A rockin’ reunion as the Star Bar Homecoming brings it all back home to L5P

The Moto-Litas, who haven’t publicly performed together since 2002, will get the weekend going on Friday, as the Star Bar prepares to change hands by year’s end.

::

By now, most savvy Atlanta music fans have heard the news that after 35 years, the Star Community Bar in Little 5 Points will be closing soon. Counting down to a December 31 deadline, the venerable venue will be showcasing several fan-favorite attractions before it passes the torch to the owners of the Red Light Cafe.

This Friday and Saturday night, 10 of the club’s most popular Atlanta-born bands will take the stage as the “Star Bar Homecoming” corrals the troops for one more round of raucous garage rock, country-fried twang, libations, shenanigans and good-natured music scene camaraderie.

At press time, bands slated for the gala include The Woggles, The Lizardmen, The Lost Continentals, The Blacktop Rockets, Sonoramic Commando and more. A few special guests may appear to join in on the fun.  

The celebration kicks off on Friday with a special reunion performance by The Moto-Litas. The surf/pop/punk quartet hasn’t publicly played together in their original lineup since 2002.

“It’s crazy that it’s been almost a quarter of a century since we’ve played a show,” laughs drummer Stacy Kerber.

Kerber will be enlisted for double duty on night one of the reunion weekend. For the past four-and-a-half years, the instrumentalist has been a member of Catfight!, the veteran Atlanta-based punk-pop trio. She said Catfight! has a new indie single (“Stay Mad”) available and is currently working on another full-length album, tentatively scheduled for release next year.  

“Playing in both the Moto-Litas and in Catfight! has changed my life in great ways,” she said. “They both gave me courage to play with a band and really contribute something that people can enjoy. It’s made me realize I am the person in control of my life, and I can actually do the things I thought I couldn’t do. It’s been very empowering.”

“We’re all very grateful we’re still alive, and the even more amazing thing is, we all still really like each other,” she continued. “That seems to be the case with most of the Star Bar scene, which includes a lot of very different styles of music. But I think at the core of it, we’re all garage rockers at heart. Even the country bands were probably just as inspired by punk rock as we are.”

Kerber noted that the upcoming happening was conceived well before anyone was aware of the pending Red Light transition.

In May, musician and longtime surf culture enthusiast Jet Powers (Dan McNeill) and his wife Lorrie had the idea of putting together a reunion-style affair. “This was long before anyone knew anything about what might happen to the Star Bar,” Kerber said.

“There was a long text thread going around about it, including several people from the early days of the scene. [Bassist] Erin [Bradley Dangar] passed it on to all of us and said, ‘What do ya think?’ The stars just aligned.”

“Literally within 30 minutes or so, we all agreed to do it,” recalled guitarist/vocalist Courtney King. “It was like, ‘Yeah, it’s time.’”

King said once plans were in place, “It was a case of ‘We haven’t played in over 20 years; can we learn the songs we haven’t played since then?’ Luckily, we had a few months to get ready, so that helped us to sort of ease back into it.”

The process was surprisingly seamless, continued guitarist Mary Collins. “As soon as we got into a room together, things just started coming back to us. It was like the songs had always been there.”

With two full-length albums of material, 2000’s Talk Your Way Out Of This and For The Greater Good from 2021, the band had plenty of songs to fill the reunion set list. The only problem was that the musicians couldn’t locate a copy of their own first album.  

“Songs from the second album would pop up on my playlist sometimes,” King continued. “But not the first record, because nobody had one anymore. Finally, Erin found a copy down in her basement.”

The “lost” album offered the ‘Litas an aural shock at first. “When we finally heard it again, I think we were pleasantly surprised by what we heard,” said King. “Most of us had completely forgotten about those songs, just due to time. Back then, we were just learning how to write and create our own identity.”

The Moto-Litas literally created their own band personas when they first began playing live shows. Inspired by Atlanta instrumental surf band The Penetrators, the group assumed a batch of kitschy pseudonyms. King was credited as “Kitty Kowabunga,” Collins adopted “Trixie Riptide,” Kerber was “Betty Boomskins” and Dangar became “Leggy Limbeaux.”

For the band name, Dangar recalled that her uncle had a vintage Jaguar with a “Moto-Lita” steering wheel. “That was the brand many of the cool vintage British sports cars had back then, including the Aston Martin DB series. So the name was a nod to The Penetrators’ enduring appreciation of the whole James Bond thing and ’60s culture.”

“But even though our fake names were kinda jokey, I took myself very seriously when we were playing out for our two records,” laughed King. “Back then, I was concerned about where we should play, how we looked — that whole thing. Now, none of that bothers me anymore. Let’s just have a good time, play these songs and enjoy it for what it is — or was. And the best part is, it still feels good to be doing it.”

“Now that we’ve been musicians for a long time,” added Collins, “we can take these songs to different places if we want. We can extend certain ones that were sort of sketches on the original recordings. We can play around with it all now, because we know it so well from a distance and from these months of rehearsals. We’ve even learned the songs in their original key and in a lower key, just in case.”

“Yeah,” said King. “If I get that cold that’s going around, we’re ready to take it down a notch. I was singin’ to the heavens back then, and we never thought about any sort of long-term damage that could happen, but that’s because we were young.”

All the members maintain that there has been no animosity among the membership. “We all see each other on social media or whatever, and we’ve stayed in touch a bit,” explained King. “There was no kinda ‘I hate that person and never want to work with them again’ attitude going on. It was more, ‘Let’s just relearn this stuff.’ That was our main focus when we got together for rehearsals.”

Making music was such a high priority, the ‘Litas didn’t consider the commercial side of live performances. “We didn’t even think about making T-shirts for this show,” explained King. “We never really discussed making anything but music. So we won’t have T-shirts to sell, but we did find some stickers!”  

When asked if their harmonious practices might lead to writing, recording and eventually releasing new music at some point, King said they aren’t ruling it out for the future.  

“Well, we’re definitely not retired. But since it’s been so long since anyone has seen us like this, it’s about finding our arms and legs and hands again — just making the songs sound good in the moment.”

Initially, the group, which met through social and workplace relationships, was new to the stage and the subtle nuances of playing live. “I’d never played guitar standing up when we started,” said King. “That’s how new we were to it all. Erin had been in bands, but the rest of us were learning as we went along.”

Originally, the fledgling outfit began rehearsals in the fall of 1999. By New Year’s Day 2000, they made their official debut at the now-defunct dive bar Dottie’s.

“We were originally just going to play surf music and open for The Penetrators,” said Dangar. “But we ended up doing more of a garage sound with vocals and some surf infused into it.”

“And yep, we were dumb enough to play the first show of the year, on New Year’s Day after the millennium,” recalled Collins. “I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

The show was a modest success, attended by supportive friends and family. Influential journalist Gregory Nicoll (Creative Loafing, Stomp and Stammer) was also in the audience.

“I could tell right away they had something different, something special, even at that first show,” he said recently. “Over the years, I’ve seen debut gigs from a lot of promising first-time ensembles, only to be disappointed when they couldn’t hold their group together and continue to make music. I was so happy when the Motos actually made a go of it.”

A few months later, the band recorded and self-released its first album while their fan base grew. The following year, singer-songwriter Amy Ray signed the band to her Decatur-based Daemon Records label. The result was For The Greater Good, issued a month after the chaotic frenzy of 9-11.

Long out of print, both collections are currently being uploaded to streaming platforms, including Spotify and YouTube.

“In the couple of years we toured together, we played with some really cool female-centric bands,” said King, “including Amy’s band, The Butchies, and 1945. There were some cool indie rock bands going back then, including The Breeders. We opened for them at the Echo Lounge, and that was one of the highlights of our whole time as a band.”

The original foursome last played together in 2002, and Collins and King led a short-lived co-ed version of the band into 2004. “But it just wasn’t the same,” said King. “When the original four of us get together to play, something different happens. Now, with the future of the Star Bar in doubt, we’re determined to make this an even more special event. This is our last time to play the Star Bar, and we’re gonna make it count.”

“The Star Bar has been my home for live music for almost 30 years now,” said Dangar. “I can’t even count the number of shows I’ve seen or played there. I’m bummed its run is coming to an end, but we’ll have some wonderful friends around us for this show.”

So what’s next for the happily reunited Moto-Litas? “Well, that’s the unknown,” said King. “Right now, this is it. We know nearly everyone on the bill, so it’s more like a family reunion than a ‘show.’”  

“It’ll be like the coolest high school reunion you can imagine,” concluded Collins. “I think people should be there both nights, because who knows what might happen? For us, we’ll party like it’s 1999. We’re basically starting all over again. But this time, we’re armed with the knowledge of living and playing music.”

Where &and when

The Moto-Litas open the Star Bar Homecoming on Friday, November 6. 7 p.m. doors on Friday, 6 p.m. doors on Saturday. 437 Moreland Ave., Atlanta. 404-390-3062. starbaratl.bar.

::

Lee Valentine Smith is an Atlanta-born artist, writer and musician. Currently a regular contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his work has been syndicated internationally. He has appeared at Music Midtown, on CBS Radio and on Air America. He also served as art director, consultant and archivist for projects with ’80s hitmakers The Go-Go’s.