atlanta

[maria]

so we drove from tampa to atl on the day off and what was a 6 hour drive felt like 15...took forever and was so draining. We made it to atl and to my friend luke's place. Hung out with him and his dog and just rested since we knew we had a GA show the next day that would exhaust us. Day of show we get to venue and are asked to wait at this gate way outside the venue and that if you have a public transportation pass (marta) you get in an hour early. So i had to go drive to get the pass at the bus station, luckily it was close by. Waiting all day was not that bad since the weather was pretty nice and cool...it wasn't until later that it rained and was cold.We had a pretty good time waiting in line, met lotts of nice people including some of the hardcore fans. When it was time to get inside we walked calmly and then we were all put into lines at the gate. We could hear all of soundcheck, which had probably just started around 4:30. They soundchecked maybe 10 songs including talk show host which they hadn't played in some time. Once we were allowed into the venue it was mass hysteria. No one knew where to go or where to run to. The security was just unprepared for us and had no idea where we needed to be. All the while, the band is still soundchecking. Eventually wrist bands were given out and in we went, still with lotts of confusion. We made it front and center and the show was so great. It felt like the band had way more energy that the previous nights in florida, almost like they needed to have this close proximity to the fans in order to really rock out. There were some problems with the LED screens right when it was time for them to start...not sure how they fixed it but the screens seemed to work fine the rest of the night. After the show i saw some good friends, one of whom flew out for this show. She was not disappointed! See you in charlotte!-m