9.24.2005 |  Nashville (Part Tres)

posted by Jon
19:29 | SAY SOMETHING |



I learned two things this weekend. The first was that it is totally worth it to spend the extra $50 a night to stay in a nice hotel. A, you get comfortable beds and a clean room and B, you don't have to walk nearly as far to get anywhere good. Luke, Caleb, Derek and I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard on 4th and Church and it was well worth every penny.

The second thing I learned was that so far I can count on Nashville to deliver. The city of Nashville has yet to let me down. The first trip I made seemed at the time to be untoppable, but the second trip was just as awesome in a little bit different way. This third time was absolutely no exception, and I am very very pleased to have made the choice to go. I got to eat at Market Street Brewery again (great British Pub with friendly staff, good beer selection, and good food), but that was about the only thing we did that we've done before. We didn't have too much time to spend, so we ate at Market Street, walked to the river, then got ready for the show.

I gotta say, I expected Sufjan Steven's concert to be great. I was pretty excited about it. The doors were supposed to be open at 8, but didn't open till 8:30. Then it was after 10 before the opening act even came on stage. Her name was Liz Janes, she's hot, and a very good uke and guitar player. Sufjan played the drums for her, and the rest of the Illinoisemakers made up the rest of her band. Her songs, however, were not very good, and although performed well were very boring. She wrapped up and then the waiting started again.

Apparently some sort of security concern that they wouldn't give any details about had arisen, and they wouldn't let the band back out for another hour. All that standing was wearing us out, and we still had Sufjan's show yet to begin. Eventually, the lights came on and the Illinoisemakers ran on stage skipping and jumping dressed in pep-rally uniforms. It was - weird.

They started a song about the entire United States of America, and the combination of Sufjan's music plus the schizo delivery was actually very well done, humorous, and was somewhat ironic at times, due to the serious/sad content of a lot of his songs. They performed several cheers for Illinois intermixed throughout the songs (which cover a broad assortment of topics and stories relating to the state, many of them being very serious in subject), so the overall feel was quite ethereal.

This was too much for my brother and Derek to handle, and they ended up being turned off by the charades, but Luke and I enjoyed ourselves a lot. I can't wait for the next state to be released so I can see what they do for that one. Caleb and Luke took lots of pictures, so hopefully they'll be online sometime soon.