20 Years Since The Pickle Barrel

20 years and going

We celebrated a pretty amazing anniversary today. It was 20 years ago today the we had our first date. We were both working at the Chattanooga Downtown Library on a Sunday afternoon and decided to go across the street after work and get something to eat at The Pickle Barrel, a little sandwich shop that is still in operation today. (We are already planning on going back there on our next visit to Chattanooga to relive the moment.) The rest, as they say, is history (and blog material).

Until we can make it back to The Pickle Barrel, we had to settle for a date in nearby downtown Nashville instead. Our original plan was to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Watermark, for dinner, but those plans were quickly replaced earlier in the week when we learned that two of our favorite bands, Five for Fighting and Tonic, would be performing at Live on the Green tonight in downtown Nashville. Live on the Green is a six-week series of concerts that are free to the public and sponsored by the local independent radio station, Lightning 100. They are held at Public Square Park, a large grassy area (ala "green") in front of the City Hall Courthouse. Since we would pay to see either of these bands (we did last year for Five for Fighting - see earlier blog entry), we decided to pony up $30 a person for the "VIP experience" which promised complimentary food, beverages and a private up-close viewing area of the stage.

It was money well spent. They actually had real food available and not only soft drinks and water, but beer as well. They also had a nice tent to sit under pre-show. This wasn't as valuable as it could have been since the temps were nice and reasonable since the sun was behind a heavy cloud cover that spit a little rain now and then, but never really opened up thankfully. The viewing was, as promised, right in front of the stage and much less crowded than than "Freebieville" next door where the folks were packed in like sausages. We arrived in time to catch a few songs from a good local East Nashville band called Hightide Blues. Five for Fighting was up next. FFF is basically one very talented guy by the name of John Ondrasik. He was accompanied by another young guitarist, but it was John's show from start to finish as he moved back and forth from the piano to acoustic guitar. He performed all his favorite hits between witty banter with the crowd and charming stories about his family. Well worth seeing again live and we won't miss a chance to see them/him again if we get the chance.

Next up was Tonic, a Grammy-nominated rock-n-roll band that really took off in the early 90's with a couple of well-received albums and a string of popular hits. They took a hiatus around the turn of the century and lead singer, Emerson Hart (a Nashville native), did some solo work that produced some songs that got a lot of radio-play as well. These guys don't seem to have lost a beat over the hiatus. They sounded great from start to finish of their hour-plus set packed with all their old favorites, and the couple of songs they played from their new album were very good as well.

This was a great way to celebrate our first-date 20th anniversary. We plan to come back to Live on the Green in a few weeks and catch, Band of Horses, who we discovered at Bonnaroo a couple of years ago.