Thursday: We Started To Drag [Next Big Nashville 2008]

Thursday. We don’t mean to whine, but wow. The only thing worse than staying out late on a weeknight is staying out late on two weeknights in a row. Worth it? Of course. We’ll admit that we accidentally napped straight through the first two shows we wanted to see (Canon Blue and Timbre at The Anchor), but it all worked out. Nashvillest HQ is dangerously close to The Bluebird Cafe, so we sauntered over there at 9pm instead to catch a Writers In The Round set with Betsy Roo, Angaleena Presley, Trent Dabbs, Ashley Monroe and someotherdudewhoisn’tonthescheduleandwegottherelatesowedidn’tcatchhisname. Seeing a show at The Bluebird is always a treat, and last night was no exception. We’re firm believers in The Bluebird’s magical properties that make everyone who plays there sound great. Instead of hanging around to catch the next In The Round set, we decided to head downtown. This turned out to be a terrible mistake, as we’d somehow missed the fact that Glen Phillips was playing next. Live and learn (and read your schedules very closely).

Our next stop was supposed to be Lot 7 to see Deas Vail, but thanks to Katie Herzig next door at 12th & Porter, parking was tight. So we gave up and went straight to The Rutledge to wait around for All We Seabees, who put on a heck of a show. All We Seabees is one of the few bands on our list that we had never seen live before, and they didn’t disappoint. They gave a polished, energetic performance that left us wanting to hear more. All We Seabees is playing in Murfreesboro on November 8; check them out and pick up a copy of their full-length CD Lady Alaska.

We left (our awesome parking spot) and zipped up 8th to The Basement, right on time for Matthew Perryman Jones‘ 11:45pm set. Here we encountered the first show of Next Big Nashville that wasn’t running on time, so we caught the end of Megan McCormick‘s set as well. Only running about 15 minutes behind schedule, Matthew Perryman Jones took the stage for his 45 minute set. After his first song, he casually mentioned that Glen Phillips was hanging out and they were going to attempt some old Toad The Wet Sprocket tunes in a few minutes. Now we love us some MPJ, but we were pretty excited at this announcement. Let’s all say in unison: “Only in Nashville…”

To try to review Glen Phillips’ extremely nostalgic performance (hey, we’re 80′s babies) would be sort of an injustice, so we’ll skip to the part where we went to the official afterparty at the Mercy Lounge, and it was lame. Afterparties are for people with the endurance to hang out until 2am when everyone shows up drunk. So we went home, went to bed, and had sweet dreams of Toad The Wet Sprocket all night long.

Next up: Our NBN recommendations for this weekend.