Dances with Wolves and Sings in a Band

April 14, 2012 - While we didn't know any of his music, the thought of seeing one of our favorite actors, Kevin Costner, front his band, Modern West, at one of our favorite small music venues in Nashville, The Exit/In, was just too interesting to pass up.  That was also the case of seven of our friends who tagged along to check it out as well.  Thanks to Brenda, Danny, Chris, Tarryn, John, Monique and Wayne for going with us to this unique experience.



We met for dinner next door to The Exit/In at a ho-hum Mexican restaurant beforehand, and were surprised to already see people lined up at the door two hours before it even opened.  The show had sold out a few weeks prior, so we knew it would be a packed house, but didn't expect this kind of response. We were also surprised at the number of much older people who were going to the show.  It was probably the first time any of them had ever been to or even heard of this mostly-college-oriented venue.  We lounged around the restaurant's patio until the doors opened, even spotting a glimpse or two of Costner himself preparing for the show next door behind the venue.  When we got inside we were still able to find a good area to watch the show about 20' from the stage.



Kevin and his band did not disappoint.  The band's music style is best described as country-rock and you can tell he's doing it for the love of music and not as just some gimmick.  Costner, whose voice is just so-so, has wisely surrounded himself with some top-notch musicians (his fiddle player was on fire!) and good vocal accompaniment. They put on a lively hour and half set of original music that the crowd loved.  His opening act, Sara Beck, was great and also joined the band on stage for a couple songs as well as Costner's daughter, Lilly, who has a lovely singing voice herself. Everyone in our group had a great time and agreed that what started out to be just a curiosity and a chance to do a little star-gazing turned into a pretty darn good night of music.  Costner was very interactive with the crowd and seemed to really be enjoying himself up on stage.  At the age of 57 himself, he's actually a pretty good inspiration since he looks great for his age and has been doing this traveling band gig for several years now which isn't easy for people who are much younger.



A real bonus of the night was being able to zip over to The Mercy Lounge after the Costner show to catch the last half-hour of the conflicting show by one of our favorite bands, Augustana.  Thanks to Chris, Tarryn and Wayne for sticking with us and attending this late night affair as well.  It was worth it as lead singer, Dan Layus (photo above), along with some new band members, sounded great in the the small, but packed, venue.