Q:Cat and Smoota both seem to have fond (if vague) memories of the Atlanta show. Since you have hilarious memories of other shows, I'm wondering if you have any from that one.

svennysvensven

Don’t know that what I remember of Atlanta is relevant at all to an audience’s experience at the show, but I do have some distinct memories of that day. 

I’d had a hard time sleeping the night before. We traveled in a tour bus and would sleep in little bunks on the drive over night from one venue to the next. I think because we drove up over the mountains that night (from Knoxville?) and because of the air pressure in the cabin, I kept waking with this pain in my ears. When we arrived in Atlanta we were given directions to a hotel in which we could shower, take naps, re-civilize ourselves. I stumbled there with my luggage, and with Yuuki Matthews, I think. After showers and shaves we wandered around the CNN center looking for sandwiches and coffee. We didn’t find good coffee. We found something barely resembling the stuff. We were both bleary eyed and puffy and a little hung over from the night before.

In Knoxville, Sufjan and I had hopped on a pair of ten-speeds after the show and explored the town a little. It was drizzling. We rode fast when the road was straight, but were very careful around the corners. A year before, I had slid fifteen feet on my dislocated arm after taking a turn too fast on wet pavement. I have a shiny circle of scar tissue that looks like a cigarette burn on the inside of my left elbow as proof. 

Yuuki and I found our carbs and caffeine and repacked our bags and rolled back through Olympic Park to the venue. Before soundcheck, I wandered around the salon rooms in the front of the venue, making note of the large bed-like couches. I remember it being quite humid, though maybe that’s more an influence of the presence of these over stuffed bed/couches and the hand painted patterns on the walls than any real function of memory. The whole place had a cave-like atmosphere. 

After the show, someone showed up backstage who we all sorta knew, but hadn’t seen since the beginning of the tour. I don’t remember who. I do remember people taking turns riding through the narrow halls on a bicycle. And we watched 16 Candles while eating dinner. And dinner had some stellar stuffed peppers. 

See? Not very interesting.