Scarlet Begonias: Experts & Curiosity
- Moose Nicholson
- 11 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Raising the Dead
I couldn't have named a Grateful Dead song with any confidence before Thursday night.
Which immediately put me at a disadvantage against the people wearing tie dye who looked like they'd been preparing for this moment since approximately 1978.
The difference was noticeable before Scarlet Begonias ever played a note.
The crowd wasn't quite as large as the week before, but it was definitely different. More tie dye. More Billy Strings shirts. More folks who didn't look like they accidentally wandered into a free concert while looking for dinner.
These people came for this.
Ironically, Deadheads always look a little like they accidentally wandered into something anyway. As if they were halfway through a hike, heard a jam band in the distance, and simply followed the sound until they arrived.
Meanwhile, I was standing there realizing I knew remarkably little about the Grateful Dead.
That seemed like a problem.
Especially considering I was about to spend the next three hours listening to them.
The funny thing is, once the music started, I kept recognizing things.
Not entire songs.
Not enough to impress anybody.
Just little moments.
A chorus here. A guitar line there. A lyric that had apparently been rattling around in my head for years without me ever bothering to figure out where it came from.
"Friend of the Devil."
"Touch of Grey."
"Casey Jones."
As it turns out, I knew more Grateful Dead than I thought I did. I just didn't know it was the Grateful Dead.
The songs had apparently been sneaking into my life for decades. Through movies. Through bars. Through road trips. Through cover bands. Through somebody else's stereo.
Scarlet Begonias played Amp a couple years ago, which is when I first learned one of the stranger facts in rock and roll history: the Grateful Dead had two drummers.
At the time, I assumed that was some uniquely Grateful Dead oddity.
Then, while putting together this recap, I discovered the Allman Brothers did it too. So did the James Brown Band.
Apparently I had spent decades listening to bands with two drummers without ever noticing there were two drummers.
Which brings us back to Thursday night.
Scarlet Begonias stayed true to form with Brian Brittingham and Bentley Rhoades sharing drum duties.
Watching two drummers is a strange experience. Sometimes they're perfectly synchronized. Then suddenly one peels off in a completely different direction while somehow remaining attached to the same song.
At certain moments they looked less like two musicians and more like some four-armed percussion deity assembled specifically for jam bands.
What surprised me wasn't that the crowd knew the songs.
It was how quickly the songs themselves stopped mattering.
A weak tribute band spends the entire evening reminding you of the original.
A good one eventually convinces you to stop making comparisons.
Scarlet Begonias managed the latter.
Jason Shepard kept the songs grounded while John Kolbeck's return to the lineup added another dimension entirely. Kolbeck hadn't played with Scarlet Begonias in years, but there was never a sense that he was rejoining something. It felt more like he'd simply resumed a conversation that had been paused.
The longer the evening went, the less I found myself trying to identify songs and the more I found myself paying attention to the band.
That's usually a good sign.
By the time they rolled through "Scarlet Begonias" into "Fire on the Mountain," I wasn't really listening as a curious outsider anymore.
I wasn't a Deadhead.
Let's not get carried away.
But the band had earned my attention.
Of course, Thursday wasn't exactly a gathering of strangers.
Jason Shepard helped build Amp the Alley into what it became long before he stepped onto the Bud Light Stage with a guitar in his hands.
Brian Brittingham spends as much time supporting downtown music as he does playing it.
Bentley Rhoades is already familiar to Amp crowds through All The Things.
Rob holds down the low end for Bodega Cat.
Even Kolbeck's return felt less like a guest appearance and more like somebody finding his way back to an old group of friends.
The result wasn't a tribute act going through the motions.
It felt like a collection of musicians who genuinely enjoy playing these songs and have spent enough years around each other to trust where the music is going before it gets there.
Somewhere around that point, it occurred to me that I was experiencing the Grateful Dead the same way a lot of visitors experience downtown Aiken.
The people in tie dye already knew where they were.
I was still figuring it out.
They knew the songs. The transitions. The moments that mattered.
I was busy discovering that songs I'd heard my entire life belonged to the same band.
And honestly, that's not a bad place to be.
The Grateful Dead have survived for decades because of the regulars. The people who stayed. The people who passed the music along. The people who knew every note before Thursday ever started.
But they've continued growing because curious people keep wandering in.
Somebody hears a song.
Somebody attends a show.
Somebody gets dragged along by a friend.
Somebody stumbles into it.
And suddenly they're interested.
Aiken works much the same way.
Founded in 1835, it has survived because generations of people decided it was worth preserving, investing in, and showing up for. The regulars kept it alive.
But the curious keep discovering it.
They come looking for something uniquely Aiken. Not an interstate exit. Not a row of chain restaurants they could find in any city in America.
They come looking for the things that only exist here.
Maybe that's horses.
Maybe it's golf.
Maybe it's a restaurant.
Maybe it's the farmers market.
Maybe it's a free concert tucked into a municipal courtyard between Newberry and Laurens.
Either way, they arrive curious.
And if we're doing our jobs right, they leave knowing a little more than when they arrived.
Thursday night, that curious person just happened to be me.
The Alley
Trivia Every Wednesday in The Alley
Making friends as an adult is weird.
As kids, somebody sat next to you in class, liked the same cartoon, and suddenly you were best friends for six years.
As adults, everyone is busy, schedules are packed, and somehow organizing four people to meet for a beer starts requiring the logistical planning of a moon landing.
That's why places like The Alley Downtown Taproom matter.
Every Wednesday, Mike Sleeper rolls in with a microphone, a stack of questions, and a remarkable ability to turn random facts into a competitive sport.
And here's the thing.
The best trivia teams aren't usually the smartest people in the room.
They're the groups where somebody knows 90s music, somebody knows history, somebody somehow remembers every actor who's ever appeared in a movie, and one absolute maniac can identify a country flag from three blurry pixels.
It's less about winning and more about discovering that your friend has been quietly storing useless knowledge for decades waiting for exactly this moment.
Add 47 taps of beer, wine, cider, mead, hard seltzers, and whatever other treasures are currently flowing from the wall, and you've got a pretty solid Wednesday night.
If your group chat has spent the last six months saying "we should all get together sometime," consider this your reminder that The Alley has already done the planning for you.
Locals Recommend Stark Plumbing
You know what's funny about plumbing problems?
Most of us don't actually know what we're looking at.
You discover water where water definitely shouldn't be. Maybe it's under a sink. Maybe it's dripping through a ceiling. Maybe it's that mysterious damp spot you've been pretending not to notice for three weeks because you're hoping it somehow fixes itself.
Then a plumber starts talking about supply lines, traps, valves, pressure, vents, and suddenly you're nodding along like you understand any of it.
According to a recent Stark Plumbing review, Curtis showed up to track down a slow leak, found the source, explained what was happening, and most importantly, gave the homeowner options instead of a mystery invoice and a shrug.
That might sound like a small thing until you're standing in your house trying to decide whether you're looking at a $50 problem, a $500 problem, or a "well, there goes vacation" problem.
Good tradespeople don't just fix things. They help you understand what's being fixed.
And if you're trying to juggle life, family, grandkids, work, or whatever else the day has thrown at you, having someone willing to slow down and walk you through it is worth more than most people realize.
If you've got a leak, a drip, a mystery puddle, or one of those plumbing issues you've been strategically ignoring, Stark Plumbing might be a good number to have saved before it decides to become a much bigger story.
(803) 866 - LEAK
The Bud Light Stage
Attorneys Who Exceed Expectations
"Sam Grimes and his assistant Jordyn Stanley were both not only excellent to work with, but also exemplary displays of professionalism at every step of the process. They resolved my case in a timely manner and fought for a resolution far more positive than i could have imagined. Can't recommend this firm (and Mr Grimes) enough, if you need help they're your best bet."
One of the most expensive phrases in the English language might be:
"I'll just handle it myself."
We've all done it.
Maybe it's a home repair. Maybe it's taxes. Maybe it's assembling furniture that clearly should have required a civil engineering degree.
And sometimes it works.
Sometimes.
The problem is that most of us only know what we know. We don't know what we don't know.
That's why I found a recent BMG Attorneys review interesting.
The client wasn't just happy with the outcome. He specifically mentioned that attorney Sam Grimes and his team achieved a result that was far more positive than he expected when the process started.
Think about that for a minute.
If you've never been through a legal matter before, how would you know what's possible? How would you know whether a settlement offer is reasonable? Whether you're being treated fairly? Whether there are options you haven't considered?
You wouldn't.
And that's exactly why experienced legal counsel matters.
Not because they're magicians.
Because they spend every day operating in a world the rest of us only visit when something has already gone wrong.
When life throws you into unfamiliar territory, having someone who knows the map can make a remarkable difference.
Hopefully you'll never need an injury attorney.
But if you do, BMG Attorneys is one of those calls that's probably worth making before you decide to "just handle it yourself."
Backyard: Drywall and Oaks
Mellow setting. Great service. Had the wings which were excellent. The mixture of the sauce was perfect. Also had the swing, generous portion of pork loin on a fresh bun. All ingredients complimented each other with none overwhelming.
A recent review mentioned our wings, the Swino, the service, and something that really stuck with me: that all of the ingredients worked together without any one thing overwhelming the others.
That's funny, because some days it feels like construction is overwhelming absolutely everything around here.
The lounge is getting closer every week, but when you're in the middle of it, it's easy to spend all day thinking about paint colors, trim work, inspections, and punch lists instead of the reason we're doing any of it in the first place.
Then somebody leaves a review talking about the wings.
Or the smash burger.
Or the atmosphere.
And it's a reminder that while we're busy building what's next, people are already enjoying what's here.
The wings have really started finding an audience lately. The burgers too. Every week seems to bring another person telling us they're the best they've had in town, and if I'm being honest, I'm still not entirely sure how to process that.
So if you've stopped by, brought a friend, shared a post, left a review, or simply given us a shot, thank you.
We'll keep working on the lounge. You keep letting us know how we're doing.
Thursday: Anna & The Funkle Brothers
Last year, Anna Hudson and The Funkle Brothers delivered one of those rare Amp performances that people were still talking about weeks later.
Not because of a clever gimmick. Not because of a viral video. Because a lot of folks walked away feeling like they'd discovered something before everyone else did.
Comments ranged from "We are watching history unfold" to "#BandOfTheSeason," while others simply declared, "She was amazing."
If you've never seen Anna perform, the surprise is built right into the package. Anna has a habit of creating visible confusion in first-time listeners. The voice arrives several sizes larger than the person producing it.
Backed by her uncles, Levi and Mike, along with the exceptionally talented Keith Petersen on guitar, Anna and The Funkle Brothers return to the Bud Light Stage this Thursday night.
If you'd like a preview, check out this fan-shot video from last year's performance:
And if you'd like the full story behind that unforgettable debut, revisit last year's recap right here: https://www.ampthealley.com/post/anna-the-funkle-brothers-became-a-new-favorite
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