Tristen Forges Togetherness With New Songs and Old Favorites

As Tristen performed at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on the first Saturday in March — filling her set with nostalgia as well as notes on generational emotional intelligence, parenting and class conflict — I couldn’t help but remember the list of reasons why babies cry that a doctor rattled off to me before I brought my child home for the first time. They could be tired. They could be hungry. They could be uncomfortable. They could be lonely.

Folks traveled from Brooklyn, Dallas, Chicago, England and Antioch to enjoy an evening together and a celebration of Tristen’s new EP Zenith, the January release that revisits 2013’s CAVES. A scan of the room revealed a mix of stylish aging indie kids and bleeding hearts out for a night of some dancing, no more than a couple of drinks and a departure by midnight, latest. A few conversations could be heard in the room about who had tucked their young’uns in, and I myself found a pair of my child’s socks nestled in my pocket as I reached for my phone to take notes. It brought a pang of guilt but was also a quick reminder of something that Tristen herself relayed to the Scene recently: the importance of finding joy to bring back home, and of doing the things you love.

Opener Ziona Riley made the room sound a bit like we were walking through a torch-lit castle entry — in a good way. The Nashville-based, Indiana-born folk performer delivered an enchanting solo set of songs played on fingerpicked acoustic guitar. The set included a playful tune called “Folly of Tomato” (that I wrote down to share with my red-fruit-obsessed 7-year-old), a sweet remembrance of John Prine and a cover of NRBQ’s “Imaginary Radio.”

Tristen and team — guitarist Buddy Hughen, bassist Linwood Regensburg, keyboardist Ryan Brewer and drummer Andy Spore — followed shortly after 9 p.m. They played through a packed list of tunes from Tristen’s 2011 album Charlatans at the Garden Gate, 2013’s synthpop record CAVES, 2017’s Sneaker Waves, 2021’s earworm-heavy Aquatic Flowers and a few new songs, including a cut from Zenith written back during the recording of CAVES called “Stimulation (I Can’t Get No)” whose opening line rolls off the tongue so well it's hard not to repeat over and over.

About midway through her performance, Tristen called the audience a “real OG Nashville crowd,” a nod to a group of folks who probably didn’t feel as much like they were up past their bedtime in 2017 when Tristen released “Partyin’ Is Such Sweet Sorrow,” a danceable crowd favorite. She and Hughen — her husband and longtime musical partner — also shared the mic for “Baby Drugs,” which is even more fun to sing along to at a live show than in your car. Tristen lives to create a sing-along moment, and her performance of “No One’s Gonna Know” made it feel downright fun to bemoan the sickness of capitalism.

Songwriter Cortney Tidwell joined Tristen to sing “Lovin’ You,” a song they wrote together, as Tristen took turns looking lovingly at the crowd and then back to her friend onstage. Tristen thanked Tidwell for teaching her “to jam” years ago — Tidwell has long been entrenched in Music City’s indie music scene, and is known as a supporter of her fellow local musicians, particularly women trying to make their way.

The band also played raucous new song “Skin of Our Teeth” — which Tristen said she’d “just release” herself this summer — as well as “Catalyst,” a synth-heavy track from CAVES. There was a flurry of well-loved songs about our hopes, dreams, feelings and disappointments: “Cool Blue,” “Story of our Love,” “Athena,” “Glass Jar,” “Complex” and more.

After thanking folks for being human beings who still come out to see live music, Tristen closed the show with “Say Goodnight,” which she called half lullaby written for a child, half song for the “great sleep.” She ends the song with: “Let me fly away, a grain of sand into the sеa / Mouth of darkness, clear my way / Until you eat, until you say goodnight.”

Discomfort, fatigue, hunger and loneliness can bring tears to adult eyes as well, but this evening with the other OG bleeding hearts and oldsters of Nashville felt right as a balm against it all.