On August 4th, 2015 I ended my little southern Phish run in Nashville at the brand-spanking new Ascend Amphitheatre. The ride from Alabama had been fun and uneventful, starting with an excellent breakfast at a hipster place in Tuscaloosa before ending at the Comfort Inn in Nashville. There was a day off before the Nashville show and I spent it (and $1,600) at Gruhn’s Guitars. I picked up a barely-used Jerry Jones Supreme double-neck electric sitar and a t-shirt. That was one pricey t-shirt.

On show day I walked to the venue and did a few rounds in the parking lot, picking up a Steal Your Boognish t-shirt that I had been coveting since I had seen one in Atlanta. At $20 it felt like a bargain. From the lot you could clearly see the stage with only an empty bridge in between. Un-kudos to the venue for purposely parking a fleet of tractor-trailers on the bridge before the show started specifically (or so it appeared) to block the view from outside.

Inside, the venue still had that new-car smell; the place barely had the plastic off the seats it was so new. I was on the freshly sodded lawn under a sunny twilight from where I enjoyed the concert immensely. The show (and thus my mini-run) ended with Slave To The Traffic Light, a song I always enjoy hearing and one that is always a fitting drive-away song, though in this case it would be a fly-away song.

The venue is just a short walk from the main strip in Nashville, another city-planning coup that follows in the footsteps of Nashville’s hockey arena that is on the strip itself. I did a little honky-tonkin’, dropping into a few bars for some great live music. We spent most of our night at one bar sitting at the front table, and we found out later that a half-hour after we left Trey and Mike popped in for an hour. Too bad we missed them but whatever.

In the morning it was off to the airport to close off my four-show Phish run, my new (to me) guitar in tow. It was fun flying in and out of the shows and letting someone else take care of the driving in between. Not as fun as actually driving it all myself, mind you, but fun nonetheless.

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