Nashville

I took an impromptu trip to Nashville with a couple of friends yesterday. I had a haunting suspicion that Nashville was a little country, but it was really country. We went to quite a few places on Broadway, 2nd Avenue, and Printer's Alley. We started at a place called Tootsies. From what I can gather, Tootsies is to the Nashville country music scene as CBGB was/is to the punk rock scene. Next we went to a bar/club called The Stage. This place was pretty big and had, as you might imagine, a really big stage. The sound system was insanely loud as evidenced by the arrythmia that I now suffer from. I recieved a phone call from a buddy of mine that left us some tickets for a show that he was opening for at a venue called the Wild Horse Saloon. This place was enormous, three levels, giant dance floor (for line dancing and other such activities), and tons of really attractive girls. We felt really cool because there was a ton of people wanting to get into this sold out show and we just walked up to the door and said we were with the band and got in. Okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but we still had an in. Nashville was really cool in that every single place had live music (including street performers). Also, it seemed as though there was no place that wasn't at least 3/4 capacity. Tootsie's and the Stage were incredibly packed. The people that were out are also worth commenting on. There were college type people (from Vanderbilt I'm guessing), hicks, old (over 40), and young. I was rubbing elbows with hot girls with pointy shoes, expensive clothes, and designer perfume and mingling with guys in wrangler jeans, heavy starched shirts, cowboy boots, and brut cologne. By the end of the night I found myself watching the rodeo on TV and commenting "at boy kuh ride". For those of you that are unfamiliar with Nashville speak, it translates roughly to "that gentlemen is quite capable and adept at maintaining balance upon that unusually large, ill-tempered bovine". Needless to say, I had a great time and am looking forward to doing it again.