Wedgewood-Houston Now Runs on The Truth's Show Calendar

In Wedgewood-Houston, the most practical document on your fridge this fall is a concert listing. The Truth is Live Nation's new hall on Chestnut Street, with about 4,400 seats. Its own calendar lists 22 shows across the 30 nights of November. Through early December, the Hamilton Avenue bridge over I-65 also stays closed, and TDOT's posted crossing alternatives are Chestnut Street and Wedgewood Avenue. So the venue's crowds and the bridge detour share one street. Whether a weeknight in WeHo is easy or slow now depends on what's playing.

The Truth opened Oct. 1 with Miranda Lambert headlining, and WSMV reported 23 more shows booked for October alone. The Vanderbilt Hustler compared that with the Ryman and Bridgestone Arena, which it said host only a couple of shows a week. November keeps up the same pace.

Twenty-two nights out of thirty

The official show calendar lists a show every Friday and every Saturday in November. Most Sundays have one too, and so do a good share of weeknights. Goose plays two nights, Nov. 10 and 11. Jimmy Eat World plays Nov. 12, Orville Peck Nov. 15, Kirk Franklin Nov. 29, and Victoria Monét closes the month on Nov. 30.

These are the eight November nights with nothing booked.

That works out to eight quiet evenings, mostly Mondays and Tuesdays. Sunday, Nov. 22 is the only open weekend night of the month. If you're planning a dinner on Houston Street for a group, or a contractor visit that runs late, those are the dates where Chestnut behaves the way it did before October.

Chestnut Street is doing two jobs until December

The venue was always going to put pressure on Chestnut. The Truth has about 350 guest parking spaces, according to WSMV. General manager Mickey Davis told the station there are "over 3000 spots in this neighborhood, well above what we would need for any given show night." That figure is the operator's own count. His team's traffic plan sends arrivals in from the west, along 8th Avenue from downtown and Fort Negley Boulevard from the interstate. Davis called 4th and Chestnut "one of the busier areas in the neighborhood."

Then the bridge entered the picture. TDOT says a highway assistance operator found a 17-by-24-foot deteriorated section of the Hamilton Avenue bridge deck on Sept. 9, and the agency closed the bridge to vehicles the next day. The bridge is closed to pedestrians as well as vehicles until the deck work is finished. TDOT's notice points drivers to Chestnut Street or Wedgewood Avenue to get across I-65, and it expects the work to wrap up by early December.

Demolition took the weekend of Oct. 16 through 19. WKRN reported that I-65 reopened that Sunday evening. Rebuilding the deck still means nightly lane closures on the interstate from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., with completion expected in December. Those overnight closure hours line up with the hours concert traffic is leaving.

The effects showed up in opening week. WKRN's first-week report described general admission fans packed on the sidewalks around the venue that first Saturday and Sunday, and traffic backed up on the two-lane road out front.

In the same story, NDOT said it would coordinate detours and signal timing with TDOT while the bridge stays closed. It also said Metro staff talk with The Truth every day about how crowds get in and out around events.

The current transit setup, per Metro and the venue:

• WeGo added a bus stop on Chestnut Street right in front of the venue.
• District 17 Councilmember Terry Vo told WKRN there is no rideshare drop-off at the venue's front door. "If you want to be dropped off in front of the truth, take WeGo," she said.
• The venue's Plan Your Visit page still lists Hagan Street and Merritt Avenue as the rideshare pickup and drop-off point.

For anyone who lives near Hagan and Merritt, that corner is the one to watch on show nights.

The pre-show map runs along Houston Street

A show night moves more than cars. When WSMV asked Davis why The Truth chose WeHo, he described the venue as "the anchor for an entire evening or afternoon of experiences." He named frozen yogurt at Culture Club, a stop at Bellbird Books, a meal at Ingrassia and Sons, and Bastion or Never Never after the show. The neighborhood directory lists Culture Club at 1212 Martin Street and Ingrassia & Sons at 461 Humphreys Street.

Houston Street holds the sit-down options that local show guides point concertgoers to. Pastis is at 512 Houston, Aba at 435, Bastion and its Big Bar at 434, and Middleman, a craft-cocktail bar, at 521. On show nights, those are the tables the visiting crowd is aiming for, so the open nights in the table above are the easy ones for a neighborhood reservation.

Humphreys Street got an early look at both sides of the change. Gabby's Burgers & Fries now charges for its lot outside business hours, and the restaurant told WKRN that waiting fans have left trash on the sidewalk. Its manager also said the venue has been good for business overall: "With it being sold out already, you're seeing people lined up out there at 7:30. So they come in, get something to eat."

The daytime layer opened this fall too

While Chestnut adjusts to evenings, WeHo's daytime routine picked up new places that keep a different schedule.

Asulon Collective Coffee House opened Monday, Sept. 21 at 445 Benton Avenue in Park Commons, according to Davidson County Source. It serves specialty coffee, house blends, single-origin and decaf, with house-made syrups.

WeHo Provisions Co is a farm-fresh market and sandwich shop at 601 Merritt Avenue. It soft-opened in late summer and is open now. WhatNow reported that the same company, Merritt Entertainment, plans The Mix Room at that address. It's described as an immersive performance and community-event venue, and in August it was slated for "later this fall."

Bar Ena opened Oct. 11 at 305 Mildred Shute Avenue, at the Chestnut Hill edge of the neighborhood. It comes from the team behind Cafe Babu, and its cocktails are built around Indian spices.

None of these depend on the concert calendar. The Merritt Avenue address is the one to watch, since a second performance space there would put another event schedule into the neighborhood.

November 7 stacks both calendars

WeHo already had a monthly evening built around its galleries. The WeHo Art Crawl runs every first Saturday, so this month's falls on Nov. 7. Art Beat's crawl page lists participants including David Lusk Gallery, Julia Martin Gallery, COOP, Rockwall Gallery, 185 Alley Gallery, the Nashville Poetry Library and May's at Soho House.

That same Saturday, The Truth hosts Motionless In White's The Sweat and Blood Tour. Live Nation lists it at 6:30 p.m. The overlap isn't new. October's crawl fell on Saturday, Oct. 3, the same night Malcolm Todd played The Truth, according to Nashville Guru's show list. November 7 makes it two crawl nights in a row that share the neighborhood with a concert, and the Hamilton Avenue bridge is still closed for this one too.

For residents who plan to walk the crawl, here's how the published details fit together:

1. Art Beat lists a free parking garage at 1125 4th Avenue South for crawl visitors. That page doesn't mention concert parking.
2. The Truth's doors-and-show window falls in the early evening, so the crawl's first hour overlaps with concert arrivals on Chestnut.
3. The WeGo stop on Chestnut and the rideshare corner at Hagan and Merritt will be busy with concertgoers. Walking between galleries skips both.
4. The next Saturday without a show at The Truth is not in November. Nov. 21 has Wyatt Flores, and Nov. 28 has Beartooth.

If you own on these blocks and have been wondering how a nightly concert hall down the street plays with buyers, Christian Wilson Homes watches Wedgewood-Houston closely and will give you a straight read on your home in today's market. Get Your Instant Home Valuation and we'll go over what the new calendar means for your street.