My first time at State Farm Arena to watch the Atlanta Dream take on the Chicago Sky was such a fun…read moreexperience! The energy in the arena was electric, and there was so much engagement throughout the game. From the crowd to the entertainment, it felt like there was always something happening. I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy the arena was to navigate. Everything felt accessible and straightforward, which made the experience even more enjoyable. And a major bonus: parking is conveniently located right across the street, with a covered entry point into the arena. On a rainy Atlanta day, that was a game-changer! Overall, such a fun first experience.

I can fine nothing wrong with this Arena…read more Entry was smooth sailing... clear bags or small bags... the will be going through it and have you walking through a metal detector. Have patience. Staff- Each member me and my son came in contact with gave exceptional customer service. Everyone was really nice and helpful. Ambiance- Very pleasing to the eyes throughout and the signage is good. We didn't need to ask which way to go, to get to our seats, very explanatory. Seating/view- Pretty comfortable seating wise, but not much leg room. If you have height on you, it can become a little uncomfortable. My son said he was struggling. It doesn't look to be a bad seat in the building. We sat in Section 108 and we had perfect view of the court. Restroom- Pleanty of stalls and clean. Food and Drinks- We didn't eat because we had plans after. But I have to say, I do feel there food is high for what you would get. Though I feel the way I do, I would still purchase. Event- The Big 3...they handled it well. They transformed the court perfectly. We had a great time.

I was invited to see a showing of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! at the Cobb…read moreEnergy Centre on Saturday night. Oklahoma! had five showings during the weekend (January 6-9, 2011) and is part of the 2010-11 Gas South Broadway Series. This version was scaled down and featured a young cast of 19 actors and actresses. The sets were smaller and the orchestra consisted only of a keyboardist and percussionist. The entire show consisted of two acts with an intermission in between (not exactly in the middle) and lasted almost 3 hours. There were many empty seats in the 2,700+ seat venue. So many, in fact, that the ushers allowed us to move down to get a better view of the stage. I'm not a big fan of musicals and I'm certainly not an expert on them, but I did think the actors and actresses did a very good job in both singing and acting. They really got the turn-of-the-century Oklahoman accents and mannerisms down. The story and dialogue were quite funny at times. I enjoyed the music and the theater's sound system was good. My favorite songs were "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," and "Oklahoma!" As mentioned previously, the sets were small. They consisted no more of a couple houses and a few props, really. The wardrobe was nice. Overall, I had a good time and wouldn't mind seeing more of Gas South's Broadway Series. #Yelp365 - 10/365

Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy returned to Atlanta on June 7 and 8, 2013. Distant Worlds…read moreis the name of the international Final Fantasy symphonic concert tour. It started in 2007 and has been touring the world since. Distant Worlds first stopped in Atlanta on May 6 and 7, 2011. You can read my review of the 2011 concert here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/distant-worlds-chicago. 2011's Distant Worlds is not the first time a Final Fantasy concert stopped in Atlanta. The first time was 2005's Dear Friends concert. Renowned Final Fantasy conductor Arnie Roth conducted each time. Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu attended in 2011 and even joined the choir to sing Sephiroth (FFVII). Since Nobuo-san did not attend in 2005, a special video message was played to the audience. There was no such video message this year. Boo. I've attended the Final Fantasy concerts in each of the three years it's been to Atlanta and all three were magnificent shows. The differences between the shows from year to year has been minor. The music from the video games is orchestrated and there is not a lot of variation from the game melody to the arranged orchestrated melody. The songs are very true, if not exact, to the original game soundtrack. This contrasts to a video game concert like the Zelda series, where the producers can introduce slight variations to their symphonic arrangements of the music. This year, I attended the June 8 concert. Two songs were exclusive to the June 7 concert and two songs were exclusive to the June 8 concert. They were: June 7 exclusives: Final Fantasy IX - Melodies of Life Final Fantasy XII - Kiss My Goodbye June 8 exclusives: Final Fantasy VIII - Eyes On Me Final Fantasy XI - Distant Worlds Final Fantasy V - Main Theme I purchased tickets to the concert shortly after they went on sale in January. The date-exclusive songs weren't announced at that time. The vocalist for the concert was Susan Calloway. She was picked by Nobuo-san to sing the theme song for FFXIV. I would have preferred some of the songs, such as Suteki Da Ne (FFX) to be sung in their original language (Japanese). It was weird hearing an English version of that song. Regardless, Calloway did a masterful job and had a beautiful voice (and dress). New material this year included a Chocobo Medley, which debuted in 2012. This, surprisingly, was my favorite piece. It was lots of fun. Also new was a Battle and Victory Theme Medley, also introduced on tour in 2012. I video recorded many pieces from the concert including the two aforementioned medleys. You can view them on my YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrr0d7WQIs3whKHlHF-NQ5SfJkre5oueV. In all, 18 pieces plus one encore were performed. There was an intermission halfway through. At least one song was performed from every main Final Fantasy game (e.g. no spin-offs like Tactics, X-2, XIII-2, etc.). Popular songs included the main theme to FFV, the FFVIII battle theme, the FFXIII battle theme, FFVI's Phantom Forest, Aerith's Theme (FFVII), and Terra's Theme (FFVI). The music was accompanied with excellent visuals on a big screen. I like how each song started off with the logo of the Final Fantasy game the song came from. The videos were designed to appropriately fit the music. They contained a combination of original gameplay video, from the original 8-bit NES graphics to the current 1080p HD graphics, and montages showing Yoshitaka Amano's mesmerizing artwork. The beautiful paintings of Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow interspersed with the 16-bit Super NES Phantom Train scene in FFVI stuck with me the most. One nitpicky complaint I have with the visuals is many of the videos had Japanese text. I can understand they want to keep the original Japanese text, especially since this is an international tour. However, they go to enough North American cities to where I think they can produce a separate set of English-text videos. The Zelda tour, which is strictly a North American tour, uses English text in its videos. The story telling is much more captivating, emotional, and dramatic that way. It connects with the audience that much more. The encore, Sephiroth, was sung without a choir. Therefore, Arnie and the orchestra had to rely on the audience to sing the lyrics. I thought this was awkward. In 2011, there was a full choir and it sounded great. This year, I had to listen to the two dorks behind me sing it awkwardly. Unlike all the video game concerts in Atlanta up to this point, Distant Worlds 2013 did not sell out. I love video games and I think it's a real treat to be able to attend a video game concert, so I hope Atlantans and surrounding neighbors keep supporting it so they return again and again.

So far, I went to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert twice. I went to the first concert on…read moreMay of 2011 and thought it as mediocre. Granted, the 2011 concert seemed bigger. They brought in Nobuo Uematsu. They also played some great pieces like "Maria and Draco" from Final Fantasy 6 and the Sephiroth theme from Final Fantasy 7. Nobuo Uematsu even join in with the choir to sing with them. However, it had some flaws. One of the singers was out of tune. And the concert just seemed lackluster. It felt like the ASO didn't really care about the concert. Unlike the Zelda concerts, where the producer had genuine enthusiasm, the Final Fantasy concert didn't have the same Oomph as the Zelda ones. When they came back in 2013, I felt skeptical about going, but I decided to give them another chance. I liked this concert a lot better. I'm not sure if it's because I had low expectations going in, but the quality seemed to have improved. There were less people there, but they still seemed obnoxious. Speaking of which, a lot of socially-challenged people come out of the woodworks for this concert. Some of them show no concert etiquette. Call me old fashioned, but I expect people going to classical concerts like these to act a certain way. I hate it when people smoke, leave and enter when they please, shout stupid stuff during the concerts, etc. Sure it's a video game concert, and it's fun when people get excited, but some people turn into nerdy douchebags. Anyway the 2013 concert had some great music. The production seemed better for some reason. They played my favorites like the Bombing Mission from Final Fantasy 7, Zanarkand and Suteki da Ne from Final Fantasy 10, some great chocobo and battle theme medleys, and Eyes On Me from Final Fantasy 8. Speaking of Eyes on Me, I got excited when the conductor announced he was bringing out a singer from the Final Fantasy series to sing it. I almost thought they got Faye Wong to come sing it. That would've been awesome. I'm a huge Faye Wong fan . Unfortunately, it wasn't Faye Wong. It was only Susan Calloway. It didn't matter, she sang awesomely. She was 1000 times better than that amateur singer from 2011 concert. Also as an encore, they played the Sephiroth theme again. Since they didn't have a choir, they got the audience to sing the parts. I thought that was cool since it made it more interactive. I was surprised how many people knew how to sing it. So I had a great time at the 2013 concert. It rivaled the Zelda concert with the performance and choice of music. The 2011 concert was okay. Also, the people who went to the concert distracted the greatness of it. So I give it about 4 stars.

This years Holiday show was great fun. The music was so festive, and had several modern…read moreadaptations. The finale was a total hoot, showing the chorus's talent in a very amusing way. Will definitely go again.

This amazing choir came to Hendersonville, NC for my brother-in-laws memorial. These guys are top…read morenotch performers and gave our city two concerts we will never forget. Two thumbs up!

The Alliance Theatre is Atlanta's national theater, founded in 1968. I can't remember the last time…read moreI was here for a play, though I've seen the Atlanta Symphony (ASO) perform. This show was on the Coca Cola Stage, and I was so impressed! It is a beautiful space, and the balconies are works of art themselves. The set design was stunning, realistic, and high quality. The staff was amazing, friendly, and had a great sense of humor. I sat on the balcony level, which you can access by stairs or elevator. Once on the balcony level, there are stairs to take you down to your specific row. The morning show was GA, so I arrived early and sat right in the middle around row C seat 109. It was a great view and honestly, I don't think there's a bad seat in the theater! For parking, I used my High Museum membership to park in the garage for free. Just a heads up, the garage parking isn't guaranteed with a membership if they hit capacity. People can pre-purchase parking for popular shows, so if it's a busy night, I recommend pre-purchasing parking so you don't end up having to pay for street or alternative garage parking. When entering the garage, I prefer using the elevators closest to Peachtree St NE rather than the other ones. Take the elevator to the campus level, make a left, then another left, and you walk right into the Alliance Theatre. The Coca Cola Stage will be right there on your right. There is plenty of comfortable seating on both the first and second levels while you wait for doors to open, and the bathrooms are clean and spacious. When you arrive, you walk through security, and they may check your bag if the alarm goes off. You don't need to show your ticket until you actually enter the theater doors. Intermission was 15 minutes, and although I didn't try any food or drinks, I had a wonderful time. I'm looking forward to coming back for another show! I definitely recommend getting on their mailing list to stay updated on performance schedules throughout the season or following their social media pages.

I would love to rate this as a five star, but the fact that they do not validate parking in the…read morehigh museum, does not allow me to give them a five star. My kid attends the Pnc story time. The space is amazing full of sensory and fun and the storyteller does an awesome job with engaging through music play and storytelling. I believe I enjoy it more than my child does at this point and it has become a hit for all of our Mom friends the ability to reserve the space and utilize it yourself for a playgroup or your own storytelling time is awesome as as well. I believe something like quarterly. They also provide you with a book to take home for your child which helps improve your child's library and diversifies it quite a bit because they also offer books in Spanish.

I booked DJ FlyZone for my sons Graduation Party, and he did an Awesome Job. His Rates are Fair and…read morehe Kept the party Going all Night.

This is indeed all it's cracked up to be- Atlanta has it! My…read morefirst time here & I live an hr away. First time here & at the ACDC Concert! Not mad at this situation! I see lots of security (due to concert), but never felt safer walking into a venue. This is a BIG venue, a lot of walking & stairs. I'm certain they have handicapped accessible parking, ramps, elevators & assistance, but I was not looking out for this. We walked in after going through security & it was so clean, not overwhelming & plenty of space for the thousands of guests to walk & not feel on top of each other. I don't have pics of the breezeways or concessions- but I do have a fun clip of the ACDC concert & inside the stadium. Stairs are easy, but thin & a little awkward. A handrail, yes, but due due to the shape of the building the stairs & seats are shaped accordingly. Be careful! Had a great time! Maybe now that I've been we will get to a Falcons game- humm, gotta do better birds!

Super interesting stadium given the unique retractable roof. The venue provides for an exciting…read moreambiance, regardless of the team you're rooting for. I also appreciate the quick to-go fast foods that you can pick up without waiting in line (along the lines of Amazon Go). Employees are generally friendly in guiding you through the stadium. The entry/exit process was quite odd. I was surprised at how chaotic the ticket checking process was when walking through...super disorganized, but we ultimately made it work.

If you're looking for something fun to do with your friends or a nice team building event for your…read morestaff, this is definitely the place for you. It was 32 of us and they were able to accommodate all of us. The games were fun and entertaining. Our host did a great job and the MC has a voice made for radio, it was amazing. I would love to come back and do this again.

We had a great time celebrating my aunt's birthday. Everyone was kind and accommodating. We'll all…read moreagree that it was super fun and we'll be back someday.