Vladopus9, The Chewers and More Ignite at Dumpster Fyre Fest

Local music festivals pop up like mushrooms in Nashville, and if you’ve lived here even a little while you’re aware that the music scene contains many noncountry offshoots. Put these two facts together and you have Dumpster Fyre Fest, a three-night event held this year at The Cobra in East Nashville. Organized by Corey Tucker of BadAsh Booking, Stephen Smith of Regdar and the Fighters, and Joseph Page of experimental art-rock band Vladopus9, DFF showcased some unusual and highly creative tendrils of Nashville music culture — as many as eight acts on each of its three nights — and raised funds for a different worthy local organization at each show. Thursday’s show supported Nashville Launch Pad, while Friday’s supported Thistle Farms. Saturday’s show, of which we caught all but the first two performances, benefited youth arts organization YEAH!, whose representatives manned a table at the venue.

Glitch punks Regdar and the Fighters describe their work as “weird, energetic music for nerds and music lovers.” Regdar treated The Cobra’s front room to a set of songs fueled by electric bass and what looked like a Dance Dance Revolution controller pad on the floor. He used the pad as a MIDI controller, coming up with an innovative solution to being a one-person band at this show. That’s definitely in keeping with their “nerdcore" identity and themes in their songs.

It can be hard to avoid country music tropes in Music City, but some of the best bands embrace the influence and go their own way with it. Country Death provided a country-fried blues-rock jam fest, with band members trading off lead vocal duties and vocal harmonies. Add in some guitar jams reminiscent of Matthew Sweet, and you have an amalgam of several Nashville country-rock styles.

The hilarious duo of Holy Bongwater — whose Jace McLain and Julia Larson also operate indie label Needlejuice Records, home to Regdar and others — gave us parody songs to remember. One standout was about unsolicited photos of the male anatomy to the tune of “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics; another was about celebrity crushes. Keyboards and electric guitar are their mainstay instruments, with the occasional acoustic or uke thrown in, as both members trade vocal duties.

Perennial favorite Nashville band The Altered Statesman played a wonderful set of their soulful, mellow fusion of blues and rock. It’s uncommon to see a sax player as part of the usual mix of drums, bass, electric guitar and acoustic, but the Statesman weaves in this flowing, lyrical element to great effect. JayVe Montgomery of Abstract Black even made a guest appearance on the flute on their final song, a wandering and jazzy composition.

It was clear that some festival attendees had come just for The Chewers, the duo of Michael Sadler and Travis Caffrey slinging their sludgy and sardonic electropunk songs. If you were a fan of recently shuttered DIY venue The Mouthhole, you know The Chewers and their absurdist humor. Electric guitar and drums with electronic tracks isn’t a unique combination of instruments, but The Chewers make it sound fresh and raw. While one attendee compared The Chewers to Swedish post-punks Viagra Boys, I was reminded of both Morphine minus the saxophone — perhaps due to Caffrey’s deadpan almost-spoken-word vocal delivery — and The Faint, which makes for an intoxicating combination.

The aforementioned Vladopus9 ended the evening with a Swans-esque art-rock set. Vocalist Lisa Rau, guitarist Joseph Page and drummer Matt Bach started with a noisy, droning experimental composition with live looping vocal samples. The abrasive and dissonant beginning segued into a more lilting, continuous jam reminiscent of The Dirty Three but with a female voice. Vladopus9 clearly likes to change song structures and tempos to keep the audience on their toes, and to play with vocal and guitar effects. The back-and-forth flow between discordant and harmonious makes a pretty good metaphor for life: Sometimes you get the noise, sometimes you get melodious indie rock.

Dumpster Fyre Fest reminds us of some important facts in tumultuous times and dark days. Music is for everyone, and there are many ways to make it. Creative expression and community still matter. And there are still ways to do good in the world on the local level when large world events feel crushing.