Some of the quotes on the monument really struck me and sent me into a nice inspired and introspective state of mind as I wandered amidst the street lamps and warm spring evening. Pretty intense imagining those women and the battle they fought against their own government. Hard to imagine that they faced so much resistance for something we take for granted now -- the right to vote. Hard to imagine that this great nation put up such a fight to withhold this right from women -- as if they're not as qualified as us men. I can only imagine the nightmarish things that talk radio would've said about these women had it existed at the time. Had me thinking about what our generation's big calling is and how we still see intense resistance to any calls for progress as if those fighting for it are anti-american or anti-family or anti-moral, etc etc etc. No different from what those women faced. Sometimes hard to put the present struggles in the context of history, but I suppose that's the role that monuments like this one play in our everyday lives. Although, as a I stood there, a guy walked by me and asked me what the monument was for, said he walked by it everyday and had never stopped to look at it. Rather telling i suppose -- one example as to why history is so easily forgotten... And why the sensationalism of talk radio is so popular... Anyhow, it was a Tuesday, the University of Tennessee was on spring break, and it was the day after St. Patrick’s Day. We were warned that it could be a pretty quiet night by the staff of the Preservation Pub. Didn’t matter too much to us, we knew we had a long set to play and were excited to get the machine up and running again after our first day off. Sound guy Daryl rolled in around ten -- turns out he does sound for the Del McCoury Band, including a recent show at the winery outside of Boise that does music. Really nice guy. Enjoyed rapping out with him. We started around 10:30pm to a crowd of about 20 people.
The Preservation Pub is a big long rectangular box, with a high ceiling and the stage at the back end of the room. The 20 people there were hardly a dent in the big space. We did our thing. They did theirs. They were pretty subdued in general, but as the show went on showed some life and bantered with us about geography and other randomness. We had a good time with it. We were supposed to be splitting the evening with a band from Georgia, but they never showed -- odd, not really sure why a band would not show, not call, but I guess they knew it was going to be a quiet night and decided to bail. We stretched our set a little bit longer, then wrapped it up so that we could hit the road.
Had some interesting post-show conversations, and was psyched that several of the few folks there bought a bunch of merch. They were sweethearts. Despite this being the quietest night of tour, we left there warmed up again and pleased with the overall outcome -- and grateful for the opportunity to explore Knoxville. Met some good folks and will definitely be back. Hopefully sometime when school is in session and on a better night of the week.
Drove into the night -- headed toward Georgia. Pulled over before too long and crashed hard in the van. Felt soooo good. Another glorious night of sleep in a gas station parking lot. ahhhhhh...
Reporting from the land of infinite Waffle Houses for all of us Finn Rigginses ::::
::: gilbert
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