From left: Soccer Mommy (photo by Ebru Yildiz), Mom and Dad, Yautja
In December, a deadly fire at Oakland, Calif.’s DIY space Ghost Ship claimed the lives of 36 people. That led to a spate of all-ages venues suspending operations or shutting down — many of them in Nashville. But that wasn’t the first time DIY venue closings hit the city. One other memorable wave of closures came during the winter and spring of 2014, when venues The Owl Farm, Boheme Collectif and The Other Basement each closed its doors for good.
The Other Basement closing was a particular drag, as its convenient spot near Belmont University made a diverse array of bands — among them JEFF the Brotherhood, Guerilla Toss and Peach Kelli Pop — easily accessible to anyone who had a few bucks for the door. After the space closed, Kathryn Edwards, one of its principal organizers, set to work promoting shows under the name The Other Booking. She also spearheaded the effort to launch the all-ages DIY venue Drkmttr — so far, it’s the only DIY space that has reopened in accordance with Metro codes since it was closed in December.
But between The Other Basement’s demise and Drkmttr’s rise, there was the first Nameless Fest. Edwards and her crew used their extensive contacts among local and regional groups to pack a slew of bands — more than 25 of them — into three spaces over two days in June 2015. They expanded to three days in 2016, a feat they’ll repeat when the third Nameless Fest comes to Blackbird Tattoo, Drkmttr and The End this Thursday through Saturday (plus a special late-night after-show on Saturday at a house in East Nashville).
“I’m very consciously trying to find people who have not been brought in yet, to be like, ‘You can totally be a part of this, too. Of course you can come play,’ ” Edwards tells the Scene. “I want to have kids’ bands playing, people who are still in high school ... I want women to be in there, I want people of color. I want people on the gender spectrum. I want everybody to be able to feel like they’re comfortable there since there isn’t a place that really is for any of you. There is not a place for any of you, so we can make a place for us.”
Nameless Fest III is on track to achieve this goal with flying colors. It offers up a bill of varied artists who run the gamut from Pulsatile Tinnitus (the harsh-noise project of local Kayla Phillips) and Mutilation Rites (a Brooklyn metal band that includes local ace drummer Tyler Coburn) to Lil Baby Jesus (a local hip-hop project) and Serration Pulse (a darkwave-y Nashville duo), dream pop (locals Soccer Mommy and Dreamwave) and a kaleidoscopic variety of punk and post-punk (locals Cat Flaps and Shadraq and Louisville, Ky.’s Anwar Sadat, to name a few), much of the music not clearly defined by familiar genre boundaries. There are local groups that tour regionally and nationally, like Idle Bloom, Mom and Dad, and Watcher, as well as ones that are just starting out, like The Tourettes. There are groups from around the region and beyond, including Baltimore’s Bidet, Boston’s Pandemix and a trio of Birmingham, Ala., bands (Laughing Sword, Bad Example and Heavy User) that will play Thursday night.
“The reason why this can happen in Nashville, honestly, is because so many people are in so many different kinds of bands that it all kind of fits together and works out,” says Edwards. “In other cities, it can be so separate. Like, this is where the punks go, this is where the metalheads go, this is where the hip-hop people go, this is where the hardcore people go.”
The collisions fostered by a gathering like Nameless Fest are a prime example of what Nashville’s DIY scene can accomplish at its best, and they’re important to the long-term health of the city’s music scene. With the exception of the Saturday night show at The End, this year’s Nameless Fest is open to all ages, and the afternoon shows Friday and Saturday at Drkmttr are convenient for younger folks with a curfew.
Edwards points out that while a crop of renowned rock bands has emerged from Nashville over the past decade-plus with ties to the Nashville School of the Arts magnet high school (like Be Your Own Pet, JEFF the Brotherhood and Turbo Fruits, for instance), Nashville doesn’t have a robust network of all-ages venues for these kids to see music and make music — yet.
“You won’t have anything new if you don’t bring kids into what you’re doing,” she says. “Kids grow up to be adults. That’s where all of the people originally involved all came from. They grew up going to spaces, and going to shows, and things like that, and getting into the different side of art, I like to call it. Not the, ‘We’re going to sell this for like $15,000’ — not that side of art. The side of art where you can make something, you can display it, and you can show it to your people who might be interested in it.”
If Nameless Fest gets you energized and looking for ways to help out, there’s a volunteer meeting scheduled at Drkmttr for 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 9, where you can learn how to get involved with the space.
