Day 5: Atlanta, GA
Nau mai
Yesterday we played in Atlanta, Georgia.
We woke up to an absolute stunner of a day in Atlanta. Lavonda was parked behind the Variety Playhouse Theatre, and her Kermit-green paint job was sparkling like a vampire in the sunlight.
Ben Locke, bass player for Phoebe Rings relaxes against Lavonda’s bumper.
Gabe’s parents had come to the show in Asheville, and his mother Izy (heroic supporter of the blog) had left behind three large shopping bags containing a carefully curated breakfast spread. After emerging from my bunk, the first thing I did was explore these bags, cataloguing the various ingredients and beginning to plot an approach towards my morning meal that would do justice to these gifts we had been granted. I decided to let the ingredients speak for themselves. A toasted ‘everything bagel’ was smeared with cream cheese on one side and hummus on the other. There were three varieties of cheese to add to this situation, as well as pickles, and cured trout and salmon. On the side I had a bowl of granola, with yoghurt and blackberries.
Our previous outings in Atlanta had all been in the city’s downtown. We were on the east side this time and this neighbourhood had a very different character. Walking up the street from the theatre there were vintage stores, boutiques, smoke shops, and eateries, and plenty of colourful murals and street art.
The Variety Playhouse theatre was an extremely pleasant room to inhabit. Loading in was straightforward with the door to the theatre only a few meters from the tail-ramp of the trailer, and everything able to be wheeled in and up onto the stage without a single joule expended on lifting. It was a lovely old theatre, a building dating back to 1940 that begun its life as a cinema, inhabited many roles, even time as a plumbing warehouse before eventually transitioning into a fine music venue for 1000 patrons.
We spent some time after soundcheck browsing the vintage stores in the area and assembling the final details together for our outfits. At 8:45pm we were getting suited up in our green room beneath the stage, and at 9:03pm we went on, slightly late after a few minutes of panic trying to get my radio pack situated beneath my inflatable costume. Jon had spent a furious half hour before the set plugged into his computer and his sampler getting a selection of musical cues ready to be dispensed to the audience at a push of a button.
Dr Ellie Satler took the stage first, binoculars glued to her eyes as John Williams’ theme gently crept through the speakers, carried by the strings and woodwinds. Dr Alan Grant followed a few moments later, and the two figures looked out over the audience, marveling at the natural wonders of Isla Nubla. The serenity was short lived as the T-Rex arrived on the scene accompanied by a dramatic change in the music, the strings leaping into a furious angular motion to reflect the tension carried by this new villain. Thankfully Ian Malcolm came out next, accompanied by powerful cheers, the swagger of this leather jacketed swashbuckler bringing the mood in the room to a new high.
📸 Alexa Kravitz
This was our how our first Halloween show played out. There were costumes galore in the audience, all the way from Lord of the Rings, to Reese’s Pieces, to Liz and the Lobster costume from the Noy Joy music video. Looking out over this beautiful assembly of characters was an experience we will never forget.