Nice. That Yontan Gat show will be rocking.

Only live event on my horizon is Sturgill Simpson next month. I'm super stoked.

I've gotten pretty lax about shows, come to think of it. Part of it is of course just being an old stick in the mud. My record store clerk days are passed, and my "new" music now is more often old jazz, blues, or country than new indie stuff. I guess having a young child and regular job-type-job doesn't help either.

And then there's location. Chattanooga's amazing, but just not quite big enough to support a thriving scene for touring indie rock bands. (Population's around 175k, and situated smack between Nashville and Atlanta, both of which bands would prefer to play when passing through.) There was a brief stint in the late 1990s and early 2000s where we somehow got great bands regularly. Acts like Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Radar Bros., Lambchop, Man or Astroman (who came back to town about six months ago and played a killer show at a tiny dive bar), Elf Power, Of Montreal, Cat Power, Smog, American Analog Set, Neil Michael Hagerty, and so on all played here in the span of just a few years. It was a great time, but I don't get the sense that it's being replicated with analogous bands today. (Says a guy with almost no sense of what's happening in contemporary indie rock.) We've gotten some bands to come around recently -- the Flaming Lips, Band of Horses, Dr. Dog, etc. -- that probably wouldn't have come ten years ago, but it's slim pickings overall for indie music. (We do get some solid old-time, string bands performances, so that's a huge plus.)

Granted, that never used to be a problem when I'd just head to Atlanta or Nashville for shows all the time. That's just less feasible for me these days.

Man, this is getting a little melancholy, isn't it? My bad, dude. Glad you've got some good shows on the horizon. Pay no mind to the retired hipster waxing nostalgically about his glory years.