Thelma and the Sleaze Slay at Kandyland Premiere

Since early December, when the smorgasbord of Nashville venues that fill the niche between a pal's basement and a bar with commercial overhead shut down in the wake of San Francisco's Ghost Ship fire, Nashville's DIY arts scene has been in a state of flux. There's been hopeful news about these crucial venues working with the city, and other traditional and non-traditional venues have stepped up to help fill the gap.

All the same, that context made the rough cut of Kandyland: The Movie that screened at Little Harpeth Brewing on Friday night extra heartwarming for The Spin. The documentary (full disclosure: edited by Scene contributor Seth Graves) follows Thelma and the Sleaze as they perform at just about every place in Nashville that you can (and some you technically can't), playing 31 shows (and giving away a van) during February 2016.

But even without the timely reminder of the tenacity and ingenuity in Nashville rock ’n' roll, where else but in this film (projected on a sheet stretched between two ladders, natch) were we going to get the scoop on the mystic powers of Murfreesboro's Dodge's Chicken, insight into repairing a 1979 Ford Ranchero and a how-to guide to professional wrestling holds, all woven into an unflinching look at the hours of work and minutes of transcendent ecstasy that come with being in a rock band?

A screening of a final cut of the film is planned for a date TBA, with an eye to submitting it to a slew of film festivals. If the submission is accepted, look for it at the Nashville Film Festival as well.

Little Harpeth's space continues to improve, with the addition of echo-dampening insulation on the walls and creature comforts like a table for ping-pong. The cover charge included a copy of a 7-inch with TATS' live-to-disc recording of "Where You Belong" on the A side, with the sadly defunct Dogs of Oz on the B side performing "Country Life," a song written by frontman Greyson Anderson's dad.

After the movie, Anderson took the stage for a solo acoustic set that included some Westerbergian originals, "Country Life" and a J. Mascis-esque cover of Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy." Not bad for a guy a couple days shy of his 21st birthday. Butthole, arguably the most adventurous up-and-coming pop-slash-rock band around, was up next. Fresh out of the winter break hibernation that followed the release of their debut album, they offered a New-Wave-meets-grunge set with the perfect blend of glove-tight proficiency and hilariously gross sex jokes.

Finally, it was time for the ladies of the hour to do their thing. Not long after the Kandyland tour, Chase "Tender" Noelle and Reilly "GG" Gallagher left Thelma and the Sleaze, but frontwoman Lauren "LG" Gilbert had nothing but kind words for her former bandmates on Friday, saying "A lot has changed since the Kandyland tour, but one thing that has not changed is that we're all a bunch of badass, hard-workin’ women."

The same could be said of Gilbert's new band — Amaia "Coochie" Agirre on keys, who joined TATS during Kandyland, plus Chloe "Whiskers" Katerndahl on bass and a drummer who goes by "Snowflake" — played Thelma classics as tight and ferocious as ever, with a sprinkling of newer tunes. They capped the night with an hour of meaty, gutsy, nuanced rock, running the gamut from hard pop to sludgy Southern metal, complete with wicked solos and LG's legendary stage banter. Check out some choice photos of the affair below.