If you love live music, head to Main Street this Saturday
For a decade now MainX24 has been the event of the fall/winter season in Chattanooga. For 24 glorious hours the Southside of Chattanooga gets taken over by a party of Dionysian proportions, a gathering with no peer when it comes to the volume and diversity of arts and entertainment. Food, art, music; there genuinely is something for everyone and like a Looney Tunes snowball with each passing year the project gains momentum, picking up new acts and performers.
Last year marked the debut of the Jingle Ball, described as a “Hillbilly Holiday Ball.” The Jingle Ball returns this year with Strung Like a Horse, Chattanooga’s beloved good old boys of funk, headlining the event at Revelry Room. Strung Like a Horse, longtime local favorites and the band whose tireless efforts to make over-alls the new sexy are legendary, are taking time out from their latest projects (including an upcoming experimental noise album and the construction of their own personal studio dubbed “The DANG Studio”) to bring one monumental night of music to Mainx24.
Strung Like a Horse, along with co-conspirators Morgan Wade & The Stepbrothers from Roanoke, and Iron Fez, a local group whose penchant for combining high silliness with pure industrial grade talent is a thing of beauty, will take the stage Saturday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets are already in high demand for this show and there is no doubt it will be sold out by the day of the performance so the time to act is now. Contact Chattaboogie Music or Strung Like a Horse for more information on how to get yours.
There are plenty of other musical opportunities throughout the day, which officially starts at 6 a.m. at the Sisu Sauna Study (sweat start your day). The annual Pancake Breakfast, listed as an event with music, begins at 8 a.m. at Fire Hall No. 1, which is also the place to be for the return of much-loved organist Buddy Shirk from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Adele’s Ice Cream Creperie hosts hammered dulcimer music from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and the Brent Sanders Studio’s Open House will also feature beautiful sounds for your enjoyment from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Simple Stress Solutions likewise offers a place to relax from 11:30 a.m. until 4 while Owen Saunders delivers an acoustic show at the Backstage Bar on 29 Station Street 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 that afternoon.
Feel free to catch the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera’s “Sensory Friendly Concert” at the Chattanooga Choo Choo from 11:45 a.m. until 12:20 p.m. Seed Goods Percussion and Music Circle Jamboree will take place throughout the afternoon at Seed, 515 E. Main St.
The Revelry Room features the Hip Hop Lounge from 1 to 3 p.m. hosted by Hip Hop CHA. The Speakeasy Revue is at Star Line Books from 2 to 3 p.m. and PechaKucha Chattanooga Manix24 Edition is at Granfalloon 3:30 to 5 p.m. The Kizomba Dance Class and 2-hour Latin Dance Party will be at Dance Tonight Chattanooga on 46 E. Main from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Local super musician Danimal Pinson will be presenting his psychedelic stylings at the Backstage Bar from 7 to 9 p.m. while Lumbercat’s “Sneak Peak Album Party” will be held at Peace.Strength.Yoga on Rossville Ave. from 8 to 10 p.m. Granfalloon is packed from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. with Party Party Dance/Summer Dregs, SoCro, Drag Show and Warsaw and Main Street Beats is at The Crash Pad 9 until 2 a.m.
Please remember, these are only some of the musical opportunities available at this year’s MainX24 and doesn’t even begin to take in to account the numerous art installations, galleries, maker’s meet ups, whiskey tastings, sumo wrestling, face-painting, street performers, fine food offerings, cook-offs and, I have been led to believe, sumo wrestling. A full schedule of events is available online at the Mainx24 website.