I went to a new venue the other night and listened to some live music. I was the third oldest person in the place but that didn’t matter, because I learned something new about the younger generation and I liked what I learned.

Everyone knows that Nashville is my favorite city to visit.  There is a lot to do there and if you’re open to the possibility you can find music other than country.  Don’t misunderstand, I like country music and will someday sing it in the Recreation Room. But there is more to life than today’s country, last year’s country, and last decade’s country and only listening to it in crowded, drunk-filled honky-tonks on Broadway.  There is non-country and specifically, non-country from the 60s and 70s, and listening to it in a dark basement in East Nashville. Sounds shady, right?

I can’t say I was ever a fan of The Velvet Underground.  I was only one-year-old when they started playing music so I was busy rockin’ out to the hottest nursery rhymes and playing peekaboo.  Yeah, I know, about now you’re asking what happened that I, an almost 54-year-old woman, ended up listening to music by The Velvet Underground in a dark basement in East Nashville.  Well, let’s just say, it happened and I liked it.  I liked everything about it. Most importantly, I liked the people. They were hipsters and while I couldn’t fit one toe into the skinny jeans many of them were wearing, they were the most respectful people I’ve ever encountered at a live music venue in Nashville or any other state.  While there was a funny smell every now and again, there was no swearing, pushing, gyrating, twerking, or drunkenness. If someone bumped into me, they apologized.  If they wanted through to move closer to the stage, they said “excuse me” or “pardon me.” They minded their business and so did I.  After all, I was in dark basement in a neighborhood undergoing gentrification.  That’s a big word, gentrification, and I’ve never used it before so I had to look it up.  Let’s just say that several years ago, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in that neighborhood, or maybe I would have.

I hear a lot about young kids and adults having a sense of entitlement, but there was none of that in my new neighborhood.  I was just there listening to some live music in a venue with a few of my new hipster friends. And I liked it.