Date Night In Nashvegas

We had tickets for the Foo Fighters show last night. I find out earlier in the morning that it will be The Girlfriend's first REAL rock concert. She was a little nervous to say the least. She doesn't trust the city at all and fully believes that it's full of gang bangers and rapists that are looking just for her.

The plan was to go to Hooter's first (I know, lame, but the fried pickles are good and it was really close to the venue) but when we got there about six-thirty or so, the place was packed. We decided to wander down the street and found this place.
Mulligan's Pub on Second Avenue. I liked the place a lot. Dark, intimate without any of the "pseudo-pub" accouterments that make other "Irish pubs" seem like O'Charley's copies. Guinness does a big business here, so much so that The Girlfriend thought the place was called "Guinness." We had some beef and biscuits and a couple of drinks and then headed down to the arena.

We got there right around seven-thirty and apparently they were only letting people into one door. We saw the line and began looking for the end. And looking. And looking. And looking. The damn line wrapped all of the way around to the other side of the place. I bet there isn't that kinda chaos when the "Doodle bops" play there!

The line moved quick and we got inside in a fairly timely manner, grabbed a beer and made it to the floor in time to hear the second opening act, a band called "Against Me!" The Girlfriend said she had read a review describing them as "Bob Segar redefined." Bullshit! Somebody was smoking crack. A semi-punk band playing angry music is what I call them. Oh, they were pretty good. I especially liked their opening song, "Uncut."

On to the main event. The Fighters of Foo!!! The place was general admission, so by the time we got there, the area around the front of the stage was packed. That was ok since I knew that The Girlfriend would never be able to tolerate the crowd anyway. Instead, we stood beside a walkway that ended in a closed off area toward the back of the floor. A friend that had seen the Foo Fighters before said that Dave Grohl came down the walk for some songs. The Fighters rocked! They played a fair mix of their old stuff and songs from their new album. About half way into the show, another stage dropped from the ceiling that was completely set up with instruments and the entire band came down and played several songs highlighted by Grohl's solo performance of "Everlong" . (warning: the video and the sound suck, but it demonstrates how close we were) I had a blast and I think The Girlfriend did too. Just another boring night in Nashville.