5 Summer Weeks, 6 Summer Shows and Random Other Fun Stuff

Late July and most of August 2013 gave us a chance to see six great concerts as well as some fun stuff in and around them.

Saturday, July 20 - We caught yet another great show tonight (this was # 6 for us) by one of our favorite live bands, 0.A.R., back down in Atlanta (this is the 3rd time we've seen them in the ATL)  at The Tabernacle  with our nephew, Matt.   They had two good openers in Allen Stone, and Andrew McMahon (who was a bonus for us since we've seen him with and without his band, Jack's Mannequin, three other times).  Other highlights of our trip to Atlanta was having a cocktail at one of the last Trader Vic's in the country (there are only 4 left in the U.S.).  Weird thing is they have no pina coladas on the menu?  I guess the song is wrong.  We also had a good dinner with our friend, Rex, at Meehan's Public House, a nice Irish pub, before the show on Saturday. We also did some shopping and had lunch at IKEA (Swedish meatballs!) on Sunday.  We topped off Sunday with our first-ever visit to The Georgia Aquarium which was really impressive.



Man in Motion:  Andrew McMahon about to take a flying leap from atop his piano.  EDITOR'S NOTE:, Andrew reported  a few weeks later on Facebook that he was having knee surgery...coincidence?



LONG LIVE TUBA ROCK!  O/A.R. lead singer, Marc Roberge, is all smiles as his brass section takes a turn for the BIG.

Gentle giants.  The "biggest" attraction at The Georgia Aquarium are the resident whale sharks.  Check out the kid in the bottom right corner for scale.  The giant devil ray in the top left ain't bad either!

The biggest hams at The Georgia Aquarium are the beluga whales.  They seem to love to show off for the crowds.

The colorful and coordinated confusion of African Cichlids at The Georgia Aquarium.

Saturday, July 27 - Tonight we saw a fantastic SOLD OUT show by the fairly-new, but extremely-popular band, Imagine Dragons, who were accompanied  by The Nashville Session Players Orchestra at The Woods Amphitheater in Nashville. The  two openers batted .500 with The Neighbourhood being boring and Terraplane Sun being pretty good.  We enjoyed some tailgating with our friends Danny, Brenda, their son Kyle and a friend of his, Chris, Tarryn and our nephew Matt before (and after) the show,   We all felt lucky that we dodged a lot of bad weather and heavy rain around the area and got to see the whole show with only a few drops hitting us.

Night Visions is Imagine Dragon first full-length album and it has done exceedingly well, and we don't think there is a bad song on it.  We first saw these guys last year at The Bunbury Festival in Cincinnati (previous blog) and we knew they were bound for greatness.  They will probably be playing big arenas before long.  (EDITOR'S NOTE: Guess who's playing the Bridgestone Arena in February 2014...told ya...and, of course we have tickets to it!)

Imagine Dragons' lead singer, Dan Reynolds , is suspended upside down in their finale song so that he can bang on his signature drum one more time from high above the stage.  Spectacular show from start to finish.

Friday, August 2:  We returned to Fontanel today to check out the Southern Living Idea House that's been built on the grounds there (photos above).  It was extremely nice and actually did give us a couple of "ideas" including a cool side-table shaped like a giant compass and some decorative wall air vents that we wound up buying for our home.  This lovely house at Fontanel will eventually become a boutique hotel.

Blast from the past.

Saturday, August 3 - We returned to Atlanta again this weekend to a place we haven't been to  in a very long time, the Lakewood Amphitheater south of downtown to catch a double-bill show by the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20.  We were joined by our nephew, Matt, our friend, Mike and his date, Kristin, our friend Emily, and our friend Rex, and his date, Darren.

We met Rex and Darren at the show, but the rest of us had a nice and surprisingly-good dinner beforehand at Oz Pizza near our hotel in East Point, GA.  We were looking for something quick and the pub we had researched and picked out allowed smoking, so we opted for Oz next door, and while not a fancy place, it served up some excellent food and great service despite it's location which has a reputation as not being the safest of place in the Atlanta metro area.

By the way, thanks to a ROB AND ASHLEE COLLAGE FLASHBACK (photo to the right) you can see we haven't been to Lakewood since 1995 and 1996.  Funny thing is, we paid less to see both these bands this weekend (thanks GrouponLive.com) than we did to see Van Halen back in '95 (plus, I can't believe I dropped $100 on two Jimmy Buffet tickets back in 1996...geez, I was so broke back then!). Oh, and just for the record, the Southside Grill is no longer around.  It's a Japanese steakhouse now.


We saw the Goo Goo Dolls just over a year ago at the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga (see previous blog) and really enjoyed them.  They sounded great again tonight and had a cool way of introducing one of the newest songs, "Come to Me" by broadcasting the lyrics above them as they performed.  Great idea!



Matchbox 20 had an ultra-cool stage set-up and sounded great.  They have been around an amazing 17 years and are still producing great new work.  We've loved them since they first broke out back in the late 90's.  We still vividly recall seeing them at a show early in their career in Knoxville at The World's Fair Park when they only had one song on the radio and had just released their first album.  We've seen them only once since then and lead singer, Rob Thomas, once as a solo artist.  Despite the lack of times we've seen them over the years, they truly are one of our favorite bands.

After the show (and the traffic jam to get out of there - the place was packed!), Rex invited us all back to his condo in downtown Atlanta and a great roof-top party being thrown at his complex by one of his neighbors. Rex's neighbor happens to be Colombian (the "good kind" as Rex put it) as were most of the guests at the party including the guest of honor, the birthday girl.  These folks were super-friendly and generous. They welcomed our gaggle of strangers without hesitation and we all enjoyed ourselves to the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, August 4:  Before heading home, me, Ashlee and Matt swung northeastward from Atlanta to visit the amazing Stone Mountain Park.  I can't believe we've never been here before!  The place is amazing and we will definitely be back!

This I-Phone picture (my regular camera died on me) doesn't do Stone Mountain justice in terms of grandeur and beauty.  The huge Civil War carving of Lee, Jackson and Davis (the largest bas-relief in the world) is quite stunning in person.

We rode the Swiss-made Skyride Cable Car to the lunar-like landscape on top of  Stone Mountain (almost 1,700' above sea-level).   There were good views of  the surrounding countryside and a hazy Atlanta skyline way in the distance.   We opted for the 1.3-mile walk back to the bottom along with a good amount of other folks on this warm summer day.

Thursday, August 8 - Thanks to our pal, Wayne, for inviting us to the opening preseason game for the Tennessee Titans vs. the Washington Redskins.  Despite the game not counting for anything and the Titans losing by a point, we had a good time together, as usual, along with our nephew, Matt, who had never been to LP Field to see a game before.  We enjoyed another great dinner at Suzy Wong's House of Yum downtown before the game also.

Saturday, August 17 - A fairly unplanned event that popped up and turned out to be a lot of fun was attending the Arrington Vineyards Harvest Party this afternoon and evening just outside Nashville with our friends, Chris and Tarryn, and Ashlee's cousin and our friend, Allison, along with her extremely well-behaved little boy, Crusoe.  Vineyard-owner and country music star, Kix Brooks, put on a great free show that even appealed to us with his cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl" and the hilarious "Nekkid" song.

Napa East?  What a perfect night for some wine, good food and song on the hill at Arrington Vineyards.

Sunday, August 18 - This is the sixth time we've seen this band and only since 2010.  They are one of our regional favorites.   We saw The Dirty Guv'nahs play tonight at 3rd and Lindsley along with our friends, Mike and Beth. We had dinner there beforehand which was pretty good for bar good.  They had a very good opener by the name of Ernie Hendrickson, who had a Tom Petty look and sound to him, and he sure can make an acoustic guitar growl.  The boys from Knoxville put on a helluva show, as usual. with the addition now of a good new keyboardist (who also plays harmonica) and an excellent horn player who can really wail on the saxophone.

The Guv'nahs were the feature band on Nashville Sunday Night, a weekly live-broadcast show on the local  independent radio station, Lightning 100.  I am guilty here of altering the cover of the  band's newest live album,  Live from Knoxville, (photo above) for the blog's sake.  Sorry, guys, but you know we still love you.

Thursday, August 22 - We saved the best show for last!!!  When they announced that Michael Franti and Spearhead would be at Live on the Green in Nashville, we instantly go VIP tickets.  Our friends Wayne, Chris, Danny, Brenda, Nate and Ginny followed suit.  The VIP passes got us unlimited great food including some awesome BBQ sliders and several good beers from Schlafly Brewing.  The opener for Franti was Nashville's own, The Delta Saints, who were very impressive.

We were right up front thanks to our VIP passes when Franti took the stage and systemically whipped the crowd of 10,000+ into a dancing, jumping and hand-waving frenzy.  As is his way, Michael was in and out of the crowd all night singing and playing his guitar as his band, Spearhead, thumped the back beats from the stage.  This band easily maintains their lead as our favorite live performers.  And they made several new fans among our group several of whom were seeing them for the first time and were unsurprisingly blown away by his energy and the  positive messages of his songs.

Up close and personal with Mr. Franti

Hey, it's not like he only came into the crowd once....

Saturday, August 24 - We closed out this wonderful section of summer with another item checked off of our bucket list:  a great 30-minute helicopter ride in the North Georgia Mountains thanks to a Groupon from Blue Ridge Helicopters.  Afterwards, we had a nice walk around the beautiful mountain town of Blue Ridge and a delicious lunch (and some good beer) at Blue Ridge Brewing.



We got a private ride in this four-seater chopper (the Robinson R44) with just our pilot, Steve.  We were zooming along well over 100 miles an hour in a matter of seconds after lift-off.

Our destination on this tri-state tour (GA, TN and NC) was Fields of the Wood, a faith-based park that includes a huge layout of The Ten Commandments easily visible (and readable) from the air and the hill pictured above called The All Nations Cross with the North Carolina mountains in the background.

The STEAL City vs. The STEEL City

We booked two almost back-to-back trips over the week of 4th of July

 including a return to Las Vegas and our first-ever trip to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area.

Friday, June 28:  We boarded an early afternoon direct flight to Las Vegas via Southwest Airlines and touched down in the desert in the early afternoon (gotta love gaining two hours) and met our friends Karen and Mike.  Lodging went a little different this time with a "girls' room" and a "boys' room" - well, actually,  make that a "girls' hotel" (the MGM Grand) and a "boys' hotel" (directly across Las Vegas Blvd. at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino).  Ashlee and Karen chose MGM since that's where the two concerts they were attending (Justin Beiber tonight - because the tickets were cheap) and (Beyonce on Saturday night - the show this trip was planned around) were being held.  Mike and I chose NYNY because it was a cheaper rate but still close by.  I didn't attend either show but chose to play some poker tournaments instead.  The girls said Bieber kind of stunk (what a surprise), but was at least interesting to check out.  It was reported that Beyonce's show, however, was incredible. Unfortunately, I was 0-3 in my poker tournaments during the concerts without a cash, but I still had a lot of fun playing.  It's probably unfair to refer to Las Vegas as "The Steal City" since we don't do a lot of big-time gambling, but money can still slip away fast out here with good food, great shows and tons of other fun things to do.

Close to record-setting temps for Sin City while we were there visiting.

Saturday, June 29:
After a huge brunch buffet we spent the majority of the day lazing around at the larger (and a bit nicer than NYNY) pool at MGM before "all the (married) ladies...and Mike" headed out to see Beyonce and I headed off to play some poker including my first-ever official World Series of Poker tournament entry in Las Vegas.

Sunday, June 30:

After Karen headed back home this morning, we had a fairly busy day of activities planned up and down The Strip.  We started with an early drive up the Las Vegas Blvd. to the Paris Hotel and Casino for a light breakfast.  Afterwards, we continued north and stopped by the pawn shop made famous on The History Channel's "Pawn Stars."

 When we got back to the hotel we took a ride on the roller coaster at New York, New York.  This was my second time on it and I can't say I remember it banging me around as much before.  Ouch!

We walked to and had lunch at the tasty, Fatburger,  near our hotels, but we still give our nod to In-N-Out as the best West Coast gourmet burger chain.

 We drove down to Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort to check out the Minus 5 Ice Bar.  What a "cool" concept!  Everything is made of ice including your drinking glass and it was kind of trippy considering it was 111 degrees outside. (Photo courtesy of the Ice Bar staff photographer - thanks to Mike for purchasing and sharing it!)

Our first real casualty from the heat was the news that the helicopter ride over The Strip we had booked had to be cancelled due to the weather conditions.  Hot air and rotors don't mix very well it seems.

We ended the day with some discounted tickets to check out the 10 PM performance at NYNY of the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity, which was quite entertaining albeit quite a bit racier than we were expecting.

Monday, July 1:

After a great Thai lunch buffet at a popular dining spot for Las Vegas locals called Lotus of Siam, we shuttled Mike to the airport for his afternoon flight home.  Our flight wasn't until that evening, so we finished the afternoon checking out the newest casino on The Strip called The Cosmopolitan and did a little shopping next door at the Aria Resort where Ashlee excitedly got her first-ever Gucci handbag (it was on sale at least!).

July 3:  During our two-day
"layover" back at home we also caught a pre-Independence Day celebration show by one of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, at The Tin Roof in downtown Nashville.  Opening for Brett were two other great bands, John and Jacob, and Alanna Royale.  We also ate dinner here during our first visit to this new downtown establishment and it was very good. We will definitely be adding this rocking little joint to our list of places to visit again.


RED hair, pale WHITE skin and BLUEjeans.  What's more patriotic than the great Brett Dennen!

July 4:  Thanks to a great airfare sale with Southwest Airlines. We boarded a plane to The Steel City on Independence Day.

Beautiful PNC Park is the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and we grabbed some great seats to their day game vs. the across-state rival Philadelphia Phillies.  The weather was nice albeit pretty warm and the first-place Pirates dropped the game to the Phillies 6-4.  By the way, their food and beer selections are tremendous!

We had a delicious dinner (and the 8, yes 8, beer sampler) at The Church Brew Works.  As the name implies, this award-winning microbrewery is set-up in a restored (and, yes, deconsecrated) Roman Catholic church building.  This has been on my Bucket List of breweries to visit for a long time.  More on the beer in my beer blog.

Friday, July 5:

Stone meets wood in a wonderful way at Kentuck Knob, the lesser known and smaller in size of Frank Lloyd Wright's residential masterpieces located in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains.  Our morning tour of this incredible structure was a perfect way to start a very memorable day.  Kentuck Knob is about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh.

With no photos allowed inside, it was the after the tour and out on the back patio and porch of Kentuck Knob that we could capture some of the amazing creativity and design that went into this home including these cool skylights.

The hexagons of harsh, bright sunlight from the skylights strike in hard contrast to the dark coolness of the stone and wood on the back porch of Kentuck Knob.

The view from atop Kentuck Knob just a short footpath down from the home.

The beauty and roar of Ohiopyle Falls in Ohiophyle State Park which separates Kentuck Knob from Fallingwater.



The amazing masterpiece:  Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater! Speaking of Bucket Lists, this beauty has been on mine for a long time now.  To see it in person and to be able to take a tour inside was a dream come true!  It's everything it's "built" up to be! Pun definitely intended!



The classic shot:  Fallingwater sitting atop Bear Run Falls.  Is this the eighth wonder of the man-made world?  It sure seems like it to us!

About a half-hour away from the beauty of Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob is the peacefulness and infinite sadness of one of our country's newest national monuments, The Flight 93 National Memorial.

The crash site which created a huge crater at impact has been filled in and wildflowers now grow in its place.

The simple, yet stirring, memorial consists of 40 marble slabs each with a name of a crew-member or passenger who died that fateful day here as heroes saving countless more lives by diverting the plane from its intended target in Washington, D.C.  The angle of the marble wall is the actual flight path of the plane to the crash site.

Did we mention the food was amazingly good in Pittsburgh?  Because it is.  Our first stop when we got back to The Burgh from our day in the mountains was Primanti Brothers, a local chain of restaurants and a Pittsburgh legend that specializes in sandwiches with French fries stuffed inside.   They were pretty good (and efficient).  Dessert was on our mind next and back near our hotel (a nice and cheap little Wyndam on the University of Pitt campus - thanks Hotwire.com) was Dave and Andy's Ice Cream where all of the good stuff is home-made (and delicious).

Saturday, July 6:  Food continued to be on our mind (and in our bellies) as we packed up to fly back home this afternoon, but beforehand we had arranged for a food tour over in the Brookline neighborhood.  Our tour stuck to Brookline Avenue but wandered all over the map in terms of types of food from Middle Eastern pitas with olive oil and cheese; Mexican candied fruit; Philly-style soft pretzels, bakery-fresh sweets;  rich, delicious South American coffee; and ending with classic thin-crust Italian pizza.

Brookline Avenue is a classic Pittsburgh neighborhood with tons of great eateries and local shops nearby.



It's not called "Pitaland" for nothing.  They are cranking them out here all hot and puffy six days a week.  We got to pick our fresh pitas right off the line and dipping them olive oil and a hunk of cheese was incredibly tasty.  The Lebanese-American owner could not have been nicer to us and his story of his journey to the U.S. was very interesting.



The amazing Pittsburgh skyline and more atop Mt. Washington.  This was a nice place to say goodbye to The Steel City, but with assurance that we will be back someday.  Thanks for a great time!

The beautiful Chesapeake Bay peeks out from under some rough-looking clouds.  After stopping in Baltimore, we made it safely home despite the ominous weather.

ROOing the days...Bonnaroo 2013

It's that time again!  The 2013 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is here and we were in attendance for our fifth time to this amazing event.  Thanks to the solid music line-up that was announced and the fact that single-day passes were sold for the first time, the tickets went fast and furiously.

Thursday, June 13:  We packed up the pop-up camper and met up with our friends, Wayne and Mike, who were attending their first Bonnaroo this year with us and headed to Manchester.  Traffic was a breeze and we got right in and had camp set-up by early afternoon.

Our Camp Bonnaroo came complete this year with a flag pole and this ultra-cool tye-dye flag that our friend, Wayne created for the occasion.  Well done, sir! - photo courtesy of Wayne Hutton.

Into the fray....the line to get into Centeroo from the camping area on the first day was long but moved well as people were anxious to start their long weekend down on "the farm."

BELOW:  The first good musical performance we saw this year was JD McPherson who channels his inner-Little Richard pretty well into modern original music that gives great homage to the beginnings of rock-and-roll back in the 50's and 60's.

Friday, June 14:  Day 2 of The Roo was packed full of music and fun.

Kicking off the day with a strong noon performance was Bernhoft, a native of Norway with a voice full of soul and an amazing talent for music.  A big part of his show is his live looping of percussion and rhythm guitar or vocals which basically turns him into an amazing one-man band.

BELOW:  One of the big surprises of the day was the California band, He's My Brother, She's My Sister, who we were gonna just stop by and see for a few minutes on our way to another stage and wound up staying for their whole set thanks to their amazing energy on stage and excellent music skills.

A fish-eyed view of This Tent's bustling crowd during the afternoon show by Glen Hansard (of The Frames and The Swell Season fame).  His solo show featured songs from both of those previous endeavors as well as some new stuff delivered beautifully and passionately as always by this fiery Irish busker.



The food is always great, always interesting and always affordable at Bonnaroo.

Next up for us and a great way to end the day was with the legend himself, Sir Paul McCartney.  His show was fantastic at 2 hours and 45 minutes (not bad for a 70-year-old!!).  He covered tons of Beatles tunes and a good amount of his catalog with Wings.  Next to Springsteen's 3-hour-plus show a few years ago, this was one of the best performances we've ever seen on the big stage at Bonnaroo.  Below is a smattering of the classic mop-toppers "8 Days a Week."

Besides tons of numbers with a full band, there was a big section of the show with just Paul and his guitar.  Amazing stuff.

Saturday, June 15: We didn't have to do a lot of walking today since the first four shows we wanted to see were back-to-back in That Tent. We had some sore feet by the end of the day, but it was well worth it.

Leading off the day were Two Gallants from San Francisco.  We caught a little bit of their show a few years ago on a smaller stage and were very impressed.  Their move up to one of the bigger tent stages this year seemed natural and worthy.  They had a big crowd for an early show and put on an excellent performance.

BELOW: Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls were the only band we had not seen before today and they turned out to be a great surprise to us.  Evidently we are behind the times because they drew a huge, exuberant crowd as the short video below will attest.  Their on-stage energy was contagious and Turner's soulful (and witty) lyrics were quite enjoyable.  We will definitely be seeking these Brits out again when given the chance.

Nashville and the state of Tennessee was well-represented with the always-solid Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors taking the stage next.  We have become big fans of these guys over the past few years and their popularity is seeping beyond Music City now with some of their songs showing up in TV shows and movies.  The band is headed by singer/songwriter Drew Holcomb and his lovely raspy-voiced wife (and recent mother to their first child), Ellie.

The crowds swelled out in the sun as the day moved on but we were content in the shade of That Tent waiting on our last (and most anticipated) performer of the day.

As the sun set at our backs, we enjoyed a front-row view of the legendary and first real alt-country performer (in our opinion), Dwight Yoakam and his spectacular band.  Yoakam's  Bakersfield, California, sound has been basically shunned by Nashville for many years  but the troubadour keeps on keeping on, and sounds as good as ever.  It's been several years since we've seen him live and we remember now why we love him so much.  What a great show!

This incredible day was supposed to be capped off on the big stage by one of our favorite live performers, Mumford and Sons, but, unfortunately, they had to cancel their show due to an illness in the band to bassist, Ted Dwane, involving brain surgery to remove a blood clot.  The good news is that Dwane came through the surgery with flying colors and will hopefully be back soon enough that we can catch them down in St. Augustine in September for another one of their "Stopover Shows" like we attended in Bristol last year (see previous blog).  Filling in last minute for the boys from North London was the always laid-back, Jack Johnson, who has graced the big stage before (at our first Bonnaroo actually) and did a fine job this year despite such a short notice.  Besides all of his hits (your forget how many he has until he starts rolling them out) he even did a decent cover of Mumford's "The Cave" and a great little ditty he wrote earlier in the day describing his sudden change from a "low-pro" appearance at Bonnaroo this year just sitting in on a friend's late-night set to climbing up on the huge What Stage to anchor Saturday night of Bonnaroo 2013.  Well done, sir, and well done, Bonnaroo, handling the adversity very smoothly.

Sunday, June 16: We packed up our campground this morning and went and took in a little bit of bluegrass and a visit to the Broo'ers Festival Tent to try some great beers (see Rob's beer blog for more info on that).  After some threatening weather in the early afternoon and the first really hot temps of the weekend, we reluctantly opted to head back early instead of staying late into the night to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers close out the festival.  Bonnaroo usually closes out with some jam band that we could care less about (Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.) and it makes for an easy decision to leave early, but Cousin Tom is a different matter and we regretted not catching his show, but back home and exhausted at 9 PM, it seemed like the right idea since they would just be taking the stage.  Another time, Tom, another time.  (Editors note:  thanks in hindsight to Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors for covering two great TP&TH songs in their set at least to give us at least a hint of what we missed.)

That Tent became "The Bluegrass Situation" on Sunday with bluegrass performers scheduled all day including the immensely-talented, Black Prairie, and off-shoot of The Decemberists of which three members play in this band.

Another great and memorable Bonnaroo is in the books for us.  Thanks so much to our friends, Mike and Wayne, for going with us and being great sports with camp set-up and hanging out and watching the music we chose and like for the most part.  Can't wait to do it again next year!!