Club Reports: Acme Feed & Seed, Wildhorse Saloon, Benchmark, Tootsies, Robert's Western World (Nashville)

This is the Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.

Located on the banks of the sleepy Cumberland River, Nashville was the 4th location of my office group's annual Party Weekend trip. Prior locales were Chicago in 2015, Toronto in 2016 and New Orleans in 2017.

Our journey began with lunch at Acme Feed & Seed.

This band was singing the blues.

Nearby were places like Rock Bottom Brewery.

Florida Georgia Line House.

The Pub Nashville.

Home to famed local delicacy Nashville Hot Chicken is Hattie B's.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is here too.

There are many ways to party in Nashville, such as the Nashville Tractor.

Or the bicycle built for 12.

Or the Honky Tonk Bus.

And the Hunk Express!

We partied in the traditional way, heading over to the main drag of Broadway.

Spotted: My entourage headed downtown!

Lighting up at night, Broadway reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans!

Every address is a bar, restaurant or both. Ernest Tubb's.

Jason Aldean's.

The original Blake Shelton's Ole Red. A fourth location is opening on International Drive in Orlando in 2020.

Red Neck Riviera.

Whiskey Row.

We began our evening with dinner at the famed Wildhorse Saloon.

The Matte Gray (USA) band was playing....guess what....Country music.

Country line dance lessons between sets.

Spotted on the dance floor: Mary, Ron & Maria.

Cross Atlantic (GB) was up next, playing, guess what, Country music

We next headed to Benchmark.

There was a live band, playing......Country music.

Packed to the rafters. In Nashville, every venue has a live band, there are normally no cover charges and they pass around a bucket for tips for the band.

Tootsies is a four level venue with live bands on three of the four!

One of close to a dozen rooftop bars in downtown Nashville.

Spotted: Maria and our local hostess Nicole. Big thanks to Nicole for providing us with some much-needed guidance!

Live band playing......Country music!

Last stop of the night was Robert's Western World, home of not only traditional Country music but also a deep fried bologna sandwich!  YUCK!

Large venue, packed like everywhere last night!

Live band playing some Conway Twitty although when we arrived they were playing 60's hit "Secret Agent Man"!

No House, No Trance, No Trap, No Breaks, No Hip Hop. Nashville is all about Country music and if you don't like Country music you have no business being here. I will recover next weekend at Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando. Nonetheless, Nashville was an impressive party town and a good time was had by all!

EDC Week

EDC Week has arrived in Orlando with Electric Daisy Carnival taking place next Friday and Saturday! One of the DJ stages at EDC is called the Boombox Art Car and it's literally a large boombox with DJ's playing inside. Something new this year is Insomniac is bringing the Boombox Art Car to downtown Orlando on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday nights showcasing 6 local DJ's. Some of our favorites are playing including DJ Horny Dave and DJ Benny Black. Will be checking this out!

Concert Report: San Holo (The Plaza Live)

Only second visit ever to The Plaza Live!

Beginning act Rutger van Woudenberg dba The Nicholas (NL) giving us a 30-minute set of singing to essentially electronic music.

Followed by a 40-minute set from DJ Taska Black (B).

As the main room in The Plaza Live filled in.

I was calling his music "Heavy Bass Lite" when I realized the genre already had a name: "Future Bass".

Third act was musical but not a DJ set from Baynk (NZ).

He spent a lot of time on his sax.

As the hall became crowded!

And over the course of an hour plus, he did a lot of singing and twisting and spinning and prancing!

And then about 11:30PM, the reason we were all here!

San Holo (NL)

I was expecting a DJ set but it was mostly a musical performance.

On a much smaller scale, but very reminiscent of the show by Odesza (USA) this past May at CFE Arena. Link.

There was some cheering for songs the fans recognized such as "Lift Me From The Ground".

But overall I thought they were kind of subdued.

Fun in the tech booth!

San Holo's name of course is a play on Hans Solo but it also comes from his real name Sander Van Dijck.

San Holo has had several hits but the crowd kept waiting for his big one.

And then finally in his third encore song, he played it: Light.

Everyone knew the words and sang along. The fireworks shot out and the smoke cannons exploded!

And a good time was had by all!

Firestone Sadness Update

By now you know about the conversion of The Club at Firestone/Firestone Live (or most recently Venue 578) into an event/club space to be called Vanguard Entertainment Complex. This past July we reported on progress coming to a complete halt allegedly due to a piece of construction equipment striking a support pole, followed by the necessary damage assessments. Article link.

Back in the 1930's, this was literally a Firestone tire dealership with a Texaco gas station and this was the front office.

Some construction work was in progress during my visit but it's been a year since demolition of the interior began and it still has a long way to go. This view is from the side garage door along Concord Street. The stage where so many big name DJ's performed would have been to the near right; the lighting tech booth to the upper rear.

The club's "green room" was to the upper right.

Looking more to the left, DJ's would often play in Firestone's former front office, often called "The Den". Stairs led to an upstairs glassed-in area called "The Loft" which wrapped around to that upper area to the rear. On big nights, another DJ could be found playing over there.

This vantage is from the Orange Avenue side of the club, looking in from beneath "The Loft". Trench work has taken place but not much else beyond the demolition work early this year.

Firestone sadness.