Lacquer
Each streaming performance from The 5 Spot is like a new keepsake being tucked into a time capsule that represents a music scene rising to the occasion. Since co-owner Todd Sherwood got his multi-camera rig up and running in the summer, the Five Points neighborhood bar and venue has hosted more than 40 live or taped sets, streamed via Facebook or StageIt.
In times when there’s not a global pandemic going on, dozens of acts that call Nashville home might be playing competing gigs on a given night. Sometimes they’re spread across the city, sometimes they’ll be in different rooms of the same venue (see The Cobra’s fest-friendly main and side stages) or different venues on the same site (like Cannery Row). Throw friends, alcohol and deafeningly loud volumes into the mix, and it can be harder than it should be to give any one group your undivided attention.
Several times a week, The 5 Spot streams performances from a single artist, which start at 8 or 9 on the dot and give the floor to one group or solo performer for up to an hour. The opportunity to play a longer-than-usual set, essentially unopposed, is a welcome change of pace for local pavement-pounders like Volk, who broadcast from The 5 Spot Friday, and Lacquer, who played Saturday. It’s no substitute for an in-person show and doesn’t profess to be, but as the pandemic drags on, these shows are giving restless musicians an outlet and viewers a way to engage differently.
Volk
Volk is a little band with bold style and a big sound — think AC/DC-gone-outlaw-country. Guitarist-vocalist Christopher Lowe and singer-drummer Eleot Reich took the stage in full cowboy-glam regalia and commenced tearing through material from their forthcoming full-length debut Cashville. With Lowe’s stout, searing tone pulling the weight of two guitarists and Reich effortlessly keeping time while belting out the tunes in a dramatic vibrato wail, the duo played off each other naturally and wore their influences proudly.
Highlights of the 40-minute set included an amped-up adaptation of Texan songsmith Ray Wylie Hubbard’s 2006 tune “Snake Farm”; “Atlanta Dog,” which repurposed the riff from Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” for its middle section; and “Honey Bee,” a call-and-response scorcher recalling early White Stripes tunes. You could also draw a line to Boo-Tay, Bobby Bare Jr.’s grunge-blues gem from ’98. All three can be heard on Cashville, out March 13.
Volk
Because Volk’s music lends itself to audience participation, the lack of a crowd diluted some of its visceral power. But to their credit, the pair leaned into the absurdity of the situation. Hollered Reich to the invisible fans: “I want to see you jumping off your couches now, c’mon!” Lowe broke the fourth wall for the finale, “Welcome to Cashville,” exiting the stage with his guitar and venturing out into the empty room with help from what appeared to be a wireless transmitter as the camera crew trailed behind.
Lacquer
On Saturday, Lacquer’s Micah Mathewson (vocals and guitar), Cole Cosby (guitar), Zane Lake (bass) and Luke Fedorko (drums) gave a 35-minute clinic in quiet-loud dynamics. The quartet’s texturally murky sound and distinctly Southern slant recall the mighty All Them Witches and the more experimental side of Queens of the Stone Age. This came through particularly on a raga-esque piece played early in the set that began slowly with heavy drones but accelerated into a feedback-drenched blues-psych freakout.
Later, the foursome covered Drive-By Truckers’ “Lookout Mountain” (from the 2004 classic The Dirty South). They followed the Patterson Hood-penned number with a similarly fatalistic original written in the desperate voice of someone driven to commit “a true highway robbery.” The song began right with the chorus — “I don’t wanna rough nobody up / But I will, I will” — which Mathewson delivered in a guttural howl that grew more unhinged each time it came around. His cohorts were feeling it, too — especially Fedorko, a crafty heavy hitter who you could see singing along with every word from behind the kit. Lacquer, an underrated band, delivered a solid performance through the entire set. The tune in question had an immediacy and intensity that would be exciting to hear them keep exploring going forward. Fingers crossed that it’ll be safe for them to do so for an in-person crowd sooner than later.
