Atlanta holds a special meaning for me. I had never been there before February when my friend Kat and I trekked down from New Hampshire to catch The Donnas at the 99x Sinner’s Ball at the Compound. It was my very first Donnas show and after that I was 100 percent hooked. So when the girls came back to Atlanta and put on a show at The Earl, I was there. It was sheer coincidence that the show in Atlanta during the Feather Nation Tour would become my 10th show. How cool is it to reach one milestone in the same place as the first one?
We left North Carolina fairly early though not quite as early as we had left Connecticut and headed out on the highway towards Atlanta. Surprisingly, traffic was very light, our hotel was easy to find and the club was even easier to find. We caught up with a friend of Christine’s who lived in Athens and drove into the city to find the venue. When we found The Earl, it was painted Bitchin purple and was already hopping. It seems that it’s open all day long and serves food. But because it was already open we were wondering about the line and when doors were. When we went in to find out about the show we discovered that the show was sold out. The Atlanta show and the Buffalo show were the only two shows that I didn’t have tickets for.
Somehow through the good graces of the universe one ticket was available and one of my traveling companions picked it up and sold it to me. That was a close call! But I figure that if I hadn’t been able to get a ticket through conventional means, I’d hunt down one of the guys from American Bang who’d been so cool all week long or wait around for one of the girls to come by for a chat. With ticket in pocket, however, Tony (my Donnaholic pal) and I set about the task of catching the girls pre-show and finding some type of food.
We hung around outside The Earl for a while near The Donnas’ tour bus. Roland (the band’s 
merchandise guy) walked by a few times and said hey and we saw Joey running back and forth from the load-in area to the bus. And of course we saw this bitchin’ art on the side of the building which was practically begging to be photographed. So I did. Pretty much anytime you see a giant mural of a Pabst Blue Ribbon can it should be photographed, remember that boys and girls.
After hanging around for a bit, however, we headed back into The Earl for some food. A few years back I’d spent some time in Nashville, Tenn. and learned that bar food can often times be amazing. The food at The Earl wasn’t a let down. A few Bud Lights later and an awesome hamburger and we were good to return to hanging out by the bus.
As luck would have it, the bus was pretty much deserted so we headed back into The Earl to await doors opening. The last time I’d seen The Donnas in Atlanta it was at the Compound, a much swankier looking club (which while nice, was really not my scene.) The Earl was simple and much more appropriate for a full-throttle, balls to the walls rock show. Once doors opened, I took up my spot in front of Allison Robertson’s mic stand and got ready to fight anyone who challenged me for my spot (not really, but you never know when we might hafta throw down.)
While we waited for American Bang to start their set, I noticed that the monitors weren’t on the stage but resting on what looked like flight cases braced by some cinder blocks. It wouldn’t take much for these to topple over. I was waiting for Brett Anderson to stop down on one and watch it go flying.
It didn’t take long for American Bang to come out and start playing. Over the shows I’ve noticed that they start their set with maybe five of us standing stage-front (Donnas fans no doubt.) but by the time their set is finished the stage area is crowded with people banging their heads. This show was no exception and about two songs into American Bang’s set, I noticed a flurry of blonde hair waving around off to my right. Lo-and-behold The Donnas’ Torry Castellano was seriously rocking out to the music of American Bang (and with good reason.) I made a mental note to rib her about that the next time I saw her as I’ve never seen ANYONE rock out so hard in the crowd before. Way to go, Torry!
When American Bang finished up, Donita Sparks and the Stellar Moments set up and brought the house down. It’s really nice to see so many L7 fans in the audiences and its even better seeing so many of those fans embracing Donita’s newest project. The Stellar Moments are definitely worthwhile I just wished they could have played longer.
By the time Donita was done, however, she’d accomplished her mission. The audience was all frothy for The Donnas who came out with the same set as the previous nights:
Bitchin
Don’t Wait Up For Me
Who Invited You
Wasted
Fall Behind Me
Girl Talk
All Messed Up
Like an Animal
You Wanna Get Me High
What Do I Have to Do
Round & Round (Ratt cover)
5 O’clock in the MorningENCORE
You Make Me Hot
Take it Off
Let’s Go Mano!
Well that’s not entirely accurate, I suppose. Yes, the setlist had all of those songs on it but either Brett forgot about “Let’s Go Mano!” or they ran out of time. We noticed a sign over a door that noted a curfew (!) so its possible they just axed the song for time’s sake. I also noticed, however, that when Brett announced “Take it Off” as their last song, Torry and Allison exchanged confused looks but went with it. As always, the girls played a fantastic set, though much to her chagrin (and my amusement) Allison went to stomp down on her EQ pedal coming out of the solo for “All Messed Up” and missed the pedal, stomping down hard on her tuner instead, killing the sound from her amp. You could see the quick look of panic as she and her guitar tech both frantically tried to hit the tuner again, but Allison shook it off, laughing her ass off on stage.
When the show was over, however, I was eyeing Allison’s setlist. I had Brett’s from Atlanta but I really wanted Allison’s for some reason – most likely because as I’ve said before, she is my guitar 
hero. When I saw no one taking it, I kneeled on the stage, pretty much laid across her pedal board and ripped the list off the stage (it was taped down pretty good with gaffer’s tape.) Once I had the setlist secure in my hand some girl who’d watched me struggle with it actually had the nerve to ask if I would give it to her. Right.
Anyway, with setlist in hand, we headed off to the bar for some Jack and Coke (a true rock and roll classic in my book.) But as we stood at the bar, Allison saw me and waved us over and so, not to disappoint we headed in her direction only to be stopped by a certain Donita Sparks and her 
bassist Dat T. Ngo (who incidentally is one of the coolest bass players I’ve ever met.) We chatted with them for a bit before I was mauled by Allison with a daily hug (I really miss those now that the tour is over.) We chatted with her for a bit before the bar Nazis kicked us out and we went to hang out by the bus for a bit.
And you can wait all you want by the bus but when there is marijuana around (we could smell it) and the booze is flowing, don’t expect to see anyone leaving the party early. So we called a cab and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our last day of the tour.
And now, enjoy some photos from the show:
GREAT SETLIST! PLEASE POST MORE! THE DONNAS RULE!