If you’re willing to drive all the way to Memphis, might as well get drunk on Beale Street. Memphis is the birthplace of rock 'n roll, after all.
If y’all like country music, go to Nashville.
If you decide to go to Savannah, might as well have fun with the trip and recreate Sherman’s March. At least, that’s what we called it when we drove from Atlanta to Statesboro (Georgia Southern College (at the time)). We never really pushed into Savannah, but the I-75-to-I-16 corridor essentially recreates the western side of Sherman’s path.
Athens is quite beautiful during the break, despite what other posters may have said. It is probably too boring for you… until New Year’s when our wee little town become an alcohol fueled monster again. Maybe you should drop by on the way back from somewhere.
There are things I like, and it is pretty. But it is not fun, and although the OP will be with his friends, it is a very boring place to be by yourself, alone, during festivities, when one has grown up to pass them with loved ones.
But yea, the fact that the loop after 6pm looks like a wolf’s mouth (so dark!) is a bit scary. Thankfully I don’t need to venture far from my neighborhood too often (and how’s that for developing a small town mentality?).
If the OP had posted this in the summer, I would say there was Athfest. But at this time? He can look elsewhere.