A Month or So of Outs and Abouts

The past month has been chock-full of fun activities for us:

Thursday,  March 28th - We attended a Preds game and had lots of fun with our friend, Wayne, and his co-worker and friend, Devin, despite the 7-4 drubbing we took from the Phoenix Coyotes.  We had another yummy dinner again in The Suite Spot on some fancy (but fair priced) concessions.  We had great lower bowl seats. 

"Must go faster!!"

We took in another game on Tuesday, April 9th  vs. the St. Louis Blues which ended in another frustrating 1-0 loss.  At least the food (buffalo mac-n-cheese and citrus Buffalo wings) was good again in The Suite Spot and our seats were excellent in the 200 level.

Saturday March 30th - We headed over to 3rd and  Lindsley for a night of music straight out of East Tennessee.  Our old regional favorite singer/songwriter, Scott Miller, was acoustic with female fiddle player, Rayna Gellert. We hadn't seen Scott in a while and it was good to see/hear him again although we can't wait for another plugged-in show with his great band, The Commonwealth.  The Black Lillies, a solid alt-bluegrass band out of Knoxville, were the headliners and they were definitely plugged in and sounding great.   Although not listed as "sold out" technically, the place was packed to the gills. We used a Groupon and took a chance on dinner beforehand at Sushi Train over in West Nashville  (photo below) and it was actually very good.  So good, in fact, we bought a couple more of those Groupons!

All aboard the Sushi Train!!

Friday, April 5th - We caught opening night of Jurassic Park 3D IMAX at Opry Mills.  This re-release of this classic film was great, and the 3D and IMAX conversions were excellent! 

Friday, April 12th - One of our favorite bands, Alpha Rev, opened tonight for Ben Rector at The Cannery.  It was a SOLD OUT show.  Due to an early morning commitment we only stayed for a couple Rector songs but he sounds pretty good.  Leaving when we did gave us the chance to meet Alpha Rev, lead singer, Casey McPherson, again, out at the merch table and we even let him sell us a T-shirt.   On the star-watching front we saw, Clare Bowen, in the crowd at the show.  She's the actress who plays "mumbling Scarlett" on the show Nashville.  She's our least favorite character in the series, but it was kind of cool to see her in town taking in the sights and sounds of Music City.



Multi-talented singer, songwriter, guitarist, band founder and leader and, yes, merch table vendor, Casey McPherson, gives Ashlee the soft sell on a sweet Alpha Rev T-shirt



Not exactly the message
you want to see from the guy you've
got tickets to see sing that night.
photo courtesy of Jack's Mannequin
 Facebook page

Wednesday, April 17th - It was another SOLD OUT venue for us as we attended the performance of Jack's Mannequin front-man, Andrew McMahon, at 3rd and Lindsley.  Andy might be out on his own moniker now, but he is still belting out the great songs of JM that put him on the map and doing so tonight despite battling a strained voice issue (you could only tell it a couple times however during his performance).  3rd and Lindsley is the most exasperating Nashville venue in our opinion since you never know how much standing room there is going to be at each performance, so we went very early to stake out a couple decent seats and grabbed some dinner beforehand there that was actually pretty good.

The always-amazing Andrew McMahon

We also had to sit through two ho-hum openers (an annoying trend in live music these days - I mean, thanks for the bargain of seeing three performers for one ticket price, but it's a week night and we need to get home at a decent hour for work the next day, and besides that, some of these opening folks ain't all that good). But holding out for Andy was worth it because his energy on stage quickly made it one of the best shows we've seen at 3rd and Lindsley.



Photo courtesy of The Nashville Film Festival Facebook page

Thursday, April 18th - We kept the SOLD OUT trend going by attending the Opening Night Feature of The 2013 Nashville Film Festival (NAFF).  It was a film called Mud starring Matthew McConahey and Reese Witherspoon.  It was excellent from start to finish with great acting turned in by several folks. Unfortunately there was no star-power in the room for the showing as there has been in previous years for opening night of NAFF(even the film's director, Jeff Nichols, only Skyped in for a quick welcome message - photo above - from Austin due to an apparent family emergency), but it was still a fun evening with a huge crowd of patrons as this festival celebrates its 44th year.

Friday, April 19th - It was back to the Opry Mills IMAX tonight to catch opening night of the Tom Cruise sci-fi epic, Oblivion.  It is an excellent film with a great story that really keeps you guessing plus solid acting by the entire case and some out-of-this-world (literally) special effects.  Seeing it on the IMAX screen really does make a film an "event" instead of just "going to see a movie."