The Underground Spirit Lives at Nameless Fest IV

Ever wondered if it’s possible to put on a music festival that has a deliberate focus on gender and racial diversity in its booking, features many acts who are overt about social and political issues, succeeds at drawing a crowd and is a hell of a lot of fun? Look no further than Nameless Fest IV.

The past 18 months haven’t been easy for Nashville’s underground music community, with Drkmttr being the only standalone DIY venue so far to reopen after the fire marshal’s December 2016 crackdown. The strain of trying to make the project work on a shoestring eventually led the Drkmttr volunteers (among others, those include Kathryn Edwards of The Other Booking, who also plays in Thirdface and Donors; Olivia Scibelli of Idle Bloom and Husband Stitch; and Maddy Madeira, Zack Ledbetter and Ian Sundstrom, all of many local bands) to vacate their West Side spot in February.

All the same, the crew came back strong for the fourth annual run of Nameless Fest, which took place Thursday and Friday at The East Room and Saturday at The End. (There was also a Saturday afternoon show at Two Boots Pizza, which The Spin missed.) All three of the night shows started on the earlier side, but there was a decent crowd at each well before any of the bands went on, and the rooms stayed packed throughout. We saw hard-charging Spanish-language punk, contemporary riot grrrl and superb stoner-y rock. We dodged flying crowd surfers and watched artists engaging with social problems in a way that didn’t feel erudite or overwrought. We’ll count that as one in the win column.

We rolled in on Thursday just in time for our first set from Nashvillians Depression Breakfast. It was a whirlwind of sophisticated riffs and fills, as well as direct political discourse. A song called “There’s No ‘D’ in ‘Privilege’ ” was a particular highlight. “I just want to say: ‘Abolish ICE, abolish private prisons, abolish white systems of oppression,’ ” said bandleader Meg Pharr by way of introduction. “And if you’re white, use your fucking privilege.”

Up next was Shill, another local outfit. They make a kind of hardcore punk blast that leans heavily toward metal. Like several bands we’d see over the weekend, their singer stayed down in the crowd, stirring up the circle pit.

After a trip outside, where we spied sometime Scene photog and metal oracle Diana Zadlo and her Eat Me crew serving up vegan victuals, it was time for a very special aural treat. The gnarly-as-hell trio Antifaces had come up all the way from Miami for this show, and they played like lions trying to take down a wildebeest. (While we imagine they are against fascism, their name is actually the Spanish word for a carnival half-mask.) While the singing of guitarist Michi and bassist Gordo was way too fast for our rudimentary understanding of Spanish to grasp, it was invigorating.

We dipped back in briefly on Friday, and caught a set of twin-vocal Damned-ish thunder from Peachy, a relatively new Nashville trio consisting of Rachel Warrick and Benji Coale (late of Roman Polanski’s Baby) and Leah Miller (formerly of Mom and Dad). They did a fine job of teeing up Birmingham’s Joyboy, who played multilayered arrangements hard and fast, with a singer, two guitarists and a synth player on top of bass and drums. Before we had to roll out, we got to catch a bit of the aforementioned Thirdface, fronted by Kathryn Edwards. In this band, the typically composed and collected talent booker and volunteer organizer gets to unleash the full force of her fury in earsplitting fashion.

As the sun slid below the horizon on Saturday, Dreamwave’s introspective post-Pavement songs shimmered through The End as if we were hearing them through heat waves rising off of asphalt. Singer-guitarist Kelton Young glided over the paths through his music with regular bassist Jacob Corenflos and drummer Scott Hale. Here was another reminder that most musicians don't exclusively enjoy the sound of the band they're best known for playing in: Young's and Corenflos' were two of the faces we saw bobbing up out of the mosh pit like barrels pinned to the shark in Jaws throughout the rest of the night.

The dreaminess of that scene was pretty much immediately shattered (in a good way) by Husband Stitch. While the group made a ferocious, uneasy grind that landed somewhere between Black Flag and Man or Astroman?, leader Olivia Scibelli stalked through the crowd Henry Rollins-style and unleashed a litany against the threats to limit women’s reproductive rights and the roles privilege plays in perpetuating sexual violence. “Accountability is what we need,” went the refrain of one song. True words have rarely been spoken at a more appropriate time.

The house, mostly packed by now, was champing at the bit for New York trio Show Me the Body, who were making their Nashville debut. They played their brand of noisy, socially conscious thrash on electrified banjo, bass, sampler and drums, and it was abrasive but not painfully harsh. Judicious uses of rap cadences added some rhythmic variety, and they kept much of the floor in motion for the entire show. Later, a friend told us they’d seen the band open for The Jesus Lizard once, and this is one of the few acts we could imagine coming close to upstaging David Yow & Co.

A little after 11 p.m., it was time for some brief thanks from Edwards followed by the top-billed performance of the whole shebang, a set from hometown heroes JEFF the Brotherhood. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen your share of Bogus Bros shows, and while much of it was consistent with the dozens of times we’ve seen them, there were a couple of notable differences. Jake and Jamin Orrall appeared in power-trio format, with Greenhornes and Raconteurs bassman "Little" Jack Lawrence supplying the low notes. New Orleans guitarist Kunal Prakash is in their most recent promo pics (and understood to be on the group’s forthcoming album Magick Songs, slated for an Aug. 24 release), but he was absent on Saturday. The set leaned toward the heavy and dark side, with extended motorik-y segments connecting the songs, and some of those featured Jake on synthesizer. One of the set’s highlights was a shrieking, thrumming cut that Jake explained was an old song recorded for the new album. Another was a guest appearance by Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, who sang “Roachin,” the song she was featured on from JEFF’s 2016 LP Zone.

JEFF’s set ended with one more of those deep-space Butterfield Blues Band-meets-Amon Düül II jams, during which the crowd surfing reached a fever pitch. A bespectacled fellow was lifted up into a standing position, and he yanked a cable carrying control signals out of the lighting rig as he tried to keep his balance. Once he was safely back on the ground and ushered out of the building, light artist Jonathan Kingsbury waded into the crowd and motioned for a couple folks to hoist him up into the rafters, where he plugged the errant cable back into place with enough time to get back to the booth to finish the song. There was an official after-party on deck in East Nashville, in the form of a dance party organized by the Tram Planet Records crew, but heat-induced fatigue and helped make this display of do-it-together spirit seem like the exclamation point to end our night on.