Outdoor Rock
If you find yourself in town in the summer months in Atlanta, you'll find yourself outdoors. Atlanta is a city that thrives on the months where the temperature hovers at a balmy 90 plus degrees. With the summer heat comes an influx of summer concerts. A vast majority of them can be found at Lakewood Amphitheater-just south of Atlanta.
Last Thursday night, Radiohead came to Atlanta. A group of friends and I attended, the show was fantastic, the crowd was enthusiastically into the show (over 19,000 people total attended) plus the sound was great.
At Lakewood there's two types of seats, uncovered and covered. A grass lawn that's sloped so you can see the stage. The other section is entirely reserved seats under a covered roof-if you can spend the extra money and you'd like to actually see the band and not just listen-this may be the best bet for you.
I thought I could highlight a few things to make your experience a little smoother. Tickets like most large venues these days can be found only through Ticketmaster. Look in the weekly free paper The Creative Loafing for a listing in the back of all the upcoming shows. If your looking to save a bit of money, the local Publix grocery stores have ticketmaster sales centers in each store. It's a good way to get in to popular shows as well as some cost savings from servicing fee.
Since Lakewood is in a off the beaten path part of town, I recommend doing one of two things. The first, car-pooling. Parking can be troublesome, and pricey. Last Thursday the cheapest parking we found was a steep $20.00 per vehicle-and that was in a very non-official grass lot. The second suggestion I would make is to try your hand at MARTA. Take the train southbound to the Lakewood station; just outside on the night of concerts there are buses or shuttles that will drive you to the front gates of the amphitheater. For a $1.75 it's a great deal.