The excellent quadruple bill at Knitting Factory Brooklyn Thursday was a major victory. All four acts made great, influential records in 2014 and toured extensively in support of them. This night ended up feeling like a celebratory toast to the effort and humble success of those bands and the people that support them.

Kudos to the Knit for staging this wonderful lineup:

100 Watt Horse
Small Wonder
Bellows
Mitski

Admission was $12. The room was two-thirds full at its peak during the Bellows set. It’s atypical for any of the four acts on the bill to play a place like Knitting Factory but the timing of the show (semester break) and combination of performers made it work. The audience was excellent. It arrived early and gave full, quiet attention to the entire program starting with the opening performer George Pettis (playing as 100 Watt Horse). Pettis lives in Atlanta and did a riveting and beautiful cover of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons.”

Next was Henry Crawford performing as Small Wonder. With an electric strapped on and a couple twelve-oz. cans of PBR at his feet, Crawford went it alone. He uses illeism to great effect while telling tales of life’s trials/errors in a voice that pitches like Lou‘s. One great number that Crawford referred to as an “old, new song” and “new to you, but not some of my friends” discussed wisdom of sorts obtained from his father and taking good from the bad. And bad from the bad.

After completing Small Wonder’s set, Crawford switched to bass when Bellows took the stage. The Epoch and SUNY Purchase-inspired bands that have started to become the foundation of Brooklyn’s current music scene have so many musicians with responsibilities in more than just one band. Bellows is a sort-of super group in this way given the versatility of its members. Oliver Kalb (pictured above – in the middle with white t-shirt) writes the songs and fronts Bellows. He’s joined by Gabby Smith on keys, Felix Walworth on drums and Crawford on bass. All but Crawford play in another great band – Told Slant with Walworth fronting that trio. Walworth is a fascinating drummer to watch. He’s very demonstrative, authoritative and talented.

Smith too. She keeps a rigorous schedule and spends a good chunk of life in a van. Not only does she play in Bellows and Told Slant, she plays keys and sings in Frankie Cosmos and also leads her own active and productive band Eskimeaux (which also includes Kalb and Walworth).

But back to Bellows. They were the highlight on this night. An Arcade Fire-like anthem-maker but way more down to earth while doing it, Bellows had the crowd singing along with “See Bright, Be Fine.” In between the punctuation inserted by his bass on that great song, Crawford air-drummed along with Walworth’s distinctive percussion lines.

The unique rotation/sharing dynamic among Bellows and the members’ other endeavors creates obvious cohesiveness and timing and it was a thrill to witness. I’m not gonna engage in futile best-record-of-the-year list-making but if you’re a list guy, you’d have to consider putting Blue Breath by Bellows on it. What an incredible record.

Music writer Jon Caramanica was in attendance and wrote a review of Mitski’s performance.

Mitski was the last to perform and her short set was solid. The Caramanica review was posted on the Times website Friday evening but did not find room in the newspaper until Monday. Caramanica made no mention in his piece of the night’s other performances.

A pair of 2-11 football teams squared off in Nashville Sunday and the overall artistic score for this one was as bad as the win-loss records would indicate.

I made the trip out there to see Jeff and Deborah.

16-11 Jets was the final. It was 5-3 Titans at halftime. There was only one turnover in the game but there was a lot of ugly play. The Jet victory probably does more of a disservice than good for a franchise looking to select a quarterback early in the first round of next year’s draft.

Despite membership in different divisions, the Jets and Titans have played each other seven out of the last nine seasons with all but one of the games in Nashville. In 2015, they’ll play each other again – in New Jersey.

Tennessee probably would have won this game if it weren’t for an awful unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed against Titan captain Wesley Woodyard with seven minutes to go. The Jets were down 11-10 and looked totally dead offensively. On third and 15 from their own 19, Geno misfired badly in Eric Decker’s direction over by the Titan sideline. The Jets were bringing out the punt team and likely would have packed up for the flight home but then a flag appeared out of nowhere. It was determined that Woodyard somehow taunted Decker after the incompletion. I looked at the game tape when I got home and it looked to me that Decker shoved Woodyard after the two exchanged words. Perhaps an official heard something inappropriate but it probably should have been an offsetting situation at best.

The flag on that morbid fourth quarter drive allowed the Jets to get rolling. Former Titan Chris Johnson had a 37-yard scamper out of a direct snap to get Gang Green inside the five. Another Titan penalty on third down gave the Jets a couple more cracks at paydirt and Chris Ivory finally got it in to put this one away.

A comical final play of the game nearly resulted in a Titan TD but the only tangible outcome of that sequence was the loudest crowd reaction of the day.

Percy Harvin played on a bad ankle and was a total non-factor. Jet punter Ryan Quigley was the TSR player of the game with lots of long, good-looking punts. He was also unexpectedly asked to handle kickoffs. Jet place-kicker Nick Folk missed a first half trey attempt from 53. The crossbar clank job elicited howls of laughter from the high school football team from Knoxville assembled in our section. It was reported later that Folk told assistant Jet special teams coach Louie Aguiar before the game that his max range was from 51. The two sparred verbally after the miss but Folk would later ironically connect from 51. Just barely.

Titans QB Jake Locker’s left shoulder popped out of the socket after a violent hit by Quinton Coples in the second quarter. Coples landed with all of his weight on Locker just after Locker threw the ball. His non-throwing arm was sticking out in such a way that the flattening by Coples forced Locker’s left arm to twist unnaturally outward. As Locker lay on the ground, he held his left wrist to keep the now painfully deformed limb from moving. At the time, I thought it was Locker’s wrist that was damaged. Turns out it was the shoulder. When these same two teams met last season, Locker was carted off the field and taken to the hospital with a hip injury after two Jet pass rushers (including Coples) crushed Locker in a borderline dirty manner.

Locker was placed on injured reserve Monday. He will have surgery to fix the dislocation and will be a free agent next spring. Hard to say the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft has been a total bust because he’s been hurt so much. Despite great promise out of the University of Washington, Locker started just 23 games for the Titans over four seasons.

Paid attendance was announced at 69,143 but there were no more than 45-thousand people in the building. LP Field’s longtime public address announcer Mike Donegan has become annoying despite solid execution of his basic job responsibilities. During key moments of the game, Donegan is shown on the video board trying to get a rise out of the crowd with hand motions and elongated hums on consonants. He should stick to descriptions and keep himself out of the entertainment side of things.

The weather was delightful. 54 degrees at kickoff with almost no wind. Before the game, we sipped on Stone “Enjoy By” IPA in the parking lot. Jim from Queens (now firmly based in Nashville) grilled really great franks from Porter Road Butcher. We threw the football around with Jim’s son and discussed who we’d take with our team’s respective lofty first round picks.

The night before, I made my first ever visit to Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of Vanderbilt University. It was Vandy vs. Purdue. Men’s hoops. SEC vs. Big Ten. The students had just started winter break so the courtside section they usually occupy was open to the public on a general admission basis.

Opened in 1952, Memorial Gym is a great place to watch a game. With a capacity of 14,326, the court rises above the seats nearest the floor. The team benches are situated on the baselines and there’s little in the way of distracting commercial sideshow or gadgetry seen typically in the newer arenas.

Vandy’s freshman point guard Riley LaChance had a big game, scoring 26 points on 9 of 13 shooting. He was key in breaking down Purdue press efforts and threw a crisp pass to open men. Vandy won by ten Saturday night despite entering the contest as a slight underdog. Admission was 15 dollars. Attendance was 9565. Veteran ref Jim Burr worked the game and appeared bothered by a bad hip. He was assigned to the Florida/Texas Southern contest in Gainesville the night before and finished the rigorous three games in three days routine by working the Tennessee upset of Butler on Sunday in Knoxville.

When I arrived at Nashville Saturday afternoon, we headed to Peg Leg Porker for barbeque and then had a couple pints at the nearby Yazoo Brewing Company. After that, we caught the tail end of Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn’s set at The Basement which was part of Grimey’s annual Christmas party. Grimey’s is the renowned Nashville record shop which sits atop The Basement, a live music venue.

We closed out the always fun visit to Nashville with a nightcap Sunday at the Hop Stop and then breakfast on Monday at the Pied Piper.

All the flights out of Nashville on the home team airline were full Monday so I caught a ride back on Southwest via Chicago Midway.