Lollapalooza Trip with Manchester Orchestra, Day One

By Dan Hannon

Yesterday started in Atlanta with the band (Manchester Orchestra) and me meeting at 11am at Vision Rehearsal studios, loading the trailer and hitting the road!  Well, we hit the road to QuickTrip for some Rooster Booster Icees, 20 oz. Red Bulls, the current issue of Us and Star magazines, and some waters. THEN we hit the road!!

Well, after discovering that the GPS no longer worked, we hit the road to WalMart in Chamblee  (which is surprisingly short on van and trailer parking) to purchase a new unit. While Robert circled the parking lot, the rest of the guys sauntered into Walmart and I hurried into Smoothie King to get a 32 oz. Power Punch Plus to give me the ‘healthy boost’ that I expected to need for the first band road trip that I’ve embarked on in several years (not counting the short run in April for which I flew to Newport News, VA, hopped in the band van and rode with them back down to Atlanta after 2 shows).  So after acquiring the new Garmin GPS unit,  complete with a handy dash-mounting kit, and a selectable vehicle icon–either an arrow, car, or Monster truck–we were HITTING THE ROAD!! The road that led from Walmart to Suntrust Bank!!

Jeremiah needed to pull out some cash for per diems and other travel necessities. This would be the third trip up or down Peachtree Industrial Blvd. for me on this exciting first day of tour with world-traveling indie rock sensation Manchester Orchestra.  FINALLY, we have the money, we have the GPS, we have snacks and rivetingly-entertaining-celebrity-gossip-periodicals…we’re ready to HIT THE ROAD to Columbus, OH–our final destination on this exhilirating first day of the tour!!! YES!! Except that we have not yet redeposited any of our crisp $10 bills that we all received as per diem money (yes, even little ole me!!) at the  prestigious Bank of Chik-Fil-A, an establishment that has welcomed many a $10 bill from us throughout our many roadtrips! How could we pass up such an opportunity to invest in our nutritional futures?!  SO, once again we were journeying up Peachtree for another arduous two-tenths of a mile.

After we finished eating at Chik-fil-a (I chose just to finish my Smoothie), we headed back up Peachtree to Vision Rehearsal Studios to complete a sort of round-trip-supply-gathering-test-run-tour. ‘Why back to Vision Studios’, you ask? Well, I had forgotten my sunglasses, of course.

We arrived in Columbus, OH at about 11:30 pm est at the Holiday Inn.  We ordered 3 medium 3-topping-pizzas from Papa John’s and retired to bed with full bellies.

Over.