Viva Nashvegas!

June 17, 2004

i lost my virginity last night. well of a sort.

I`ve been Nashvegas for three months now and i attended my first live show at the Ryman auditorium.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nashvegas it is one of the premiere live music towns in the world. there at least four stadium venues; the Starwood amphitheatre, the Gaylord entertainment complex, the Ryman auditorium and of course the Grand Old Opry, plus a myriad of smaller venues and it`s not just country music. Nashville is a must stop on all tours, from OzzFest, Dave Matthews and Prince to Hillary Duff and Simon & Garfunkle. Plus there are all this up and coming indy bands playing at bars all over the place. This weekend, the $5 music series, Dancin in the District kicks off with Cake.

I had the great fortune to start my Nashville live music experience at the Ryman with Keb` Mo`. It rocked. From the opening act to the final encore, I can`t remember the last time i enjoyed a show so thoroughly. the lights, the sound engineering, the performances, the professionalism.

i`ve always said, if i had to take up a second career path it would be sound engineering and not in studio, but live. there were a couple of minor hiccups during the opening act; Shelby Lynn`s first couple of songs, but for the rest of the night, the sound was perfectly balanced.

professionalism at a stage show is something that i always admire, i mean you already have the patrons there, you could just play an hour and leave and we, the patrons would just have to live with it. Keb` Mo` played for close to two and a half hours, interacting with the crowd, trying to acquiesce to all the requests shouted at him. what was also interesting to see was everyone was taking care of their hearing, ear plugs all around, none of this getting older and not being able to hear because of too many loud gigs.

all in all i would i have been glad to spend the night doing anything with vic, but being at the concert was icing on the cake. and we got home to more good news, which precludes me having to drive to Memphis at some ridiculous hour tomorrow morning.

edited for subject change.