When entering a college in a city of reasonable size, one must consider the many factors of not only said college but also what the city has to offer. For instance, if you don’t care much for sports and love music, Nashville is your kind of town (sorry, Vandy). The same is almost true of Knoxville, but our women win a lot of games and the men knock down a few, so sports fans can rest assured, while music fans never fear much for the well-being of the livelihood.

Whaddya mean “Marble City?”

Knoxville goes by all sorts of names. While none so endearing as “the Big Apple” or “Radio City,” the town’s spirit seems rightfully imbued in each of its nicknames. See “Marble City,” for instance: garnered from the excavation of quarries in the area which now serve as antiquated swimming holes and fun places to drink, the name recognizes Knoxville’s role in the construction of some of our most stately buildings, like the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court Building. Therein lies the rub, folk, as Shakespeare and Luda say: Knoxville, as it were, is a lady on the street but a freak in the bed.

Southern tradition, with a taste of the wild side

Since its humble beginnings as a expansionist fort in the 18th century, this city has gone from the first capital of the state to its third largest city, while maintaining Tennessee’s flagship university. But where the vaunted traditions of genteel Southern grace fall in the daylight, the city more than counters with a nightlife to churn up a few spirits.

For those new to the area or making their way back, a quick primer should be key to making your way around town and hopefully catching as many opportunities as possible for merrymaking and tomfoolery that we as college students so righteously inherit from our predecessors.

A town divided… sorta

The first thing to note when navigating Knoxville proper, that is to say around campus and the downtown area, is that you are isolating your opportunities to only a small part of the area. The city stretches for miles to the West, where an even greater variety of basic fare bars and haunts can be found. But for first rate entertainment, one need not seek further than Gay Street, Market Square and the Old City.

In these three locations, a number of theatres, coffeehouses, dive bars-cum-rock and roll petri dishes and band-friendly restaurants abound. As somewhat of a stalwart (though by no means exclusive expert) patron of many of these establishments, I can give some insight on wear the action is, who’s played there in the past and who you might (or might not) expect to see there in the future.

Also closer to home for many students, the Cumberland Strip still offers a number of nightclubs with cornhole and drink specials, but as their typical “live entertainment” favors the cover band variety you can judge them when you visit. While the Strip once carried the banner of musical and artistic experimentation for Knoxville, most of its institutions have been replaced by warring fried chicken establishments, equally militant rival campus bookstores, virtually noncompetitive gas stations and Bar Knox. Naught but 10 years ago the fabulous Flaming Lips played Moose’s Music Hall, now the sight of Panera Bread, to a crowd the size of a large living room, with blood and confetti to share, but in this day and age one must take larger steps to see such phenomena.

I. Gay Street, bastion of the arts

For a casual fan of expression in the live format, Gay Street makes a great place to start. While shows are among the most expensive in the Tennessee and Bijou Theatres, they are of the highest quality. Not only can you check out top notch concert, but there are numerous performances of opera, stage plays and artistic galas each year, but with the weight of lead on the pocket book.

The Tennessee Theatre

Called “Knoxville’s Grand Entertainment Palace,” the Tennessee is our city’s largest theatre, though dwarfed by the Coliseum and Thompson Boling Arena for top-draw acts who rely more on stage show than intimacy for filling seats.

Opened as an Alhambra moviehouse in the late 20s, the Tennessee has ridden the ebbs and flows of Knoxville’s economic booms and those of the entertainment industry, transitioning from a multiplex to a single screen and stage show venue. Nowadays the movies shown are most often from a DVD and a projector, but the tradition of entertainment in the most beautiful of surroundings shines truer today than perhaps on Oct.1, 1928, when the theatre made its public debut.

Following acquisition by a local group, the Tennessee received a critical facelift and refitting to not only restore the original ornaments and gilded upholstery of her youth, but also to keep with the times. The last show in the venue as its original down and dirty rock theatre occurred on the Millenial New Year’s Eve, as the last show from Scott Miller and Mic Harrison’s V-Roys. Attended by yours truly as a young whelp, the show involved an overweight comic dressed as a baby who told the upcoming millennium just where it could stick itself and a smoke-drenched, fiery set from the V-Roys.

Since its restoration, the Tennessee like most other venues is non-smoking and has a fairly strict security staff, but for shows where the music strikes you to get up and dance, there is still the opportunity to groove. The best show in recent years was probably when Ryan Adams brought his Cardinals through in 2005 behind their masterful double LP “Cold Roses.” A wine-drunk Adams chain-smoked and tore through the Cardinals’ first two albums and a number of his solo classics, but never again did that line up hit a Knoxville stage.

Also of note are the free performances on the Mighty Wurlitzer, the Tennessee’s restored pipe organ which has been with the Theatre since its beginning. The organ is a relic of a bygone age, and a true landmark of local art.

The Bijou Theatre

Though 20 years older and holding a much more interesting history, the Bijou often gets tagged as the Tennessee’s little sister. Perhaps this is because the seating capacity is roughly half of the Tennessee, but this only makes for a more exclusive show space than anything.

Built in 1908, the Bijou originally existed as part of the Lamar House Hotel before wearing many different hats over the following half century: a car dealership, a porn theater and eventually the multi-platform performance venue which it now embodies. Like the Tennessee, the Bijou underwent serious renovation and reopened in 2006. Since then it has provided performers the opportunity to play shows for a reduced ticket price (on average, $10 less than at the Tennessee) and sell out quickly. Though the theatre’s fare can be read on its north exterior wall, a who’s-who of 20th and 21t century legends and iconoclasts, some of its best performances have come in the four years since it reopened its doors: Henry Rollins doing stand-up comedy, Built to Spill co-headlining with the Meat Puppets and a much awaited return of Sonic Youth last summer on their “The Eternal” tour.

In the theatres on Gay Street over the last two year, a cadre of musicians from all over the map have turned up for the Big Ears Festival, which as name-implied represents a one-of-a-kind representation and grouping of artists as diverse as Vampire Weekend and composer Terry Riley, with Brooklyn favorites Michael Gyra and St. Vincent holding it down alongside the National and The xx. overall, the festival serves as an indie counterpoint to Knoxville-produced megafest Bonnaroo.

II. Market Square, home of the down-town revival

Once an open-air market and a series of department stores, Market Square’s resurgence in the last decade makes it Knoxville’s Comeback Kid for everything from music to dining to Shakespeare. As Knoxville has restructured and the downtown area rejuvenated its old standards, Market Square was perhaps the first major step towards revitalizing entertainment for the city.

With a large brick pavilion that faces a square the size of a football field, there is virtually no limit to the productions which take place year in and out. One of the best examples of Market Square’s offerings is the annual Sundown in the City concert series, which over the last decade and change has brought the Wailers, Rilo Kiley, My Morning Jacket, the Drive-By Truckers and numerous others to a rain-or-shine free forum where Knoxvillains and everyone passing through can cut a rug under the stars, in a torrential downpour, or as may be the case, while waiting for a portajohn.

Another longtime establishment on Market Square is the musician-friendly, organic-minded Tomato Head. Specializing in pizza and sandwiches, the restaurant offers a bite for everyone and on occasion features live performance from act like locals Joseph and His Brother, whose bang-on-a-keg rendition of Dylan and the Band’s “Quinn the Eskimo” sticks in the memory as the best drunk Zimmie rendition since Uncle Bob’s last gig, as well as a somewhat infamously under-attended gig by Yo La Tengo many moons past.

The most recent addition to Market Square’s fare can be reached in fewer than one hundred paces from Tomato Head’s front door. The pithily-named Square Room functions as a showroom in the back of Café 4, and has made remarkable progress as a venue for local to mid-level national acts in the last year and a half. Most recently the New Jersey bar heroes the Hold Steady headlined a triumphant set, and in upcoming months the venue will prepare for the second annual Sound Off Battle of the Bands, wherein local bands are judged based on original material and reimagings of songs made famous by music legends.

III. The Old City, Knoxville’s Bowery, is still crazy after all these years

A recent entry in the Metro Pulse regarding what the Old City resembled at this time one hundred years ago has sparked conversations across the local intrawebs. Once referred to as “the Bowery,” the stretches surrounding the intersection of Jackson Street and Central Avenue have been notorious for as long as Knoxvillians care to remember.

Once the center of vice with speakeasies and prostitution, in the last two decades the Old City has become a friendlier, if nonetheless flagrant, image of its former self. One can still read the painted adverts for boarding houses and long-gone sundries on the walls of Southbound 90 Proof and Patrick Sullivan’s saloon, the latter the oldest remaining pub in the city and a righteous entry for the National Register of Hellraising Establishments.

However, the violence and petty crime rates have given up the ghost in favor of wild parties at Southbound and Urban, and a reckless spirit of experimental abandon and joy at the Pilot Light, Knoxville’s best venue for up and coming material from almost every genre imaginable and some that haven’t even been cooked well enough to call incubated yet.

The Pilot Light

What perhaps gives the Pilot Light its charm, aside from its neighborhood bar atmosphere and reasonably priced beer is that a show is almost never repeated there. Bands may share a bill on several occasions, but every time you walk in the door, a new experience is almost guaranteed.

Founded by Jason Boardman and staffed by a motley crew of local musicians and audiophiles, the bar’s list of past performers is far too long to be listed here, but in short includes the Nels Cline Sigers, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, the Circulatory System, Matt & Kim and A Pollinaire Revue (Of Montreal doing vaudeville). Door prices rarely bounce over $5 and never more than $10, making the Pilot Light the best bet for those low on cash and high on expectations.

For musicians and cool cats, the Pilot Light and several other local businesses have come together to form Hot Horse, a boutique next to the Pilot Light on Jackson that offers everything from vinyl to vintage apparel and music gear.

A few doors down is the wonderfully conceptualized late-night stoner paradise The Knoxville Pearl ( locally known as “the cereal bar”), which offers all you can eat cereal, coloring books, puzzles and performances by local songwriters. Also, they have a magnificent collection of rubber duckies. Seriously.

The Birdhouse

Okay, so it’s a bit off the beaten path and best reached by bike or car, but the Birdhouse at 4th and Gillin Old North Knoxville is well worth the transit. A project formed by UT students and local artists, the venue also serves as housing and studio space. Many shows offered at the Birdhouse feature everything from community activist theatre to local death metal, with tasteful art displays and the occasional show from some of Knoxville’s finest bands for no more than a five spot, and more often than not less than such.

There are undoubtedly many more great spots in town to get your kicks. Some are a little further down the road, some are a bit clandestine. But with this road map, dig around a bit. Meet some people, make your own art. If you have come to this town to be educated, then consider this the first lesson in rock n’ roll with a bit of Southern hospitality and a hell of a lot of fun.