The Expedition to Cumberland Ave: A Search for the Soul of a Dying Culture

Last night..scratch that a few weeks ago... after my post work nap, I traveled down to campus (specifically The Strip) in order to grab some food, and listen to some music. As I was searching for a parking spot, I realized that I didn't really need to search all that hard; and as I was walking to BW3's I realized it didn't seem as busy I as I remembered it being back when I was a frequent visitor of the Strip on Monday Nights after band practice.

It seems weird for me to start anything with the following phrase "Years ago" but I'm going to do it anyway.

Years ago, when I was playing in a ska band and living the posh lifestyle of a student lifeguard, I used to frequent a little slice of heaven known as "the strip." Now it's never been a secret that I don't drink, but that has never kept me from heading out to have a good time with my friends. Anyway, as time passed my ska band broke up, I received my Bachelor's degree, and hung up my whistle, and my friends who used to drag me to the strip moved away, and now instead, I get dragged to the Old City or to various other establishments throughout West Knoxville, with a whole different set of people.

Well last night (or whenever I started writing this) I decided that I wanted listen to some live music, and it being Monday night I did what anyone would do, and made my way down to BW3's to listen to the soothing sounds of Tall Paul. I arrived at 9:30 pm, a time when I thought Paul would be well into his first set and I could sit with some friends eat some chicken and relax.

On my way to the strip, I was mentally preparing for bedlam, not just at Wild Wings, but everywhere on the strip. To say the previous night - at Tall Paul's Quaker Steak Set - had been rawkous would be a gross understatement. When I arrived I found a much different scene than the one I had in my head. A desolate ghost town, a skeleton, a shell - of the raucous and rambunctious "side of town" that I had once frequented.

As I entered Wild Wings I sat down with Joe and Paul, two veterans of the music scene and Knoxville in general, and we began talking, which got my mind going and before I knew it I was thinking (as I sometimes have a tendency to do) about the Strip and how it was in a downturn, a spiral if you will. And I began to think why? It took me all of, 1.2 seconds to realize why. The strip has no soul. Plain and simple, there are only a handful of establishments on the strip with soul and those are slowly dying, those with the most soul are already dead.

The few places on the strip that are unique only to the strip, (e.g. Old College Inn, Tap Room, Longbranch, Sunspot) are truly great places. These places are cool, genuinely cool, like James Dean or Elvis in his prime, just plain cool, because they are unique. With very few exceptions these places are the same they've been for years. You cannot go anywhere else in the world and have the same experience. And sadly these original establishments that reside on the strip are fading fast. These places are disappearing like the sunlight when all you want is one more at bat before you have to go inside.

They are being replaced with chains; available in every suburban shopping mall, airport, interstate exit, and turnpike. Why are there 5 chicken joints (let it be known I never say joint, especially when referring to an eatery, but the connotation that comes along with referring to a restaurant as a joint is really impeccable in this context) within a 1 mile radius of one another? Why is there not one really great place to see a rock band any night of the week? Answer: Because America loves cash money and cash money is way easier to obtain through franchised restaurants and terrible terrible jukeboxes than it is through original establishments.

Sad but true. And I can't say I'm any better, every time I pass by the old O'Charley's I contemplate the start up capital and small business loan I would need to get that place off the ground with music, food, and drinks - but for me personally the risks outweigh the possible gain, at least for the moment. And at the moment, I'm not in the place to take those risks.

What I'm trying to say is that "the strip" was a genuinely cool place once upon a time, and has the potential to be that again. It's just that there's to much neon and drive through and not enough soul.

For now I guess will watch and wait as the Strip ebbs and flows again and hope that before long it will start to breathe again as only we - the old, the weathered, the long forgotten Alumni of UT and former/current residents of Knoxville - know that it can. Because it's clear that the strip will never entirely die, as sure as the sun sets the strip will be a place for people to be, even if it is with their head down in their fast food or double triple mocha lattes.

Lets all hope that a little more soul will take up resident on a stretch of Cumberland Ave. called "the strip." Because even though it's easier to die or get hurt when you have a soul, it's worth it. But that's another blog for another day.