Michael Stipe was freakin’ royalty in the Atlanta music scene.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really get in to R.E.M. until just before Lifes Rich Pageant came out, so I don’t have any of those cool “I saw R.E.M. at a Buford Highway dive bar for $2” stories like some folks I know. Also, I was 12 when Murmur came out, so a tad too young to be hitting Buford Highway dive bars.
I did, however, have several close calls with Stipe. I drove by a record store in Athens one day as he was walking out. I was 30 feet away from him at a Pylon show. I once showed up at R. Thomas, a 24-hour diner in Atlanta, just a few minutes after he’d left and the waitstaff were still all aflutter. I was always so close to meeting the guy, but could never seem to close the deal.
I heard that Dramarama was coming to town in September 1990. My then-girlfriend and a close friend went with me to the show, which was at the (original?) Cotton Club in Midtown.
The club was laid out like this: there was the main door. You entered and took an immediate right down a long, narrow hallway. At the end of the hall was the cashier’s desk\bouncer station. Once your cover was paid and your ID checked, you took a left and walked into the actual club, which, from your perspective, looked something like an uppercase “L”. To your right, there was a bar that nearly ran the length of, and was parallel to, the “base” of the L. The bar was in the middle of this section, not against the wall. In front of you were the “sides” of the L. The stage ran along the length of the “inside” side of the L. There was a large space for standing, and several booths lined the “outside” side of the L.