but as tensions grew between the loss of two of its founding members, and personal greivances between Gregg Allman and other...

 playing. The Police

The Police

The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

 played a show at the Theatre in 1979, on their first American tour. The Theatre then shut down again in the early 1980s and spent a few years as a movie house with occasional shows. It was reopened as a venue in 1989 and the Theatre has since hosted many of the major touring acts that come through Athens.

History

In 1889, the YMCA of Athens brought property the Georgia Theatre now stands on and erected a building on the site. The whole building was under the control of the YMCA until 1913 when a music store occupied the bottom floor while the YMCA continued to use the second and third floor. In 1918, Elite Theater movie house opened on ground floor and Majestic Hotel was in operation on second and third floors. The building was then used by both the Elite Theater and the Masonic Temple until 1926 when Masonic Temple Association of Athens bought the building. The next year, the Masonic Temple shared the space with Dorsey Furniture Co. In 1935, Elite Theater built on foundation of YMCA building, making it even larger than before. Until 1967 when United Theatre Enterprises Inc. buys the building, the Georgia Theatre had served as a worship hall for the United Methodist Church in the 1960s. In 1977, Sam Smartt, Hap Harris, George Fontaine and Sheffy McArthur teamed up to open Georgia Theatre as concert hall. On May 20, 1978, the popular band the B-52s paid to perform at Georgia Theatre, and the following year, The Police played there as part of the band's first U.S. tour. The Georgia Theatre briefly closed in 1981 and was reopened a year later by Carafe & Draft Theater as a movie house. Kyle Pilgrim and Bill "Duck" Anderson bought the building in 1989, planning to open Georgia Theatre as concert venue. The first show performed at the Georgia Theatre after it reopened was played by the band, Pylon. In subsequent years, it has been the host to many shows including R.E.M.

R.E.M.

R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

, Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...

, Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

, Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon

Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...

, Umphreys McGee, and Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

. The Derek Trucks Band

The Derek Trucks Band

The Derek Trucks Band has been called a "group of musicians that share a passion for improvisation and musical exploration" by a reviewer at Allmusic....

 recorded their 2004 concert album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 Live at Georgia Theatre

Live at Georgia Theatre

Live at Georgia Theatre is the fifth album and first live album by American artist Derek Trucks and The Derek Trucks Band released in 2004 ....

at the venue.

In November 2004, the Georgia Theatre was sold to Wilmot Greene and Randy Smith who renovated and restored the venue to its former condition. On the morning of June 19, 2009, a major fire erupted in the Georgia Theatre, inflicting severe damage to the building, including a roof collapse. The Georgia Theatre underwent renovations in 2010 and 2011 and reopened August 1, 2011. The newly renovated Georgia Theater is designed to be a concert venue with a state-of-the-art sound system and numerous acoustic improvements; together with improved seating, two balconies, and an open air roof area with a full bar and comfortable patio seating.

Live albums

• Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit — self-titled album (1992)
• Stewart & Winfield — Another Round: Live (2001)
• Backyard Tire Fire — Live at the Georgia Theatre (2003)
• Derek Trucks Band — Live at the Georgia Theatre (2004)
• Kinchafoonee Cowboys — Cowboy Ways: Live at the Georgia Theatre (2005)
• Corey Smith — Outtakes from the Georgia Theatre (2008)
• Venice is Sinking — Sand & Lines: The Georgia Theatre Sessions (2010)