Nash-Vegas
Played a gig in Nashville last night, which counts as our sixth out-of-town show. It was at a little place called Windows On The Cumberland, which sounded like it would be a pretty swank establishment by the name, but was in fact a complete dive. There were a set of large windows at stage left that overlooked the Cumberland River. There was really nothing else redeeming about the club, with the exception that the people who worked there were all super-nice and helpful, and the other drummer let me use his kit. 'Windows' is closing down soon, I hear, so the connection we made there was kind of useless, in that we won't be able to come back. About forty people signed our mailing list, though, and that cannot be a bad thing.
Some observations about Nashville:
-You can get people in Nashville to come out to shows like ours, where neither band was prominent or even popular in town, and nobody really knew who either of us were. You cannot, however, get these people to dance. They sit in chairs with one leg draped over the other at the knee joint and sort of wobble their ankle around in loose correlation to the quarter notes. But they are not easily dance-o-fied. I'm not even saying this because my time was weird all night. The other band we played with did not get their crowd to dance either.
-Blues cover bands in Nashville sound like recordings, like perfect recordings of blues cover bands.
-In Nashville, there are museums dedicated to the life of Charlie Daniels. Admission is free, but you are expected to buy something at the gift shop.
-In Nashville, good sushi is refreshingly inexpensive. Hamburgers are way overpriced.
-Girls in Nashville are beautiful. They are gorgeous and they come out to shows and talk to you afterwards with that accent that ties you into knots, and invite your band to come party afterwards (even though you can't because it's two-and-a-half hours back to Louisville, tack on another hour for the time change, and you have to at least attempt to wake up before two in the afternoon the next day) and once again, I live in the wrong fucking town.
-If you are in a car in Nashville, you are probably not moving as fast as the people walking around you.
-You probably cannot get a gig in Nasvhille as a startup band. there is too much competition. If you take an acoustic guitar out to a street corner and start playing, however, you can easily make as much money as we do at Gerstle's every sunday.
-In Nashville, people huddle in half-circles outside of sports bars, peering in the entrance to catch a glimpse of the football game on the big TV. For like a half hour at a time. Seriously, dude, your hot-ass wife probably wants to go do something else.
Some observations about Nashville:
-You can get people in Nashville to come out to shows like ours, where neither band was prominent or even popular in town, and nobody really knew who either of us were. You cannot, however, get these people to dance. They sit in chairs with one leg draped over the other at the knee joint and sort of wobble their ankle around in loose correlation to the quarter notes. But they are not easily dance-o-fied. I'm not even saying this because my time was weird all night. The other band we played with did not get their crowd to dance either.
-Blues cover bands in Nashville sound like recordings, like perfect recordings of blues cover bands.
-In Nashville, there are museums dedicated to the life of Charlie Daniels. Admission is free, but you are expected to buy something at the gift shop.
-In Nashville, good sushi is refreshingly inexpensive. Hamburgers are way overpriced.
-Girls in Nashville are beautiful. They are gorgeous and they come out to shows and talk to you afterwards with that accent that ties you into knots, and invite your band to come party afterwards (even though you can't because it's two-and-a-half hours back to Louisville, tack on another hour for the time change, and you have to at least attempt to wake up before two in the afternoon the next day) and once again, I live in the wrong fucking town.
-If you are in a car in Nashville, you are probably not moving as fast as the people walking around you.
-You probably cannot get a gig in Nasvhille as a startup band. there is too much competition. If you take an acoustic guitar out to a street corner and start playing, however, you can easily make as much money as we do at Gerstle's every sunday.
-In Nashville, people huddle in half-circles outside of sports bars, peering in the entrance to catch a glimpse of the football game on the big TV. For like a half hour at a time. Seriously, dude, your hot-ass wife probably wants to go do something else.