Daddy Issues Keeps the Dream of the ’90s Alive at The East Room

The dream of the ’90s is alive and well in Nashville — or at least that was The Spin’s initial reaction on walking into The East Room Friday night for an all-local bill celebrating the release of Daddy Issues' debut LP Deep Dream. The East Side haunt was packed full of fresh-faced folks decked out in vintage denim overalls, dated sports jerseys and other Clinton-era nuances we recognized from when we experienced them the first time around. While all this went down, a bevy of Gen-X indie rock rang from the house speakers.

We showed up just in time to catch the first tune from openers Dream Wave. We took an immediate liking to the name when we saw that they'd be on the bill, but it left us to wonder: What kind of dreams are we talking, and how wavy are we gonna get? The group employed a triple-guitar attack on a set of lackadaisical, lysergic, retro-flavored indie pop that made us think of The Allman Brothers tipsy on cough syrup, or maybe an early version of Pavement having a go at intricate noodling that it wouldn't be able to quite pull off until later. We did indeed get a little wavy, and concluded that these dreams are pretty sweet.

We had much more ’90s-ing yet to do — a beautiful thing in our nostalgic eyes. Using the benefit of 21st-century context, Sad Baxter distills the apathetic attitudes, hard-edged hooks, moody chord progressions and growly vocals of influential groups like The Muffs, Veruca Salt and Superdrag into a wonderfully familiar flavor of disaffected power pop. Sad Baxter’s take on that era we remember so fondly works remarkably well on its own — frustration is pretty timeless, and certainly feels current. The band's sound has strong ties to the period, but there's plenty to talk about without referencing the time at all.

Over the past few years, The Spin has watched Daddy Issues blossom from a scrappy power trio fueled by residual teen angst and raw potential into one of the local rock scene's most articulate and energetic ambassadors. The trio’s reckless punk tempos have slowed to a slacker’s pace, allowing the band to unlock some effortlessly potent hooks. Way back when, the group had the moxie to go out on tour before mastering their instruments, but a couple years on the road have sharpened their chops and given their blast of bubble-grunge an off-kilter cohesion that is uniquely their own.

The tunes on the band’s new album Deep Dream are much more than the sum of their bare-bones arrangements. Singer-guitarist Jenna Moynihan’s hyper-confessional lyrics come charged with a particularly candid perspective, their anger aimed with brutally honest precision at self-destructive romantic misadventures. Other songs approach even more serious issues, like drummer Emily Maxwell's "I'm Not," which takes on sexual assault and victim-blaming.

The evolution wasn’t lost on this impressive hometown crowd, which lavished the band with applause and cheers of support as Daddy Issues ripped through almost every one of Deep Dream’s contagious jams — though we were a little disappointed that Moynihan introduced two different songs as "a summer song," and neither one of them was their cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer," which blows the original out of the water.

The show wrapped before midnight, and we made our way to the official after-party at East Side musician mecca Duke’s. There, we developed an appreciation for High Life and Jell-O shots, a combo Daddy Issues curated themselves for the occasion.

Check out our slideshow for more photos.

In The Spin — the Scene’s live-review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.