Deck the Hall Ball - Atlanta

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Twas the day before the Deck the Hall Ball and all through the town. Everyone was scurrying because Vertical Horizon was down.. Like a modern day version of It's a Wonderful Life, Atlanta's own Marvelous 3 saved the day at this year's annual Christmas fund-raiser.

The 2000 version of the Deck the Hall Ball, a fund-raiser and a canned food drive for the Atlanta Food Bank was to feature performances by the Wallflowers, Vertical Horizon and PaloAlto. 48 hours prior to the event, Vertical Horizon's lead singer was given tragic news of a death in his immediate family. The untimely death forced VH to pull out of the big fund-raiser. Almost like a guardian angel, Butch Walker, the energetic frontman for the Marvelous 3 called host radio station 99X and offered his band's services to fill in for Vertical Horizon. And fill in did they ever.

The Marvelous 3 did everything but steal the show as it was their night. The hometown heroes helped boost late tickets sales. The large ad vocal crowd rose to their feet once M3 took the stage. M3 played a torrid set playing many cuts off their newest album "Ready, Sex, Go!" In the middle of the set, Walker the charismatic lead led a grand rendition of the classic Queen song, "Bohemian Rhapsody." They also threw in a few choruses of vintage Meatloaf as Walker serenaded the audience singing "Two out of three ain't bad." They finished the set with their breakout hit, Freak Of the Week."

Headlining was a little band from New York called the Wallflowers. You know these guys, fronted by Jakob Dylan. Marvelous 3 seemed like an impossible task for some one to follow, but the Wallflowers did a great job. Touring in support of a new album "Breach" and riding the charts of new single "Sleepwalker," the Wallflowers were up to the challenge. During the course of their set one was quickly reminded that almost every single off of their first album charted. To add an extra air of celebration to the night, Saturday was also lead singer Jakob Dylan's birthday. The band serenaded him as the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to the younger Dylan. Dylan was also a recipient of a birthday gift from a fan who knew of the occasion. The gift, not what you might think - a belt buckle. A rousing night was finished with an encore of the Who's hard rock anthem, "We Won't Get Fooled Again."

Opening the sow was PaloAlto The young rockers did an excellent job as they sounded very much true to their album, a surprise with many of the newer bands out there. They definitely won over some fans with their excellent set. But, alas, for Butch Walker and Marvelous 3, it was indeed a "wonderful life."