Atlanta Pre show meet up and show review….

So we arrived in Atlanta around 3:30pm, Greg was staying at an old school friends house about 15 miles north of Atlanta, i dropped him off there and then headed downtown to the Philips Arena, i wanted to get there and parked up before the rush hour traffic started.

Cool colour trees on the drive in to Atlanta.

Olympic torch from the 1996 Olympics

I parked up outside the arena around 4pm, i had a few friends that i was meeting up with pre show today and we’d all arranged to meet up at Taco Macs, a restaurant in the Philips arena complex. Chris Wagner, Jim, Zoyd, Kyle, Dave and a few others were all gonna be here.

I had an e mail last night from my good friend in the UK Dave Moran, i hadn't seen him since Live 8, the e mail was blank and all it said in the e mail header was “ Hi Simon, Dave Moran here - just wondered if you are at the Atlanta show?”  I had no idea Dave was coming over for any shows and was looking forward to meeting up.

A lot of us meeting up used to post on the Amused To Death message board in 1999 when Roger came out on tour for the first time in god knows how long! we had all kept in touch somehow and a few of us were meeting up tonight. My friend Kyle was coming to the meet up and we had been texting during the day, we missed actually meeting up at the Dark Side shows and i was looking forward to finally meeting face to face. Same with my friend Jim(aka Zoyd) we had met up here at the dark side show and it was good to be seeing him again.

This is the site that had the old message board we used to post on.

Amused to Death site

Zoyd, Kyle, Dave etc check out the link below to members area and read through the names and see how many we forgot when we were trying to remember everyone!!

Members area

I was the first to arrive at Taco Mac, then a few people started to arrive and we got a table set up outside for about 10 or 12. Dave Moran arrived about 15 minutes after id been there then Kyle and his friend Steve and Adam and then Zoyd and his fiancé Jaime. It really was fantastic to finally get to meet Kyle and to se Dave and Zoyd again.

Dave Moran and I                                Myself and Kyle                                   Dave, Myself, Jim and Kyle

   

It was fantastic to sit outside on the patio and have a drink and to chat to people i had known for years and some i had only just actually met. I have to say that i think Atlanta was THE best pre show meet up I've been at so far, just for the sheer quality of people that were there. It was great to actually have time to chat as well as everyone arrived when they said they would! most meet ups start at 5pm but everyone gets there around 6 or 6:30 and there's never enough time to chat however we were all there for 5 ish and had a fantastic time.

Jim and Jaime                                    Adam and Dave                                  Greg and his friend and others.

 

Chris Wagner and his wife and daughter Astrid arrived and his daughter has to be THE sweetest your girl I've ever met, Within seconds of meeting up she was telling me her favourite Roger song, which song she was looking forward to seeing and there was no shutting her up! don't get me wrong i wasn't complaining i was just amazed at how outgoing she was and her confidence!

Chris, his wife and Astrid.                               Myself with Astrid, SOOOOOO cute

     

Greg arrived with his friend and a couple of other people arrived and by this time it was going on 6:30, time to head over to the venue!

I have to say one of the highlights of the night was when Kyle's friend Steve lent on the security gate at the bar and set the alarm of, the security guy came running and had a laugh and joke at arresting Adam! i don't think anyone knew what it was at first, the waitress looked on in confusion and the same when the security guy arrived at first!

Steves Security breach!

I left for the venue with Kyle and once i go inside got a text from Greg to tell me i had left my camera on the table to Taco Macs! i headed back out there grabbed my camera and then went back into the venue.

We all met up once we were inside, Dave was sat stage right about 15th row, Kyle and his friends were a couple of rows in front of him, Jim and Jaime were about 7th row dead centre on the aisle and i was a couple of rows back behind Jim. Hassan didn't make it to this show but Amin did and he came over to meet up with Jim and Kyle whom he knows from the message board.It was great hanging out on the floor with such good friends and talking about the show. I played tour guide and told Jim and Jaime what to watch out for and when and where to look.

As i was sat talking to Kyle and Dave a guy shouted my name and said he had been reading the blog! i was once again spotted and had a quick chat to Alan and his wife, was great to meet you both and hope you enjoyed the show!

Jim and Jaime on the floor                   Dave and Kyle in their seats                Myself with Alan and his wife

    

Jim pointed out how he had been to a hockey game here a few months ago and knew if Roger was touring the wall shows he would definitely be playing this venue. why ? well look at the walls inside the venue at each corner!!

Notice anything similar to the wall?

With a few minutes to go we all took our seats and Brent the homeless guy was at the front of the stage ready to throw Pink in front of the mannequin holding Rogers coat and sunglasses.

Pre show panorama

The band sounded a touch off to me tonight to be honest, just the timing of their entries into the first couple of songs, wasn't real bad and maybe it was because id just seen a couple of amazing shows a few days before in Ft Lauderdale and Tampa who knows. I could see Jim and Jaime's face during In The Flesh and they were completely blown away, that made me happy! I didn't take many picture at this show but the ones i did came out kinda cool.

     

Jim and Jaime came back to stand with me for a few tracks as the guy in front of them was apparently all over the place and drunk before the show had even started. How can people pay $250+ for a ticket and go to the show like that! do they even remember the show the next day ? ok i know i did once in New York in 2007 but that was a mistake,lol

 

At intermission Jim, Jaime and i chatted about the show, Amin came over to see us and said the same as me, he thought it was good but the band were just off slightly. Dave's guitar went down in what was probably one of the worst places it could have done for him, right at the opening riffs of Young Lust! it was only down for 10 seconds or so though.

Everyone stayed seated for Hey You, and then started to stand up during Is There Anybody Out There, by the time the hotel room came down for Nobody Home the whole place was standing up again.

Roger now has a holder type thing  for his machine gun, Robbie doesn't have to hold it and hand it to him, Roger just picks it up and places it back in the holder to his right. A few shows ago Roger started rolling his R’s at the beginning of Run Like Hell, he did this again tonight “this is Rrrrrrrun Like Hell” he said.Once again i noticed there was mayhem on the floor when Roger threw his armband into the audience and i then saw someone hold it up in the air triumphantly pronouncing they had it!

The post it note type projection made another appearance and Roger shot it down as he had done a couple of nights before in Tampa.

Dave K has been suffering from a chest infection for the last few days but you would never know it to watch him play he doesn't show any signs of faltering at all. They have changed a little guitar bit during Run Like Hell, kinda hard to describe but Dave has a little bit of a riff he now does on his own half way through.

The wall came down pretty good tonight as you can see from the video below

Atlanta Wall fall

Id rate the show as probably an 8 out of 10 however to anyone that hadn't seen the show before the only mistake and problem they would have noticed was Dave's guitar going down during Young Lust.

We all headed back to Taco Macs after the show, as i was flying out to Houston early the next day i had booked a hotel out at the airport for tonight and  only stayed for one drink and left rather early, was great to hear what Kyle, Jim, Jaime, Adam and the other thought about the show before i left though. All in all a fantastic night with some amazing friends and its certainly one of the show that i wont forget in a hurry

Security, Chris myself and Kyle                 Chris and I

 

 

More pictures from Atlanta.

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Panorama below after the show