The Bluebird Cafe-Nashville, TN. 8.22.14

This past weekend I made my fourth trip to Nashville where I FINALLY got to experience the infamous Bluebird Cafe first hand! After attempting to get seats for a few years, I wanted to make sure I got there this trip. Waking up at 6 am and fighting to get a table was so worth it because the Bluebird is one of the most well-known music venues in the world. Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and many other very artists got their start there and it continues to be a landmark in any musician's road to success. The ever popular show Nashville also helped the Bluebird gain more visitors due to the exposure it gets throughout the season. I thought that it was a free-standing building but it actually is located in a strip mall next to a diamond store and a dry cleaners. Pretty random, but maybe it wasn't like that when it was first built. Although the Bluebird is not how it looks on the tv show, it still has some of the same characteristics. The floors are carpeted in real life, whereas in the show they are hardwood. The stage setup is mainly the same but with less surrounding room. The actual venue is extremely small, which is why it is so difficult to reserve seats. There are only 20 tables available to reserve otherwise you have to wait in line to take a chance at one of the bar or pew seats. Since the venue is so small, there really is not a bad seat in the house so whatever table you can find will be more than fine! Sometimes there are pretty well-known artists that play but the night I went featured 2 husband/wife duos. They were alright but I mainly came for the atmosphere and to see such a huge part of music history. The artists that performed were Heino Moeller,  Paul Jefferson, Lisa Brokop and Carrie Moeller. Lisa is from Canada, which was interesting because there were a large amount of Canadians in the audience. The sound system was great and every performer's voice was crystal clear! The food was also pretty good and they have a wide variety of choices on the menu. Recording wasn't allowed, but they did allow photography so I have a few pictures of the inside/outside. If anyone reading this gets the chance to visit Nashville, you have to check this place out! You will not regret it and it'll give you an insider's look at one of the most famous music venues in the world. Also, if anyone has any questions about the Bluebird or Nashville in general, do not hesitate to contact me. I LOVE sharing information and I have a ton to give out about Nashville!

 "The best songwriters in the world pass through this door." 

The stage is what resembles the show Nashville the most, love those lights! 

They have all the pictures of the musicians that have played all over the walls, too many to count. 

Pre-show picture of the stage. 

This is the view from the outside. 

I will definitely be going back to the Bluebird, hopefully when some well-known artists are playing! I am so thankful that I was able to even get tickets, so anytime I go will be special. Hope you enjoyed this post and be on the lookout for a concert review in the next few weeks! 

Disclosure @ the Aragon. 8.1.14

I recently attended my first Lollapalooza Aftershow this past weekend and am so excited to finally be able to review this show. Disclosure is a fairly new act, an English duo consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. They are complete geniuses! You have to see one of their shows to understand what I mean, the lighting and effects were absolutely incredible. They’re both also very young, Guy is 23 and Howard is only 20. It’s so interesting that a lot of these DJs come from the UK and they’re all so young, it really blows my mind!  Anyways, this show was at one of my favorite venues ever aka the Aragon Ballroom! I hadn’t been to a show at this place in a few years, so it was nice to be back. Since this show was an after show, it didn’t start until 10 and there were two other opening acts before Disclosure. The first opener was better than the second, in my opinion. The first was a super cool, soulful electronic group called Wrestlers. I really enjoyed their set and everyone was dancing! The second opener was a solo DJ named Julio Bashmore. His music wasn’t as dance friendly as Wrestlers and a lot of his songs sounded the same to me.

By the time his set ended, it was almost time for Disclosure and I was getting pretty excited! They ended up going on around midnight and the place was completely PACKED. I’m glad I moved to the upper level because everyone was so close together on the floor, it was insane. I’ll admit, I was only familiar with one or two of Disclosure’s songs, but the others were equally as good that I was not familiar with! They gained popularity from their massive hit “Latch” featuring Sam Smith that was released earlier this year, which is one of the main songs people associate them with. They played songs from their debut, album,Settle, and everyone seemed to recognize “Latch” when they played it.

I love music you can dance to and these two insanely talented brothers did not disappoint! I am SO glad that I was able to see them at one of my favorite places and will definitely be seeing them again. They have played in Chicago many times previously, but I either was in school or hadn’t discovered them yet. They played a show at the Mid last Thursday and I heard great things about that show as well! If you want to learn more about Disclosure or hear some of their incredible tunes, check out http://disclosureofficial.com/ or https://soundcloud.com/disclosuremusic. They also were on Jimmy Fallon recently and performed Latch with Sam Smith, so that’s another cool performance that is worth checking out. I look forward to attending another Disclosure show and hope that they gain some new fans after this post! My next show that I have planned is Sam Smith at the Riv on September 22nd, so keep your eyes out for that post as well as a new album review in the coming weeks!