OK, I'll start.
Let's see, we flew in Friday morning, was picked up by two of my friends. There we three couples in our group. All three of the guys are my friends from college, and their fiances. One of the friends is a recent Psychiatry grad doing his post-grad rotations or whatever it is you have to do for a few years down there at Vandy, so that's where we stayed. Anyway, on the way from the airport we stopped at a food joint whose thing was Crepes of all sorts. We all got some breakfast crepes (pretty much omlettes, but crepes instead). They were OK. Then we napped. After a few hours we made our way down to Broadway, that's where all the action was taking place.
First we stopped at The National Underground for dinner and our first few beers.
Several beers later, we ended up at some free outdoor concert feature some of the acts that would play on the main stage at LP field that night.
Soon after that we somehow ended up in a Coyote Ugly Bar. This is when I remember that around this time is were I just missed my chance to meet MonkeyZero. But, on the bright side, we got to see this really large drunk girl dance on the bar. Then, the MC Coyote Ugly girl told them all if they wanted a free shot they needed to get down on all fours and take it off the bar without using their hands. There were probably well over 20 girls on the bar willing to do this.
Well, the face of the girl right behind the larger woman, when she realized she was only moments away from bending down right behind that ginormous ass, all in the name of a free shot, ... that was priceless.
Shortly after that (we didn't stay for more than one beer and a chance to powder our noses) we went to The Hard Rock to see a friend of mine perform. He went to the high school nearest mine and we were in a few community jazz band groups together. We were also in college marching band together. The guy is a
phenomenal bass player. His band is called Raven Cliff.
After that, the girls and guys decided to split up for the night. The girls went to LP Field to see the big acts on the main stage.
The guys went to a Hot Chicken place called Hattie B's. AMAZING!!!
http://www.hattieb.com/
(sorry, no pics of the rest of the night. It was a bunch of guys. Drummergirl took all the pics you're seeing)
After that we stopped into a speakeasy style bar. They had a menu of great cocktails and bartenders who you could tell were capable of actually tending bar. Just about every drink was $12, but well worth it. I ordered a Blue Ridge Manhattan. The ingredients said Laphroiag, which intrigued me, but I almost felt guilty drinking good scotch anyway but neat. The waiter assured me that it was only a little around the rim, so I tried it. A+ Would drink again.
After a drink there we went to some dive, younger crowd bar that I can't remember the name of. We eventually met some of his school friends. The girls made it there in a cab after the concert, and soon after that Night #1 was over.
The next day, after sleeping in, we went out for breakfast at Edley's Bar-B-Que. It was pretty good.
http://edleysbbq.com/
Next door was The Filling Station. A small beer store that sold and filled growlers. My friend from Nashville had a couple and I bought one as a souvenir. We filled them for later. On the way home we stopped in to Bosco's, a restaurant and brewery, to get a sampler of their selection. They were all good, but I would recommend the Isle of Skye Scottish Ale. Tasty.
After Bosco's we went back to home base for a short rest and to re-powder our noses. Then us and the other non-local couple went downtown to Rock Bottom Brewery were we got more samplers. Drummergirl really enjoyed hers.
...maybe a little too much.
OK, OK, that picture was staged.
That night our friends went to LP Field and drummergirl and I hit the town. We ended up at a bar called Bootleggers Inn. We stopped in for a second because of a sign outside saying they sell moonshine. Now, I'm from WV so I was of course skeptical and had to see for myself. It was alright, I suppose, but I've had much better back in the hollers, and at $7 a shot, it was pricey. Somehow, we ended up staying there about the whole night. We met another couple from Michigan and ended up talking all night, buying rounds, and listening to the bands.
I'll take a minute here to state that one of the coolest things about Nashville is the music scene. Even the lowliest of the dive bars has bands that would make most towns' Home Town Hero band sound like The
Turdles (see what I did there?).
So anyway, many drinks later, the D-girl and I are hungry and it's about time for our friends to get our of the concert. We stumble down the street looking for a place to eat. (that rhymes) We ended up in a joint called Bailey's Sports Grille. It was not crowded, had some live music, and the food was decent for bar food. I had a Philly Cheese Steak. Our friends met up with us, they all ate, and we headed back for a good night's rest.
The next day, Sunday, the other couple had to hit the road. After two nights of partying, nobody was in a hurry to do much of anything. We slept in, hung out around the house, went out to some diner for lunch whose name escapes me, nothing special. That night we head down to LP field for the last night of the festivities. Now, it was calling for rain. Throughout the concert we were warned that if the rain came we'd be asked to go onto the concourse and wait it out, for our safety. Then, later, after the two opening acts, we were given the new game plan. Since the rain was definitley coming they were going to make sure that we got to see all the acts. So they were each going to come out and play a shortened set (weren't they shortened enough with only about 3-4 songs each?) and go in rapid fire succession, one after the other. That was the plan. Now, let me tell you how that worked out in reality. A band came on, played 2 songs, sometimes only 1, and then left. It would take 15-20 minutes to set up for the next act. Then they'd play for another 5-10 minutes. Well, finally we were down to the last act. No more set changes needed. We'd seen everyone. Carrie Underwood was taking the stage. After her first song she said "We're going to play until the rain comes!" which arose wild applause and praise from the crowd. Two songs later, they were done and packing up and everyone was ushered out of the stadium. But, to be fair, the rain was coming. We needed to be safe. So, we walked to our car (15 minutes). Drove to a pizza joint (15 minutes), it was closed. Drove to another, then another and finally it was open (10 minutes). Ordered a pizza and waited for it. (30 minutes). Drove home and started eating (15 minutes). THEN it actually started raining. At least an hour and a half after shutting everything down, maybe up to 2 hours.
Oh well. Country music isn't really my thing anyway. I actually appreciated the short concert. I just thought the whole "we're so bad ass we're going to stick it out until it starts raining" claim was funny. I bet when she said that she was being told that it was going to start pouring in the next 10 minutes.
Can't bet on the weather...
It was cool though, we got to see Charilie Daniels play some fiddle with Brad Paisley.
The next day, Monday, our hosts had to work. Drummergirl and I went out for coffee then had lunch at a place called Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant.
http://www.puckettsgrocery.com/nashville/
It was so hot I had left the windows of my friend's car cracked. Right after dinner it started POURING so we had to run the 2 blocks back to the car in this downpour and were soaked from head to toe, haha. After changing clothes back at the apartment we just relaxed until our friends got home from work.
That evening my friend drove us to the airport and we were on our way back to Norfolk.
I definitely want to make it back some time. Hopefully this time Jaxn will be available for a drink and maybe MonkeyZero will be in town again.
Oh well, see you guys at P-stock. heavy-metal-044
