Prine, Panic, Protomen and Cherub Ring in 2017 Nashville Style

Admitting that his preferred New Year’s Eve plans involve staying at home, cheeky songwriter John Prine told a crowd at the Grand Ole Opry House that if he was going to be out on a night where a “bunch of amateurs are out," then it was a pleasure to celebrate the evening with Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves.

Earlier on, across town at Marathon Music Works, where electro-pop hometown heroes Cherub would ring in 2017, the ball was already dropping on amateur hour. It was just after 9 p.m. and an ambulance was already on the scene, there to retrieve a reveler who had already imbibed too much, according to venue staff. Nearby, a woman in a silver-sequined dress appealed to security staff after getting kicked out. “I have my real one,” she said, “I just forgot it.”

Hey, we’ve all been there.

And in The Spin's nearly total NYE omnipresence, we also found ourselves in a mercifully Guitar Drop-free downtown. Arriving on Lower Broad for Widespread Panic's Bridgestone Arena blowout, we were greeted by throngs of anxious Spreadheads queued up to catch the last of the Georgia jam band's three-night Nashville New Year’s stand. To our right, a trio of Nashville's finest loomed over a man on the ground in handcuffs. Nearby, a small band of megaphone preachers passed out “God loves you” leaflets. A dense fog transformed the skyline into something reminiscent of Blade Runner (sans the flying cars) — a fitting end to the year that was 2016.

Between 2010 and 2014, Bridgestone was the NYE destination for Bassnectar fans. Those kids would've felt at home at Exit/In, where we arrived to the thudding danger-disco sounds of Makeup and Vanity Set, who enlisted a live drummer and a laser rig that wouldn’t be out of place at a Bassnecter show to further intensify his already heavy electro dance jams. Let it be known: MAVS' Matthew Pusti is recording some of the best electronic music in the Southeast. Not only is he prolific — last year saw the release of three LPs and two EPs from MAVS — his music transcends the formulaic boundaries of popular EDM to become something truly great.

Which is a shame, because that brilliance was completely wasted on this crowd of rock 'n' rollers on hand to watch 2016 die with The Protomen and The Dead Deads. Nashville’s culture for dance music is certainly changing as an influx of transplants continues to bring its taste for electronic music, but this crowd didn’t really know what to do with itself when presented with heavy dance music. Cheers erupted as Protomen singer Raul Panther dropped in to sing “Remember,” but the dance party that MAVS so desperately calls out for never materialized.

Meanwhile, Cherub openers Gibbz — a one-man-on-laptop act out of Brooklyn — and local experimental hip-hop crew Two Fresh had an easier time hyping a crowd of bros in sports jerseys and women in evening wear and neon blinking hats at MMW.

Although the more mature folks filling the Opry House, Bridgestone, Exit/In and Marathon couldn't be any more dissimilar, it seemed we were all on the same mission.

"Man, I can't wait to ring this year out," Prine bantered as he took the stage halfway through the 11th hour. He was reiterating a statement from Isbell earlier in the night — and affirming a sentiment felt by The Spin on the last night of a shit sandwich of a year.

“We’re here to ring in the new year, but more importantly to ring out the old year," Isbell said between one too many jokes about the Bass Pro Shop and seeing fans in the mall.

Dressed in a black suit, Isbell spent a little more than an hour wooing the crowd of mostly middle-aged couples — moving a finger-dancing few into full shoulder dancing. Isbell and band worked through “Stockholm” and “24 Frames.” After a woman screamed (over and over and over and over again) for Isbell to perform “Cover Me Up,” The Spin couldn’t have been happier when Isbell launched into the song — a tune he wrote for his wife Amanda Shires.

Meanwhile, the scents of patchouli oil and marijuana filled the air inside Bridgestone, where Widespread had embarked on the first of three sets — the behemoth show ultimately stretched until 2 a.m. Stacked with more contemplative, balladic material, soothing string quartet accompaniments and a Paul Simon cover ("Still Crazy After All These Years"), set one made us long to lie in a hammock more than dance the night away.

Following a somewhat lengthy intermission, the band delivered “the usual shenanigans" in set two — a funked-up blend of fuzzed-out blues, Southern rock riffage and guitar and keyboard solos that would've made the Allmans proud. The icing on the cake was vocal accompaniment from The McCrary Sisters and tight-as-fuck horns from the Megablasters. Nashville is not a dancing city, but there were plenty (white) hot (and not so hot) steps on display. Routines of note included the Frat Boy Two-Step, the Woodstock and one we dubbed The Roamer, which consisted of marching purposefully in tempo throughout the arena.

As one might expect, the Protomen/Dead Deads bill filled Exit/In to the brim with die-hard fans of both bands, making the club look like a deleted scene from The Warriors. Proto-fans ambled about in bandanas and makeshift Mega Man gear, while the Dead Corps — The Dead Deads’ answer to the KISS Army — sported battery-powered string lights and black Xs over their eyes. To their credit, the sold-out crowd didn’t check out entirely when their favored rock stars weren’t onstage, letting an electric charge build through The Dead Deads’ thrash of crowd-pleasing, alt-tinged pop-metal. 

By 11 p.m., the crowd at Marathon was lit enough to push past us like we were coats in the wardrobe on the way to Narnia. Cherub took the stage, with Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber bolstered by a live band. Kelley frequently took solos with his talk box, but even with Cherub’s heavy use of electronic influences, we couldn’t help but think of them as a thinly veiled funk band, especially now that they had a live drummer laying down mean grooves. The unison, syncopated licks at the end of “Bleed Gold, Piss Excellence" suggested classic Tower of Power. Just before midnight, the duo and band segued “XOXO” into an outro of “Auld Lang Syne.” Kelley counted down from 10, and then gold balloons fell from the ceiling. It was 11:58 p.m. But it was definitely 2017 when the crowd went crazy for the extended “Doses and Mimosas” that closed the show. 

Back in Opryland, in a somewhat fitting end to 2016, Prine blew past midnight, forgetting to stop and do the countdown. Musgraves appeared near the end of “Hello in There,” tapping Prine on the shoulder and reminding him of his omission. Prine finished the tune while Musgraves awkwardly walked around the stage, and then he lead the crowd in singing “Happy New Year to You” in the tune of "Happy Birthday" as University of Tennessee orange, black and white balloons fell from the ceiling.

While The Spin missed Musgraves' opening set, she joined Prine with her buttery vocals for “Illegal Smile,” “Angel From Montgomery” and “Mental Cruelty.” Prine also dedicated “Souvenirs” to "the wonderful Guy Clark, Leonard Cohen and Merle Haggard,” noting the abundance of loss in 2016.

Shires nearly outshined the billed names at the Opry House, playing fiddle and accompanying vocals with Isbell and then lending her voice to a few duets with Prine.

“This is the duet song of all duet songs,” Prine said, looking at Shires. “You don't have to sing the dirty parts.”

"I dream of it,” Shires replied, before they launched into the playful — and, well, at-times dirty (there’s a line about sniffing panties) — tune “In Spite of Ourselves.”

After playing a couple more tunes with Shires and Isbell, Prine and his band jammed hard on a perfect example of Prine’s unique storytelling in “Lake Marie,” and emerged again for a single-song encore with “Paradise.”

As The Spin left the Opry House, which was still covered in twinkling holiday lights, it had already been 2017 for more than a hour. Maybe it was a placebo affect — the dose of saccharine crooning fogging our brain, but it truly felt like a new year.

By the time it was 2017 in Bridgestone, the Spread was getting into set three, and a “Who gives a shit?” attitude pervaded the venue, as security looked the other way when the joints, cigarettes and little plastic baggies came out into the open. And if the second set was a raucous party, this was complete sensory fucking overload. Seizure-inducing lights and a half-dozen disco balls placed in some sacred geometric arrangement accompanied a sonic blitzkrieg from the band. The jam was strong on a trio of Staples Singers, Van Morrison and Joe Cocker (by way of Beatles) covers — strong enough to transcend the thought of the inevitable 1,000% price hike for a ride home to come. 

As the clock counted toward midnight at Exit/In, pallbearers hauled a coffin onstage to properly send 2016 to hell. Out-stepped K.I.L.R.O.Y., who proceeded to stab balloons spelling “2016” with a bowie knife, toss their remains in the coffin and let The Dead Deads carry it out onto The Rock Block. There was a feeling of collective catharsis as The Protomen battled their way into the wee hours with operatic synth rock and a closing cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes."