Tonight at the Pilot Light

FUTURE ISLANDS

It is going to be great. $8 show at "10" (The pilot light has its own time zone. Kind of like Mountain time.) \\\\//// With Marina Orchestra and Ed Schrader's Music Beat.

Tomorrow Night

Friday night Painted Desert and Natalie Prass at Relix. 8 p.m. $5

Painted Desert

Natalie Prass w/Brent Thompson.

A Memorial

It's been one year since the first of two workers were killed on the Henley St. bridge project and tonight there will be a memorial for those people.

Typically, I might not feel the need to post about this, but the project is literally out my back door. I see these men working everyday and so feel a bit of a connection.

You may recall I wrote a handful of rather damning posts about the company that is running the project, and while there have been lots of improvements, I still feel they should have lost the contract.

Local workers unions, churches, and various interested groups will be meeting at 5PM tonight for a memorial walk from the corner of Henley and Hill Ave. the candlelight vigil will follow on Volunteer Landing at 6PM.

I'm glad this event is happening in order to make sure that Britton Bridge Co. remembers that they put 2 men senselessly in harms way and they died because of it. Hopefully there will be no future need for more vigils like this one.

some great shows

Ok, there are three shows coming up that I am really excited about.

Next week: Friday January the 27th at Relix (on central across from Time Warp Tearoom, in happy holler)




Painted Desert

and



Natalie Prass


Painted Desert is made of two really great songwriters (Austin Manuel and Heidi Feek) who have come together to write really fantastic songs. The Nashville duo's music conveys feelings of longing and love so well. The beautiful melodies will be stuck in your head for day, and that is not a bad thing. Here is a video of them performing at music city roots with Joey + Rory:



or my personal favorite "Take Me Home" (it reminds me of Townes Van Zandt or Guy Clark)



Natalie is another fantastic songwriter who really cares about her songs. She crafts beautiful and delicate pop songs that accentuate her ethereal voice. This is a video of her playing in Knoxville last year:



Tuesday January 31st at the Pilot Light



Future Islands

Future Islands are a great band from Baltimore. I have seen them 3 times and every single time was fantastic. The lead singer, Samuel Herring provides an emotional intensity that is hard to beat. He is a crooner who will destroy an audience.



w/Ed Schrader's Music Beat 10 p.m. $8

Monday February 13th at the Pilot Light



Zola Jesus

Zola Jesus is an electro-goth/pop singer with a killer voice. It is going to be awesome.



that voice. w/Talk Normal 10 p.m. $12

Go right to the source and ask...

With my bride, my 16 day old, and the dog in tow today we set off on a bit of an excursion to practice our parenting on the road.

Our journey took us Asheville Hwy (hwy 70) all the way through Newport, Dandridge, Hot Springs and finally to Asheville. If you've never taken that road it's worth it to see once, a beautiful though at times sobering drive.

But that is not the most important part.

Many of you probably saw the news yesterday about Tupelo Honey looking to come to Knoxville. See story here and the follow up here, thank you Josh Flory.

So in Asheville Mrs., baby, and I ate at, where else, Tupelo Honey.

First, I grilled the waitress. I refused to eat my biscuit until she told me everything she knew. Apparently the company is looking at 4 locations, Knoxville being one that is quite likely.

Not being one to take things at first blush I nosed around until I found a manager and I demanded some straight answers. Actually I just round about-ly inquired as to whether anything more had been decided.

Though of course officially unofficial and non-binding and still up in the air and caviated and subject to being changed of course, but he did give me a wink wink that Knoxville is the favored choice. Honestly I got the impression we are the favored choice. I'm just hopeful that the city can work with both the owners of Tupelo Honey and 1 Market Square to make this happen. This would be a great get and would be a delicious addition to the biscuit festival.

Enjoy the pic, we definitely enjoyed the meal.

Come on Knoxville, be classy please.

Prepare for a brief rant.

What the H is wrong with people? My wife and I went to a concert last night at the Bijou theater and I have something so say in response.

Keep Your Butt In Your Seat!

Perhaps this an effect of the fact that the theater is a rare event these days and perhaps people just don't know how to behave. I don't want to spend my whole evening watching you or your friends getting up to get a drink, go to the bathroom, or answer a call. It is incredibly rude and distracting.

I was sandwiched in between two pregnant women, one, Mrs. The Pol, is 38 weeks pregnant and made it through the ENTIRE CONCERT without getting up. If your bladder is so small that it can't hold the PBR tall boy that you bought before the show don't buy it. Try to show some respect for your fellow concert goers and for the artists. I really hope that the Civil Wars couldn't see all the movement because it was constant and showed a huge lack of interest in their performance which was incredible.

One more thing, put your effing phone away. I saw 20 LCD screens either filming or checking twitter. Again, not ok. That is really distracting to those behind you. Stop being an inconsiderate jerk and just spend 1 hour of you life enjoying being witness to art and not fiddling with some gadget you have.

Knoxville, please try to step up your game on the spectator side, perhaps you're accustomed to the Ice Bears and Lady Vols, but not all entertainment is created equally. We're better than this and if we want world class shows we need to be a world class audience.

That is all.

Open Studio Night in Fort Sanders

Tomorrow evening, you are invited to 17th Street Studios' Open Studio Night. Come and see the spaces where local artists (designers, movie producers, sculptors, painters, ceramicists) work.



There will be food and drinks to enjoy, whether you quietly peruse artwork or intensely interrogate each artist. Some work will also be for sale.



This is a great opportunity to support the work of 13 Knoxville artists. We'd love for you to stop by.



17th Street Studios OPEN STUDIO NIGHT
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
7-9pm
1642 Highland Avenue in Fort Sanders
on the corner of 17th and Highland in Redeemer Church

Bazan tonight

David Bazan (formerly of Pedro the Lion, Headphones) is playing the pilot light tonight. Here is what I said after I saw him last summer. And here is to hoping he covers more Vic Chesnutt.

Pilot Light, 9 p.m., $10