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"To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield"
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1833

"live deep and suck out all the marrow of life"
- Henry David Thoreau, 1845

"Some guys, they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up,
And go racin' in the streets"
- Bruce Springsteen, 1977

"...to the heart, there's no time for you to waste.
You won't find your precious answers now
by staying in one place"
- Frank Turner, 2009

"The best things in life aren't things
They're living and breathing"
- Michael Franti , 2011

"Well, this world is ours while we are in it
Grab a hold of my hand
And we can take it
Together, our lives are just one passing minute
It could be gold, if we make it"
- Jay Buchanan, 2012

"We've got these times of our lives
Let's take this time to let it show
'cause these are ours.
These are ours!"
-Justin Furstenfeld, of Blue October 2013

"I owned every second that this world could give,
I saw so many places, the things that I did"
- Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, 2014

"No cash in the bank, no paid holidays
All we have, all we have is
Gas in the tank, maps for the getaway
All we have, all we have is time"
- Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, 2014



All written content and photos by Rob Fulfer unless otherwise indicated.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Grace Be With Us

We took a half-day off from work today to check out a noon-time in-store acoustic performance by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at Grimey’s New & Preloved Music in Nashville. GP&N are one of our favorite bands to see live right now and this 3-song set was a great primer for tonight’s sold out show that we had tickets to at The Cannery. There were quite a swell of people inside the small store which takes up the ground floor of a large converted 3-story house. We were only able to get glimpses of the band over the heads of others, but the acoustics were very good. Afterwards we were starving for some lunch and decided to track down The Grilled Cheeserie, a Nashville-based sandwich truck that specializes in gourmet grilled cheese delights. Thanks to their Facebook page we learned that they were over in the Berry Hill neighborhood nearby. Despite some drizzling rain there was quite a line of people waiting to place orders when we arrived. Service was fast and efficient, however, and we got our wheat bread sandwiches fairly quickly (Ashlee’s added bacon to hers and Rob added shaved ham). They were delicious. Despite having some good dessert options, we decided to fore go them and head over to The Cupcake Connection on the other side of downtown in the Germantown neighborhood instead. This place gets rave reviews (and long lines) and we were hoping the rainy Thursday afternoon would give us a chance to check it out without too much waiting. There was a line, but it wasn’t too long and we were able to snag a half-dozen delectable cupcakes of assorted flavors including key lime and coconut-creme. We each had one to start with and saved the rest for later.
Besides the rain and fog we were currently dealing with in Nashville (photo above), there were predictions of heavier rain and possible flooding and severe thunderstorms for later in the evening, and we thought it might be best to grab a room downtown for the night after the concert let out late, instead of trying to drive home. Thanks to Travelocity.com’s Top Secret Hotels option, we were able to snag a 3-star hotel near the venue for only $38. It turned out to be The Comfort Inn on Demonbreun Street. We checked in that afternoon and found the room to be decent and definitely worth the price. Still dodging rain and with some time to kill before dinner and the show, we headed over to The Flying Saucer and had a couple of beers out on their couch-filled foyer. Not a bad way to spend a rainy Thursday afternoon. Around dinner time we made plans with our friends, Gary and Cary, to meet at Taco Mamacita for dinner. We recently ate at the one in Chattanooga and found it to be wonderfully fresh Mexican fare at reasonable prices. The Nashville location was an equal match with good food and a nice setting in the Edgehill Village near Vanderbilt.Their outdoor patio will be a great place to hang out some evening when the weather warms up. Our friend, Sharon, joined us for a drink before we left and was also going with us to the GP&N show. We three took a cab from the hotel over to the show's venue nearby.
We got to the The Cannery early to stake our general-admission claim of standing- room area for the sold-out show. We ran into one of Ashlee old Bunko participants, Beth, and her husband, Mike, who were about to experience their first GP&N show. We were also able to track down Ashlee’s junior-prom date and friend, Dennis, and his wife, Kristie , who had driven up from Chattanooga to catch the show. Our friend, Ryan, had tickets as well and when his date plans fell through he offered the extra ticket up and our friend, Nate, snatched it up. So, we had quite a little group gathered when the opening band, Jonathon Tyler & the Northern Lights, took the stage. We saw these guys last year at Bonnaroo and really like their stripped-down Texas blues-rock. They were a perfect opener for GP&N. Miss Potter and the band took the stage around 10 PM and wowed the huge crowd for the next two hours with an amazing amount of energy. They played most of their fan-favorite originals plus a few amazing covers from My Morning Jacket and a smoking rendition of Heart’s “Crazy on You.” The rain was pouring down after the show and we were certainly glad for the short ride in Nate's van back to the hotel. We set the alarm early and we able to get back in time for work on Friday morning.

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