In any city, Broadway is probably pretty much the same. Neon lights, garish displays of tourist-trap memorabilia, and bars. I’m willing to bet that every Broadway has a buzzing nightlife. Broadway is known for its happy hour specials, late night munchies, colorful characters. It is either the center or the former center of a city’s social landscape, and either way you’ll find it packed with people on a Friday night.

Try it at this time of day, however, and all is a different story. Bars and things are obviously shut down, chairs all on top of tables, lights off, not a soul in sight. Not a soul. Kitsch stores have yet to open for the day’s tourist crowd, and with the lights off, their window displays are shadowy versions of the dark side of nowhere - a jungle of ambiguous silhouettes.

And of the neon lights: left on, they bleat like a baby lamb left out in the cold, but turned off they become dead relics. In fact this whole street feels too damn silent. It needs the blasting music or else it’s just a picture in newsprint.

The people, it goes without saying, are elsewhere. Maybe in the cars, headed to work via a nearby highway. Maybe in bed - after all, this is Music City and musicians get to work when the sun goes down. Most likely they were just visiting and they’ve returned to their dorm room or their regular job in a nearby state like Missouri.

Well I’ve never been to Missouri so I don’t know about any Broadways there.