The Spin

Nada clueThursday night was Nada Surf’s first time playing Mercy Lounge after two straight packed out shows at Exit/In in the last two years. It seemed like a few of their fans might have gotten lost on the way across town, because although the place was far from sparse, it wasn’t the teeming hoard the band managed to draw touring behind The Weight Is a Gift. Fortunately, those who did show radiated enthusiasm, singing along to favorite tunes and indulging frontman Matthew Caws’ request for a group dance-along during “Inside of Love.” With a keyboard player helping the trio re-create the lush palette of the recently released Lucky, the veteran power poppers were as tight as ever, and still looked like they were having a grand old time. (We’re assuming bassist Daniel Lorca’s ever-present mellow, cigarette-hanging-off-his-lips state is his Zen place—like when our cat sleeps on the windowsill, feet in the air.) Seeing a band play in support of a recently released album is the best: You don’t have to sit through all the “new ones,” but you also get to hear songs you’ve learned to love played live for the first time. Lucky’s “See These Bones” and “I Like What You Say” were exponentially more rocking in live format, and classics like “Do It Again” might just sound good forever. One hardcore fan was overheard bemoaning the fact that the band completely ignored their first two releases. We get that—after all, we’re the ones screaming “Bulldozers and Dirt” at Drive-By Truckers’ shows—but the new stuff is so superior that it’s hard to complain. During the final song of the encore, the deliciously ironic “Blankest Year,” Gumby struck again. The lanky green man with the asymmetrical head who we’ve seen spontaneously take the Mercy Lounge stage lately, busted out some very special dance moves, causing even the band to snicker with delight. We’ve heard rumors about who might be the man behind the mask—we’ll give you two hints: really fucking tall, and possibly quite drunk.

Mountin’ musicSometimes there’s nothing better than arriving early at Springwater, setting up a home base on the rustic-indoor patio furniture, and watching the Marlboro Red smoke roll in. Friday night, that secondhand smoke and the cheap PBRs accentuated the blue-lit, homebrew musical stylings of Jigsaw Mountain Boys and And the Relatives perfectly. The Mountain Boys were up first, and they banged through a spunky set of country punk with a flush-faced, wiry singer who barked out his lines like there was much more at stake than a free pitcher. Next were ATR, a trio whose gregarious stage presence and power-packed drum beats filled the void of a rhythm guitarist. The late-night crowd was an eclectic mix of Vandy student look-alikes, Western shirt-wearing hipsters, local musicians and sad-but-true barflies. ATR energized them with a set that was an even mix of songs off the upcoming 2008 release Below and Above and 2007’s Talking to My Fingers—even tossing in a satisfyingly sloppy cover of Built to Spill’s “Big Dipper.” Frontman Andrew Brassell challenged his vocal abilities on tunes like “Puppetry,” while drummer (and Scene contributor) Patrick Rodgers floated in and out of his own world behind the drum kit. Eli Beaird reined in his fellow bandmates throughout the performance with his steady bass lines. Frequently, Rodgers exited his percussive role to address the crowd and exchange witty banter with Beaird—it was an amusing battle of who gets the last word at times. But ATR really thrive in live performances, where there’s never a lull in musical libido.

My bass tone will crush your hipster folk trioFriday nights like this one make us want to write love letters to this little heat island we call home. Maybe it’s the audacity of heavy riddims, but after a few (admittedly awesome) hours of people-watching down at the red-state freak show on Lower Broad we were pleasantly surprised to find a packed house of multi-ethnic modernistas out to see Brooklyn-based DJ Dieselboy. If you had any questions about the health of the jungle massive here in Music City, know that they repped hard and rolled deep at the Mercy Lounge this week. The three-way tag team by local openers Chris Smotherman, Dorian and Mike Allison was a bit schizo, veering between liquid funk, ragga and hard tech, but definitely did the hometown proud. Seattle native and Dieselboy protégé mista DEMO brought a furious set of buzzing thugged-out beats that upped the ante, turning the room into a frenzied, fist-pumping freak-out. When Diesel took the decks with his MC J-Messinian on the mic, we were a bit skeptical. See, we’ve always been of the volition that MCs talk too much, and they tend to interfere with the sublime sound of overwhelming sub-bass, but not so this time. Both disc jockey and mic controller were on fire, propelling the shockingly glow-stick-free crowd into a state of ecstatic bliss that we don’t usually see at the chin-scratching indie rock shows we’re accustomed to. Oh, and we gotta give extra props the Mercy staff for keeping the AC cranking, the drinks cold and making the show sound superb. Kudos, kids.