Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday November 06, 2025 - Chattanooga, TN

Road Blog
November 6, 2025
Chattanooga, Tennessee
We left our AirBnB in Xenia, Ohio a little after 10am and headed south on I-71 listening to Grand Funk. It was a beautiful fall, Midwestern morning and a great day for a drive. These guys pick a band and listen to their discography on their tours and day 1 was negotiating what that band would be this time and we couldn’t settle between Fleetwood Mac and KISS so we decided to do both, alternating. The first Fleetwood Mac album was cool, pretty much straight-forward rock blues. The first KISS album rules.
We crossed the Ohio river into Kentucky in Cincinnati and then into Tennessee. The fall colors were in full bloom as we got into Fleetwood Mac album 2 and KISS – Hotter Than Hell. It was fun analyzing the growth of the bands and picking out the great tunes and the not-so-great tunes, and then into round 3, where Fleetwood Mac was consistently improving and KISS was toggling (on Dressed to Kill) between their best material to date (“She”, “C’mon and Love Me”) and some of their worst filler.
We passed an 18-wheeler that flew off the highway into a tree in what appeared to be a catastrophic disaster, though the apparent driver was sitting on the guard rail laughing with the cops. Then an hour later we saw a car fly off the road into the median, somehow collect itself, and get back onto the interstate where it side-swiped a semi. Crazy shit indeed, narrowly missed by us.
We pulled into Chattanooga and got into our AirBB for a brief downtime period before heading into the city. We grabbed some dinner at the Chattanooga Brewing Company (killer cobb salad, hipster wedding party…) then headed over to the Cherry Street Tavern for load-in.
The Tucos played Cherry Street a couple years ago and Marty and I connected again pretty quickly. I met opener Vic Burgess, wearing a sweet Chewbacca coat, and then Jack Endelouz, who was also playing with his band. Vic and Dayna went on at 9 to a pretty good crowd and played a great set of awesome songs. Jack and his band killed it after them, with a great set of rowdy country-rock originals.
We went on around 10:30 to an adequate but gradually diminishing crowd and played an hour of our most A-list material. The stage is small and cozy but we made it work. It was a little different than our normal 2 or 3-hour set but we kept it loose and rowdy and it went great. People were into it and it was a good step up from our Dayton show.
We had a couple more rounds at the bar then loaded out, put on Van Halen 1 and headed back to the AirBnB in hopes of catching last call at a nearby dive bar. Unfortunately, the neighborhood establishments were closed, so it was a nightcap at the house then lights out. It was probably all for the better, to be honest.
Today we’ve got another long drive to High Springs, Florida where we’re playing High Springs Brewing Company tonight and tomorrow night, with a welcome couple days of little to no travel. I’m rolling on minimal sleep but less queasy than yesterday, with a needed shower in an a cup of instant coffee down, so I’ll take that. Spirits are high and the band is killing it. I’m looking forward to the next couple Fleetwood Mac albums and the breakthrough: KISS – ALIVE! BIGTHANKS to Cherry Street Tavern for the hospitality and we can’t wait to come back to Cattanooga! See ya tonight Florida! xx