Nashville 2024 Part 3: What a great show!

Nashville 2024 Part 3 of 3:

The Ryman was just a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We crossed Broadway Street. It was hopping as always. If I had tried real hard I could have heard a dozen bands playing, some from the same building on different levels. People packed the sidewalks. The energy in Nashville is amazing.

We got in line to enter the venue. As I looked around everyone there was our age. It was a little quieter here. Everybody stood patiently in line to be get through security; a well behaved group to be sure.

As I was getting my “E-tickets” displayed on my phone, I noticed something about one of the tickets. It said ‘obstructed view’. Now I swear I didn’t see that anywhere when I bought them. I had paid full price so all of the sudden, I may have panicked just a little. What was ‘obstructed’? My mind raced. I’d seen what the obstructed view seats at Wrigley Field were. An 24″ vertical steel beam right in front of the seat. No good! All these years trying check off a bucket list performer and I wasn’t even going to see him?

We made our way to the seats and I started feeling a little better. It was a 12″ wooded support post. There were many of these posts under the balcony. I would be able to look around the post if I needed to. Plus I still had a direct line of sight to center stage. I was going to be ok. Crisis averted.

With less than a half hour until showtime, I decided to head to the merch table. I try to get a poster from all of the shows I attend. I frame them and hang them in the basement where nobody sees them. Except me. I’ll look at a framed poster and that might remind me of the event. I’ve even gotten a few signed. I used to buy t-shirts but they got more expensive plus I already have a hundred or so from races and events that I don’t wear. They’re hanging in my closet, packed so tightly I can hardly tell which one is which. That’s why posters make more sense, I guess.

I walked upstairs in the Ryman and when I reached the top I saw a line to the merchandise. It was really long, looping through a couple of roped off rows. I took a quick peak to make sure they had posters (some shows don’t), quickly calculated the length of the line and felt sure I could make it before show time. I walked to the end and got in line. Or so I thought.

A nice staff lady came up to me and said, “Sir, the line starts back there” pointing through a doorway. It seems she was keeping the aisle clear and was allowing people from the doorway line to move up when there was room in the roped area. It was just like Ralph getting in line to see Santa in “A Christmas Story“.

I followed the line backwards through the door and down a hall through another door. I wasn’t halfway to Terre Haute but I swear I could hear the music on Broadway Street.

The line did move very slowly. There was no warm-up act so 7:30 was a hard deadline.

Maybe they will start late. You know these rockers.

With just a few minutes to go, I made the roped section. There were only two people working the counter but both seemed to be putting in an effort to move things along.

Finally exactly at 7:30, I reached the table. There were three posters left. I had made it. I bought it and hurried downstairs. Just as I found my obstructed view seat the lights went down. Whew!

The show was just as I expected. Mostly a jukebox of hits that they played – pretty faithful to the originals. This band is not given to playing long songs with histrionic guitar solos and dramatic endings. No jumping or wild antics. Just the music as it was written to be played. And the crowd loved it. They played for an hour then took a break.

Mary and I took the opportunity to head to the gift shop. No lines there.

The second half of the show was just as good. I had a list of songs from setlist.com so I kind of knew what was coming. They did a sort of encore. Parsons has had some health issues and needs a cane to get around. It probably seemed a waste of energy walking off the stage, then returning to applause and swaying cell phone lights. So they just waved, bowed and then finished the set with two more songs.

And just like that, the show was over. We slowly shuffled out of the building into the humid night air and we were back in downtown Nashville. Just a little bit of culture shock.

I’ve linked to a Spotify playlist if you are interested in listening to some of their songs. As usual, you likely need a Spotify account to listen so if you don’t I’ll list some of the best songs.

Wouldn’t Want to be Like You
The System of (Dr. Tar and Professor Fether)
Sirius
Eye in the Sky
Games People Play
Time
I Robot
The Raven
Don’t Let it Show

We returned to our hotel and crashed for the night.

We both managed to wake up early and were packed and ready to go by 7:00 AM the next morning. A short walk around the corner, again, to Parlor Donuts. I forgot which donuts we had but got the coffee to go and we were on our way home.

About an hour or so later, we were running low of caffeine and gas so we pulled into Clarksville TN, fueled up and found Mugsy’s Coffee Shop. Mary had a bagel sandwich and I had the biscut sandwich. Both were tasty and the coffee was very good.

We were back on the road very quickly. It was Monday and we had to get our week started. But long about Effingham IL we both started feeling a little tired so we made one more stop at Joe Sippers for coffee. We write about Joe’s a lot so I’ll skip it here.

Quite a weekend. We rolled in about 3:00 PM and unpacked. Well unpacked a little. By the following Sunday, we were starting our annual Paddle Pedal Coffee Tour once again to beautiful Wisconsin. Look for those posts in the upcoming weeks.