Earlier this week, I made it down to VHS 1138 to catch Nate Coles and the Blue Diamond Band… A show booked by local artist Mitch Clem, so I made it a point to show up in support of him hopefully booking more stuff in the near future. We purposely arrived early to check out the store in hopes of seeing what titles they had to rent…

Up until December 31st – VHS 1138 operated as a video rental store that catered to – Cult/Horror/Sci-Fi/Indie/Romcoms on VHS (with select DVD’s). I kinda felt bad for brining up the topic, but I genuinely had no idea that they stopped operating as a video rental store. I did however learn that they’re going to operate as a music venue tho’ - so we raised a few tallies in the air to commemorate that.

Nate Coles and the Blue Diamond band performed before a sparse crowed but they were absolutely worth driving into the city on a school night. Prior to them playing their set, I got a chance to sit down and talk to Nate about their current Tour. He had never set foot in San Antonio but was looking forward to checking out the Alamo the following morning. We talked about a number of subjects… Minneapolis, where to get good coffee in SA and upcoming dates on their tour. He was incredibly generous with his time and went out of his way to talk to people before the show. He even dedicated a song I-94 to me during their set.

I’ve listened to their album a few times this week and highly recommend you check it out. Their sound on this album sorta reminds me of Bruce Springsteen…