Every now and then, I like to hitch up my pants to just below my armpits and crawl into the way-back machine to reminisce about how things used to be. And, no, I don’t mean back when everything was great, because the reality is it was only great for certain people, so this isn’t a “you kids get off my lawn” memory.
No, I’m talking about back in the day when we were super excited if we had one big event on the to-do calendar. Getting ZZ Top or Aerosmith in the Roundhouse back in the ’80s meant it was going to be a big week, or even month, which was about how often we got the big shows there.
Barry CourterWhen Prince played Memorial Auditorium in 1998, we couldn’t believe it. When Cher came to the arena in 2004, we about lost our collective minds, convinced that we were suddenly in the big time or that she’d made some terrible scheduling mistake, thinking we were just outside of New York or something.
Back then, movers-and-shakers used to semi-panic if we had two big events on the same day, or even over the same weekend. They used to worry that there wasn’t enough people willing to come off their wallets for two events in such a short period of time. Or, they worried our infrastructure couldn’t handle it.
When we started talking about publishing what is today called ChattanoogaNow, we actually worried about having enough material to fill it during some parts of the year. We needn’t have worried, but honestly not all of the events were top-shelf affairs – except to the folks presenting them, of course.
All that has changed. These days, if you can’t find something to do, it’s your fault. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had something like 36 musical events alone on the schedule in one seven-day period.
This week’s calendar is packed with a variety of events both local and national, big and small, though as I said, that is a relative notion. If you’re into it, it’s big.
We have Steve Martin and Martin Short at Memorial Auditorium, the Road to Nightfall competition begins and the Great Southern Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention is Saturday.
“Jersey Boys” is at the Tivoli, but Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga and Improv Chattanooga have shows as well. Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman is at the Walker Theatre and comedian Kristen Key is at the Comedy Catch and Cut-Throat Comedy Live!, a new event featuring teams of comics playing a twisted version of familiar classic game shows, is at the Palace Theater.
So many choices. Whatever will we do?
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.