Memphis with Mannequin

Friday,August 26, 2011:  We took a quick trip west to Memphis today to catch a show by Jack's Mannequin for the second time this year.  It was supposed to be a double-billing with another one of our favorite bands, Augustana, but they had to pull out of the tour for some reason recently.  But with tickets bought and hotel room already booked, we weren't discouraged and knew it would still be worth the effort.  We got a good price through Hotwire.com on a nice room at the swanky Madison Hotel downtown on their 13th floor (I thought they didn't do "13th" floors in hotels due to superstition?).

Ashlee enjoying her strawberry and pomegranate margarita on the roof of the lovely  Madison Hotel in downtown Memphis with the Mississippi River, Mud Island and the Hernando de Soto Bridge in the background.  The weather was perfect this late afternoon-early evening before the show down on nearby Beale Street.

I opted for a pale ale draught from new local craft brewer, Ghost River Brewing.  This rooftop patio is the same one used in the beginning of the film "The Firm" where Mitch has his welcome reception with Bendini, Lambert & Locke.  Thanks to Ashlee for the snapping the picture and for assuring me that our current dieting is definitely paying off!

The stroll down and back up famous Beale Street from our hotel to The New Daisy Theatre for the concert was colorful, loud and always interesting.

This was our first visit to this Beale Street venue and we really liked it.  A large general admission standing area with good sight lines in front of an elevated stage, optional balcony seating and superb acoustics. We would love to see more shows here in the future. 

This view from the balcony of The New Daisy Theatre as Jack's Mannequin is playing shows there just isn't a bad "seat" in the house.  We watched all of the show from down on the floor about 10 rows from the stage.  Opening for JM, was Lady Danville, a trio of lads from California with a very good sound quite similar to another of our favorite bands, Guster.  Their 3-part harmony  was spot on. Lead singer, Andrew McMahon and the rest of Jack's Mannequin followed with a show that was as good if not better than  the one we saw up in Asheville, NC, last month.  McMahon's energy on stage  is so fun to watch and can be quite addictive, not to mention inspirational (don't forget the dude recently beat leukemia). See the video below for some quick evidence of the fact.  They recently announced a show in Nashville in October and we hope to catch them for a third time this year if no conflicts arise.

After the show, we grabbed a quick bite of food on Beale Street and headed back to The Madison to check out that fabulous rooftop again at night.  The views were just as, if not more, stunning in the dark as the city sparkled below us.  Only a few people were taking advantage of the cool evening temps and lovely views up on the roof.  It was a nice respite from the roaring din of Beale Street and a relaxing way to end our half day in Memphis.

Saturday, August 27, 2011:  After sleeping a good bit of the morning away (I did get up a little earlier than Ashlee and took a dip in the very nice lap pool in The Madison's basement), we packed up our stuff and got ready to head back to Nashville because our friend, Wayne, had invited us to the Tennessee Titans third preseason game tonight vs. the Chicago Bears.  Before leaving Memphis, we did swing by our favorite new place to eat, Uncle Lou's Famous Fried Chicken, and had a great lunch.  Three drumsticks with the hot Sweet Spicy Love Sauce for Ashlee and four huge chicken tenders for me with the milder sauce (yeah, I know, what a wimp!).  We met Wayne at Suzy Wong's House of Yum in downtown Nashville before the game for a fun and festive dinner.  The game was quite enjoyable and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The Titans even eked out a 14-13 win.  Not bad for a game that doesn't even count.  Thanks to Wayne for the invitation and for snapping the great picture of us three above.

OBX II



Thursday, August 18, 2011 - After having a great trip out to The Outer Banks of North Carolina back in late June, we took advantage of the same great airfare sale from Nashville to Norfolk, VA ($39 each way on Southwest) and drove south for another visit in hopes of grabbing more beach time than we actually did on our first trip.  We found a great little inexpensive but clean motel right on the beach near the tiny town of Buxton, just a mile or so from the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.



The Outer Banks Motel sits right in the westwardly dog-leg turn of Highway 12 as you head south. 



The bungalow-style rooms of the motel were spacious and did not smell of mildew as some lower-priced beach-side places can.  They have a nice large swimming pole as well. The beach out front was clean and fairly uncrowded most of the time despite there being no vacancies for the weekend.

 


Friday, August 19, 2011 - It is just a 5-minute walk across Highway 12 to a finger of the Pamlico Sound where the motel had two rowboats tied up for their guests to use.  We took a beautiful sunset trip on our first full day there.

 


We took a stroll south on Hwy. 12 after our rowboat ride on the sound and found The Diamond Shoals Restaurant quite by accident.  We have been dieting as of late and keeping our caloric intake down, so we settled for a  couple small dinner options.  Fresh sushi rolls for Ashlee and fresh lightly-fried grouper fingers for me.  Both we excellent and despite a bit of slow service (they were slammed on a Friday night and only had one guy rolling sushi), we thoroughly enjoyed our food.



We loved our beach time as we had perfect weather the three days we were there with warm but not humid temperatures, mostly sunny skies, and cool, but not cold water.  The surf was tremendous with sometimes 6 and 7-foot waves breaking off from huge rolling swells.  You really had to pay attention while wading in the surf so as to not get knocked off your feet by a sneaky wave.  Swimming was a fun challenge as well with waves breaking over you and riptides pulling your slowly north.



Saturday, August 20 - We took a break from the beach this afternoon and drove a half hour south (plus a 30-minute ferry ride) to Ocracoke Island.  The tiny village there reminds us a lot of a smaller, quieter Key West.  We rented a couple of bikes and tooled around the quiet neighborhoods and pretty waterfront with very little motor traffic to have to contend with.  Editor's Note:  The island was evacuated the following week due to the approach of Hurricane Irene.

 


After a couple hours of bike riding, we rewarded ourselves with a visit to Howard's Pub.  Their burgers were awesome...it didn't hurt that we were starving either.  And their beer list is amazing.  How they get such a wide variety of beer way down here on the end of The Outer Banks and charge reasonable prices for them is beyond me.  After getting back to Buxton and enjoying some more beach time, we ambled our way back down to The Diamond Shoals Restaurant for another round of sushi and grouper fingers (a double order for me this time).

 


Sunday, August 21 - We reluctantly packed up our stuff this morning for our trip back north to catch our plane home early on Monday morning.  Before we left, we took a nice long walk south on the beach and soaked up as much of the vibe of the beautiful ocean as we could.



On our drive back north we stopped in Kill Devil Hills for a brief visit of The Wright Brothers National Monument.  We climbed the famous Kill Devil Hill where the Wrights tested their aircraft.  The views atop the hill are impressive in all directions.  The hill is  also adorned with a beautiful and gigantic monument honoring their achievement.  The life-size statues depicting the first flight help add to the sense realism for this historic place.


We flew back early Monday morning, August 22nd, without incident and were back at work by 10 A.M.  It was another great trip to The Outer Banks, and we are already planning a return visit hopefully next year with plans of visiting even farther south to the Cape Lookout area.

Editorial Note:  Just a week later the Outer Banks and much of the East Coast were battered by Hurricane Irene. 

An Ode to the Toad

Saturday, August 13, 2011 - We took in the surprisingly sold-out show of 90's hit-makers, Toad the Wet Sprocket,  at The Mercy Lounge in downtown Nashville tonight.  Despite not having a new record out in over 15 years (they've got a new one set to drop next year), lead singer/songwriter Glen Phillps, and the rest of the original four-piece band are in top form, and gave us a great two hours of music including all of their hits, some fan favorites that never made it to the radio (man, "Brother" is such a great song), plus some new tunes that sound very good.  The crowd was older than we usually see out at The Mercy Lounge.  "Trying to relive their prom" as Ashlee put it.  A couple behind us, for example, was from Illinois and had just dropped their son off for his freshman year at college at nearby Murray State before heading down to the show.  Time marcheth on.

We had a nice, memorable evening leading up to the show as well including dinner at the always-delicious Urban Flats, a beer out on the patio of the new Yazoo Brewing Taphouse on Division Street (the weather was perfect for this with low humidity and a nice breeze not typical around here in mid-August) and finally the unintended "Lobster Hunt 2011."  It seems that Ashlee needed live lobsters for her supper club meet-up the following day and we had to go to three different upscale supermarkets before we found any (and those were hidden behind a counter because supposedly Carrie Underwood found it "inhumane."  Good grief.).  But we got 'em and packed them in a cooler for the evening before their fateful day on the grill.  RIP, good soldiers.

CCSG

Lots of fun on a Tuesday night in Nashville..thanks to our friends, Ryan and Tom for meeting us for the show:


http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NoezcOq5C_c&vq=medium#t=55

Abiding at Lebowskifest

After a few years of wanting to check it out, we were finally able to attend this year's 10th Anniversary of the original Lebowskifest in Louisville, KY.  Celebrating absolutely all facets of the 1998 cult-classic film, The Big Lebowski, it's a two-day festival held every July on the lawn of and inside the huge Executive Strike and Spare Bowling Center near the Louisville airport complete with bands performing, an outdoor screening of the film, trivia contests, costume contests, outdoor games, hours of unlimited bowling, white Russian cocktails galore, lots of Miller High Life on tap and other "What Have You's" that related to the film.  Thanks to our friends, Danny and Brenda, for coming along with us on this strange little adventure.

We "recovered" from a long night of Lebowskism late Saturday morning with a visit to one our absolute favorite restaurants in Louisville, Wild Eggs.  Our brunch was delicious.  I had the enormous and delicious breakfast burrito plus one of their signature "Everything Muffins" while Ashlee selected her favorite menu item, "Kalamity Katie's Border Benedict."  It was so good we went again before leaving for home late Sunday morning when I chose the "Chili Verde Huevos Rancheros" and Ashlee stuck with her still-favorite: KKBB.  We made fans out of Danny and Brenda as well who both loved the place.

It's "me and Liam, man!"  James Hoosier who played the non-speaking role of "Liam O'Brien" in the film made a guest appearance at the festival and was nice enough to pose for a few pictures with all of us.  Despite his lack of dialogue in the film, he gets a lot of face time as the stern bowling partner of John Tuturro's outrageous "Jesus Quintana" character.  We came to find out he actually has several Middle Tennessee ties through his family.

The festival even gave away their original Dude-mobile, a rusted out Torino similar to the one The Dude drives in the movie...only catch....you had to take it with you if you won it and no battery  was included.  The festival has been gifted with an even closer-looking to the original one that has taken its place.  A young girl form Louisville "won" the drawing Saturday evening.  The car was still sitting in the parking lot when we left Sunday afternoon....

White Russians are the signature drink of "The Dude" and although none of us had ever really had one before, we all actually liked them a lot and partook of several during the trip including some home-made ones Ashlee whipped up for the road trip north.  We got a great rate on a couple of nice rooms across the street from the festival at the Springhill Suites by Marriot making for easy access to the fun and frivolities.

Danny made a great "Dude" and was actually singled out by a fellow festival-goer as being "effortlessly cool."  We couldn't agree more.  He was also the best bowler of the bunch, rolling close to a 150 (all while wearing a robe and sandals and usually with a drink in his hand!).  Brenda, Ashlee and I were just mere followers of our "Dude" as the ingredients of his yet again, signature drink, a white Russian.  We got a lot of compliments on our group costume.  Thanks to Brenda for the rocking good idea for our group look.

Jack's Mannequin & A French Broad

Saturday, July 9, 2011

We usually try to make it to Asheville, North Carolina, at least once a year.  It's one of our favorite cities/areas to visit.  The last few years has always been during the Bele Chere Festival, the last weekend of July.  We already had a room booked for the festival this year.   However, an opportunity presented itself a couple weeks earlier when a band we have been wanting to see for a long time, Jack's Mannequin, scheduled a Saturday night show at The Orange Peel, a well-known and respected live music venue that we had also been wanting to check out for a long time.  So, away we went for the weekend.


We arrived Saturday afternoon and did a little microbrewery crawling in downtown Asheville.  This medium-sized city is lousy with them: seven by our count with Craggie Brewing being one of the newest.  Their beer was very good.  See more about the beer in my beer blog.



During our brewery crawl before the concert we  stumbled on yet another amazing restaurant in downtown Asheville.  Storm was bustling, but we were able to grab a couple seats at the bar.  Ashlee had a couple of wonderful cocktails including a really good mojito.  I stuck with beer and was happy to see they carried the local Green Man Ales (another local microbrewery) on tap.  We had an appetizer of house-made pimento cheese that was delicious.

Here's a look from the bar at the brewing tanks at Wedge Brewing, Asheville's newest microbrewery, down in the River Arts District and the last stop on our Saturday afternoon microbrewery crawl.

The Orange Peel is a great venue, albeit a little warm when we arrived for the show.  They did have a "big-ass ceiling fan" (as Jack's Mannequin, front man, Andrew McMahon, referred to it as) going, but it wasn't near enough.  I guess usually they are not having to deal with a lot of heat and humidity up amongst the mountains here, but this summer's been a scorcher.  The place has great acoustics and a nice elevated stage with good site lines.  A good beer selection was not a surprise in this town either.  This is definitely a place to come to again when the performer and timing are right.

We arrived in time to hear the last couple of songs in the set by the third opener, Steel Train,  including a good cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl."  Bands always love covering Uncle Tom, don't they?.  Headliner, Jack's Mannequin, took the stage around 9:45 and proceeded to dazzle us for the next couple hours.  Lead singer (and basically the main drive behind the band), Andrew McMahon, is a gifted singer and piano player.  He's also quite an inspiration since he was diagnosed with leukemia a few years back as the band was just starting to get some real national notice.  He battled back to full remission and you sure couldn't tell he had been through any such thing with all the energy he emitted on stage.

Sign behind the bar at The Orange Peel.  Just thought it was funny.

Sunday, July 10,  2011

Another advantage to not coming to Asheville for the popular Bele Chere Festival is that you can wake up Sunday morning and actually have a reasonable change to get into the Tupelo Honey Cafe, an enormously loved restaurant in downtown Asheville.  We still had to wait about an hour and felt lucky to get in since we have never been able to on a Sunday during Bele Chere.  The food was amazing and well worth the wait.  We went brunch-style with Ashlee ordering from the breakfast menu that is available all day.  She made a great choice of sweet potato pancakes.  I picked the catfish taco off the sandwich menu which was huge and superb tasting.

After brunch we headed northwest for about 40 miles to the small town of Hot Springs, North Carolina.  We had 2 PM reservations with Huck Finn Rafting Adventures for a 5-mile trek down the French Broad River.  We had a great time.  The weather was perfect and although the river water was as brown as chocolate milk with sediment after recent rains, it was pleasant in temperature and running well over some fun Class I, II and III rapids.  Our guide, Justin, was great and we only had to share our raft with one other couple, Rick and Liz from Charleston, SC.   During a break on the bank we saw a bald eagle soar overhead.  There was no mistaking what it was with that brilliant white head.  We found this great outfitter through Groupon.com and hope to come back sometime and do their longer 9-mile trek which includes a couple Class IV rapids farther downstream.

U2 Three-6-Tee Tour

As soon at tickets went on sale last fall for U2's 360 Tour at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville on July 2, 2011, we snatched some up as quick as we could.  With only 9 shows left in this historic tour, we knew this was a rare opportunity we could not pass up.  We were not disappointed....

Installation of "The Claw"set for the  U2 show in the Vandy Stadium started Tuesday, June 28 for the show that didn't start until Saturday.  Yep, it's that freakin' big!   Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Sports.

Here's a full shot of the completed set at a different stadium with center stage, outer performance ring and retractable video screen above the stage.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

..

The last time we saw U2 was way back in 1992 in Atlanta for the Zoo TV Tour at The Omni, a building which has since been torn down.  Photo courtesy of PearlJam.com/Forum

The last show we saw at the Vandy Stadium was The Rolling Stones back in 1995.

Opening act, Florence Welch, of Florence & the Machine, is English, but did quite an Irish tribute with her flaming red hair and flowing green outfit.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.

Before the U2 show began, the huge screen above the stage transmitted tons of information from around the world including current times, facts and statistics truly showing the global nature of the this world-wide tour now in its 3rd and final leg after starting back in 2009.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.

We opted for general admission tickets and stood in front of the stage about 30 feet from the outer ring.  It was putridly hot with high humidity, but the show was amazing from start to finish and we loved our viewing location.  This was the 100th show of the tour.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.

The outer ring allowed us close views of all the members of the band (guitarist, The Edge, above) as each one took their turn at least once performing while walking the 360 degree circle for all to see...even drummer, Larry Mullen, with bongos.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.

The boys played for over two hours without much stopping.  They played most of their hits from the last 30+ years (see set list below).  Lead singer, Bono, was very gracious in his appreciation for Nashville and its music-based history and heritage.  It's hard to believe it's been over 30 years since they played this town.  A couple of special moments included playing "The Wanderer" - a song they recorded with and wrote for Johnny Cash that they have never played live at a show before.  They ended the show by bringing a blind fan/guitar player up on stage with them and letting him strum the chords to "All I Want is You" which he nervously dedicated to his wife.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.

SET LIST:
Even Better Than the Real Thing [see video below for a little of it's beginning - sound isn't great, but it's worth a look especially at about 30 seconds into it ]
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Until the End of the World
I Will Follow
Get on Your Boots
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

The Wanderer [never played live before at a U2 show]

Stay (Faraway, So Close)

Beautiful Day

Elevation

Pride (In the Name of Love)

Miss Sarajevo

Zooropa

City of Blinding Light

Vertigo

I'll Go Crazy (If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight) 

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Scarlet

Walk On

Encore:

One

Amazing Grace/Where the Street Have No Name

2nd Encore:

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

With or Without You

 Moment of Surrender

All I Want Is You [with blind fan/guitarist pulled from audience to play]

All in all a wonderful, maybe once-in-a-lifetime, experience.  Thanks to our friends Linda, Sharon, Bethany and Wayne for coming out and hanging with us before the show in our room at the Hilton Garden Suites nearby.  Thanks to Wayne again for accompanying us to a pre-concert tailgate party which we were invited to by our friends, Richard and Jenni.  Thanks to U2 for including one of the smallest venues on their tour (photo below) and not charging obscene prices to see their show, plus for all they do to try and promote good in the world in the name of rock and roll.