Bad Guster of a Day, Good Guster of a Band

We have been trying to cross "take a hot-air balloon flight" off our Bucket List for most of this year. And, after missing two previous booked dates to take a ride due to weather, we thought today was our day. Not a cloud in the sky, pleasant temps and a nice, soft breeze....well, not so fast, my friend...it was actually just a bit too breezy to safely take off and land according to our pilot. He and his crew went as far as rolling out the basket and the balloon (photo below) in hopes the winds would die down as sunset approached, but it was to no avail. After about 3 hours of waiting, we were told there would be no flight today. Very disappointing, but we will just have to try again. Our trip west to Franklin for the cancelled flight wasn't a total bust at least. We also had tickets to see the band, Guster (ironic, don't you think?) at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. We headed on into downtown after the bad news from our pilot and had dinner at one our favorite new places, Urban Flats. The flat-bread pizza and salads were great as usual. We made our way over to the War Memorial Auditorium which we had been to once before several years ago to see comedian, Dave Attell. This was our first time seeing a musical act there. It's a beautiful, general-admission venue with great sight lines to the elevated stage. There is standing room in front of the stage and seats upstairs in a large balcony area as well. We arrived in time to hear a few songs from the opening act, Everest, an up-and-coming band that we have seen at Bonnaroo a couple of times and really like. Unfortunately, their sound here was not real great compared to at Bonnaroo, and we weren't sure if it was the venue or the engineering. We were a little worried it was the venue which wouldn't bode well for Guster, who we've never seen live, plus another Mumford & Sons sold-out show coming there soon that we have tickets to as well. Well, it must have been the engineering because Guster sounded great from start to finish of their hour and a half set. Despite not getting a lot of radio play, these guys have been churning out great, melodic and positive music for over a decade with a strong underground following. The place was pretty full and the crowd knew the words to every song other than a few off a new album they have coming out later this month. It's exciting to know Nashville now has another great venue for live music. Let's hope they keep booking great acts like Guster there.