Forgotten Treasures of Americana: Starwood Ampitheatre

On the latest edition of Forgotten Treasures of Americana, "Big Natural" Stoney Keeley relives the glory of Nashville's Starwood Ampitheatre.

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In our never ending quest to provide all of our readers with relatable, ‘slice of life’ style content, we here at the SoBros Network feel the time to weigh in on social commentary has officially come. It’s once again time for me, Big Natural, to open up the leather-bound parchment pages of the annals of history. Put on your plush robe, light your pipe, start a fire, and get ready for deep contemplation. This is the as-often-as-I-remember-to-write-it column: Forgotten Treasures of Americana. Today, we will be looking back at the historic piece of Nashville lore, the beloved Starwood Ampitheatre.

*sigh* – Well, here we are, folks. It’s September 1st and another summer has come and gone here in the Music City. And, yes – I know what you’re thinking. It’s another summer without Starwood. Maybe some of you youngins don’t remember the true glory of Nashville’s big time amiptheatre from back in the day, but I can tell you all from experience that it was certainly a place to create some fond memories that you’d cherish forever.

Located out in Antioch, Starwood was THE place to go for outdoor concerts around Nashville – operating from 1986-2006, it had a seating capacity of 17,137 (per Wikipedia). Why they built it about 18 miles and 30 minutes out of town, I don’t know…but shit….that’s how Old Nashville was. We had Opryland out of town, Starwood out of town, BOTH of the zoos were out of town a ways. We didn’t used to have everything clustered on a few city blocks the way it is today. And, honestly, I preferred Starwood being 30 minutes out of town to Ascend being right there in the middle of it all.

The layout of Starwood was my favorite part. One big ass stage. A covered seating area…and then a massive lawn built out of a rolling hill. On those warm…scratch that. On those sweaty ass summer days, you could sit out in the lawn and enjoy the warmth of the sun without being shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of other sweaty ass people. On those crisp cool fall nights, or those early spring nights before the summer had brought its heat with it, you could huddle up with a blanket. I’m sure there was lots of fingerin’ going on back in those days, too.

I never thought I’d be that guy…the one who talks about “the kids,” but the kids in Nashville these days just don’t know what Starwood was all about. And, no – I’m not naive enough to think that this generation isn’t making their own memories at places that will one day be torn down. I know they have their own version of Starwood. But, I still think it’s fair to say that there’s nothing quite like it in Nashville today.

Some of my favorite memories of my adolescence and college years come from Dancin’ In the District, River Stages, and most of all, Starwood. The Warped Tour, Ozzfest, The Family Values tour, John Mayer, Hank Jr. and a cloud of smoke. It’s a place that invokes a sense of camaraderie out of me. Bonding – looking back on those memories, seeing the biggest bands, being young and dumb…it’s like time was standing still and I didn’t even realize it at the time.

Nothing was greater than Buzzfest, though. That was one of the few days of the year we got the whole band together to raise hell all day out in that lawn. I’ll never forget how crazy shit got when Mudvayne took the stage. We were out in the lawn and seeing full, unopened cans of soda sailing through the air towards the mosh pit. At one point, I looked over and our buddy Jared had ripped apart a a chaise lounge and was just beating the pile of metal with one of the legs of the chair. It was pandemonium…like a scene from the apocalypse. We watched the show with our heads on a swivel, hands up over our skulls in the event of a colliding Coca-Cola can.

Things settled down on that cool September night, but it was something else, and shit….why wouldn’t it be? Look at this lineup that I found on setlist:

2003, man. Those were the days. Smile Empty Soul ruled, @ me.

I don’t want to get sued and I damn sure don’t have any photos of Starwood just lying around, so check out this Google search. I want to say “it was a one-of–a-kind place,” but let’s be real….ampitheatres exist all over the country. But, I’ll say this, for us local Nashville kids, we certainly didn’t have anywhere else like it…and it was definitely a place where you could make those one-of-a-kind memories…

….like watching people throw soda cans at each other.

FORGOTTEN TREASURES OF AMERICANA ARCHIVES

3D Doritos
3OH!3
AIM
American Gladiators
The Basilisk
The Bermuda Triangle
Braided Belts
Citizen’s Arrest
Hasbro WWF Action Figures
Homework
Mama’s Family
Muppet Treasure Island
Playing Outside
Quicksand
Slamball
Surge
That Marilyn Manson rumor…
The Super Soaker 50

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley

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