Garrison Keillor, taping NPR's "Prairie Home Companion," hates Chastain

Here's Garrison Keillor's comments about his awful experience at Chastain during a live taping of "Prairie Home Companion" last Friday. (He's heard on WABE.FM/90.1). It's at his web site http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/

"Saturday's broadcast from Chastain Park amphitheater was not the show it might have been, and I am awfully sorry. The show (which was taped on Friday evening) was troubled by a large number of loud drunks sitting in the expensive corporate seats down close to the stage. This is an odd experience for me, to be standing on the lip of the stage and telling the news from Lake Wobegon and hearing people yell at me, "Tell the one about the dog" and "How's the fishing this year?" and so forth. You could hear the wine bottles clanking for two hours. There were six thousand other folks in the audience who seemed to be fans of the show but all I could hear were the drunks snarfling and bellowing down below. And so the show as a joyless affair on stage, and when it was over, I walked off and didn't return for a bow. I have never felt so miserable as I did Saturday. If Chastain Park were par for the course, I would've quit years ago. I apologize to the six thousand."

And that's the news from Atlanta where all the men are drunk, all the women obnoxious and all the children forgotten.

The last time I went to Chastian was to see Yes. During "I've Seen All Good People" a guy jumped over his seat to choke the guy in front of me. During Steve Howe's acoustic guitar solo a guy stood up in the audience and yelled acroos the auditorium, "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I PAID TO HEAR STEVE HOWE! SO LET'S ALL SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HIM!" Then a guy across the auditorium yelled, "SO WHY DON'T YOU SIT YOUR ASS DOWN?" I felt embarassed for Yes, and don't plan on going there again.<P ID="signature">______________
~ArtyBoy
www.ArtHoward.com</P>

I saw (the real) Styx at Chastain in 1996 and it was noisy....REALLY noisy. Sometimes you could hear the din of crackers and tables being unfolded as well as you could hear the band.

As a goof on the wine and cheese set at the show, Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung stepped to the front of the stage at one point and asked, "Hey, who cut the cheese?"

> The last time I went to Chastian was to see Yes. During
> "I've Seen All Good People" a guy jumped over his seat to
> choke the guy in front of me. During Steve Howe's acoustic
> guitar solo a guy stood up in the audience and yelled acroos
> the auditorium, "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I PAID TO HEAR
> STEVE HOWE! SO LET'S ALL SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HIM!" Then
> a guy across the auditorium yelled, "SO WHY DON'T YOU SIT
> YOUR ASS DOWN?" I felt embarassed for Yes, and don't plan
> on going there again.
>

Anyone who tours knows to ask, if they are picky about it, about whether the venue is appropriate for their act. It's very rare to get a polite crowd for "table shows" at Chastain. So, in this case, Garrison is the fool. Last year the Kenny Loggins and Bowie shows were great. Other shows I've seen were horrible due to the rude idiots in the tables. Music Midtown-Pukefest is even worse, providing a great opportunity for those under 18 to get drunk and vomit on your feet.

In June of 1988..some inbred yuppie threw a big piece of cheese at Jethro Tull genuis Ian Anderson...Anderson jumped off stage and beat him to death with his flute....no charges were filed because...everybody agreed that the yuppie deserved it.

These Chastain stories are great...here's mine.

My last Chastain experience lead to an ear disorder which I still deal with..they think it's Minere's(sp) Syndrone. Any how, the day after the concert, I had a non stop ringing in my ears. Went to the doctor..he diagnosed it..then asked..what kind of concert was it...I was embarrassed to tell him "Peter Paul and Mary." We both got a good laugh off that one.

Had there been any rowdy drunks at that concert..Mary would have just sat on them.

Before that one..it was Liza and it was tough to tell if the drunks were in the audience or on the stage....or both. She wasn't up to it that night and I think may have been more than the heat...but just like her Mom...the audience didn't really care. It was a great show.

Isn't it true that ASO's lease on the facility has a rather short term which is running out.I'd like to see ASO get a summer concert resort sort of like Tanglewood.

> Here's Garrison Keillor's comments about his awful
> experience at Chastain during a live taping of "Prairie Home
> Companion" last Friday. (He's heard on WABE.FM/90.1). It's
> at his web site http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/
>
> "Saturday's broadcast from Chastain Park amphitheater was
> not the show it might have been, and I am awfully sorry. The
> show (which was taped on Friday evening) was troubled by a
> large number of loud drunks sitting in the expensive
> corporate seats down close to the stage. This is an odd
> experience for me, to be standing on the lip of the stage
> and telling the news from Lake Wobegon and hearing people
> yell at me, "Tell the one about the dog" and "How's the
> fishing this year?" and so forth. You could hear the wine
> bottles clanking for two hours. There were six thousand
> other folks in the audience who seemed to be fans of the
> show but all I could hear were the drunks snarfling and
> bellowing down below. And so the show as a joyless affair on
> stage, and when it was over, I walked off and didn't return
> for a bow. I have never felt so miserable as I did Saturday.
> If Chastain Park were par for the course, I would've quit
> years ago. I apologize to the six thousand."
>

> In June of 1988..some inbred yuppie threw a big piece of
> cheese at Jethro Tull genuis Ian Anderson...Anderson jumped
> off stage and beat him to death with his flute....no charges
> were filed because...everybody agreed that the yuppie
> deserved it.
>


Then maybe Tull deserved the first Metal Grammy. Cause beating a yuppie to death with a flute is pretty metal.

Yuppie beating should be an Olympic sport as far as I'm concerned.

Throwing my hat (story) in the ring.... I saw Ray Davies from The Kinks jump off the stage into the table area, and tell everyone to "shut the #$%@ up", but my favorite was Neil Young. The talkers were so loud during his opening acoustic set that he stopped, looked around, said "I'll be right back", came back with his band Crazy Horse and played so loud that it drove everyone to the back of the venue!

Now that was entertainment!<P ID="signature">______________
" All my life I've always had my *#@$ together...Problem is I've never been able to pick it up" (Burt Reynolds "The Longest yard")</P>

> I have never felt so miserable as I did Saturday.
> If Chastain Park were par for the course, I would've quit
> years ago. I apologize to the six thousand.

I saw the show, and to his credit, I thought it was a fine performance and I never noticed his misery.

> Yuppie beating should be an Olympic sport as far as I'm
> concerned.
>
> Throwing my hat (story) in the ring.... I saw Ray Davies
> from The Kinks jump off the stage into the table area, and
> tell everyone to "shut the #$%@ up", but my favorite was
> Neil Young. The talkers were so loud during his opening
> acoustic set that he stopped, looked around, said "I'll be
> right back", came back with his band Crazy Horse and played
> so loud that it drove everyone to the back of the venue!
>
> Now that was entertainment!
>

I posted this on a thread up above...

Chastain sucks. Unless you're a yuppie type. If you like tables with wine, cheese, candles, & St. Pauli Girl, AND talking during the show, it's GREAT!!

I've been to several shows there (mistakingly expecting it to be better each time) and have had pretty much miserable experiences each time.

First and foremost, unless you're sitting in the "expensive coporate seats" (quote from Keillor in Rodney's write up), your seat sucks. Unlike Phillips, Tabernacle, Gwinnett Arena, or even Hi-Fi Buys, there is no such thing as a good seat at Chastain.

If you're in the middle of a row, you're screwed. If, for some reason, you need to get up, you have to dodge all of the stupid little tables covered with wine, cheese, & candles....trying as carefully as you can to not knock over Chad's table with the wine, cheese, & candles on it. Heaven forbid.

If you are going to the concert because it's an act you'd really like to see, wait until that act comes back to another venue. Why? You're not going to be able to enjoy it because of the constant noise. Talking, wine bottles clanging together, tables (covered with wine, cheese, & candles) getting knocked over are just a few things that will not allow you to fully enjoy the show.

"Why not sit on the lawn?"
The lawn? Oh, you mean that skinny strip of grass way back on Wieuca Rd? Yeah, the one I paid $32.50 (per ticket) to sit on? Yeah, no thanks. Oh wait, do you have a telescope? I might be able to see the drummer with it!

There are a few pluses though. If you're in to uppity midtown/Buckhead chicks who want nothing to do with you unless you drive a BMW, it's a GOLD MINE!!

Oh, and don't forget the lovely TROUGH system in the mens room. Classy! Turner Field has nicer terlits than that. Ladies? No matter how long the line is for the restroom, WAIT. Trust me on this one.

If you want to prepare for the Peachtree Road race, the best thing to do to condition yourself is to go to a concert at Chastain. And park there. It won't necessarily help you with speed, but it will certainly help you with walking long distances in the heat. Both uphill and down, you'll get QUITE a work out. Because parking at Chastain (as with most things there) sucks.

I like Hi-Fi Buys much better. It doesn't TRY to be a classy, unobtrusive concert venue.

Sorry if I left out any emotion on this...I'll try to be more open about it in the future.

Don't go to Chastain unless you really want to stretch the legs on that new table of yours....I'll try not to knock it over when I'm walking by you at the Clay Aiken show.
<P ID="signature">______________
Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff.</P>