The Weekendist: No Labor, All Play Edition

Happy Labor Day weekend, Nashville! We hope you’re planning on taking full advantage of this 3-day weekend’s sunny-and-70-degree temperatures. If you have any downtime between barbecues, check out our picks for this weekend. We’ll be observing the long weekend and taking a breather on Monday, but we extended The Weekendist through Monday to make up for it. And as always, if you know of an event we forgot to include, drop us a line in the comments!

FRIDAY

Clips of Faith Beer & Film Tour. Public Square Park, 6-9pm, free admission, $1 for 3oz beer samples. New Belgium is hitting the road with their line of “playground beers,” known as Lips of Faith, for a beer & film tour. Bring a blanket or a chair and come watch fan-created films while tasting up to a dozen beers from the Lips of Faith line. Beer + film = Our kind of party.
Shakespeare In The Park: Love’s Labor’s Lost. Centennial Park, 6:30pm, $5 donation suggested (but not required). It’s the second-to-last week of this year’s Shakespeare In The Park, and it runs every night from Thursday through Monday this week. Preshow entertainment starts at 6:30pm, and the main attraction begins at 7:30pm each night.
Kyle Andrews EP Release. Mercy Lounge, 9pm, free (21+). Kyle Andrews was one of your Nashvillest editors’ first foray into the local music scene when we moved here a handful of years ago, and he’ll always have a soft spot in our hearts for that. His EP release show tonight is free, and he’s rounded up some excellent acts to accompany him, including Heypenny, Mother/Father and Gold Motel. If you can’t make it tonight, he has a Grimey’s in-store lined up for tomorrow (Saturday) evening at 5pm.
Nashville CREAM 4th Anniversary Bash. Exit/In, 9pm, $5 (18+). The Nashville Scene’s all-things-music (and some-things-not) blog, Nashville CREAM, is turning 4 (that’s practically ancient in blog-years). Join them for a party with DJ sets, drink specials, a photobooth, a bunch of super cool prizes, and a performance of Weezer’s Pinkerton album in its entirety by My So-Called Band. Other artists in the lineup include Shaky Voices, Tristen and Courtney Tidwell.
McFadden’s 3 Year Anniversary Party with Flavor Flav. McFadden’s, $15 (21+), no one seems to want to disclose the time. Hey Nashville CREAM, why isn’t Flavor Flav coming to YOUR birthday party? Flavor Flav will be holding down the fort at McFadden’s for their third birthday bash, signing autographs and um, hanging out, aka doing what he does best. McFadden’s says “dress code enforced,” which is probably due to the last “PJ Party” Flavor Flav attended in the ‘Boro last year, so… there’s that. All we ask is for some brave Nashvillest operative to go undercover and take some pictures for us. We’ll <3 you forever!

SATURDAY

Musician’s Corner. Centennial Park, 3-6pm, free. This week’s Musician’s Corner lineup includes Joseph Lemay, Half Brass, The Scissormen, Shelly Fraley and Parachute Musical. If you haven’t been to a Musician’s Corner yet, you’re really missing out on one of Nashville’s best new events – And if the temperatures have been keeping you away, this week is the perfect time to give it a whirl.
First Saturday Art Crawl. Downtown art galleries, 6-9pm, free. It’s a staple around the Nashvillest HQ, and with the cooler temperatures, September is the perfect month for an art-hop.
The Civil Wars and Madi Diaz with Peter Groenwaldz. 3rd & Lindsley, 8pm (6pm doors), $10. Local favorites The Civil Wars and Madi Diaz are wrapping up their eastern-US “Indian Summer Tour” in Nashville. Welcome them home! Tickets can be purchased in advance HERE. If you’re not familiar with The Civil Wars, you can download a free live album HERE and decide for yourself.
The 21st Annual Franklin Jazz Festival. Downtown Franklin square, Saturday & Sunday at 4pm, $8 advance/$10 doors. If you’re in the mood to head south for the afternoon, this year’s Franklin Jazz Festival is cranking up the music on Saturday and Sunday with two stages of jazz performances by national & regional acts. The full lineup for both days is here.

SUNDAY

Celebrate Labor Day with Cory Chisel & Friends. The Basement, 8pm, $8. Cory Chisel comes through Nashville several times a year, and get excited every time. We just can’t get enough of this singer/songwriter’s sometimes-folky, sometimes-poppy, sometimes rock’n'roll tunes.
The Southern Comedy Quartet Comedy Tour. Jesse Zane’s Nashville Nights, 8pm, $10. Nationally-touring comedians Sean Patton, Nate Bargatze, Jarrod Harris and Rory Scovel are joining forces for both a tour and to film a documentary about the dark, seedy underbelly of being a touring comedian. Okay, okay, maybe not so dark or seedy, but they describe their acts as “comedy from the trenches,” and Sunday’s performance marks the first date of the tour and filming kickoff for the documentary.

MONDAY

Anberlin in-store & Labor Day BBQ. Grimey’s, 1pm, free. Whether you’re an Anberlin fan or just looking for some good barbecue on Labor Day afternoon, Grimey’s got what you need. Preorder the new Anberlin record (details here) for guaranteed entrance to the in-store, or just show up and cross your fingers that there’s not 300 people there already.

Photo by Mykl Roventine.