MUNA brought their Saves The World tour to Mercy Lounge in Nashville on October 4th–just a month after their album of the same name was released. They opened the show with lead single “Number One Fan,” an anthem about coming to terms with being your own biggest fan. A MUNA show is a celebration of self-love, self-care, and self-preservation. In their words, saving yourself is the key to saving the world. They performed all but two songs on their new album, along with crowd favorites “I Know A Place” and “Loudspeaker” from their 2017 debut About U, and in between songs, the crowd rarely stopped cheering long enough for the band to get a few words in–until bassist Naomi McPherson declared triumphantly, mid-show, that they are “the greatest band in the world.” I wholeheartedly agree.
K.Flay made her mark last night in Nashville, singing and rapping triumphantly atop a mountain of cascading platforms that towered over the crowd at Marathon Music Works during the last stop of her Solutions tour. She knows her audience well, and the set list shows that: she opened with 3 tracks from her new album, Solutions (“Not In California,” “Bad Vibes,” and “This Baby Don’t Cry”). She then proceeded to play the album in its entirety throughout the show, and ended with a fan favorite–and her most popular song to date–Grammy-nominated “Blood In The Cut.” K.Flay belongs on the stage, and you can tell from her live performances that she isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Hailing from Los Angeles, sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin brought authentic California punk all the way to Nashville for a stellar show. Their performance was gritty, like their new record Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?, from which they performed hits like “Hard To Kill” and “Somebody Dial 911.” They allowed us into a show that felt inexplicably DIY, like we were transported to an underground dive bar in California.
Dodie blissfully treated us to an evening of honest lyricism and simple–but far from boring–ukulele jams. It is a unique experience to see a YouTube star become an in-real-life star, and oftentimes the wonder and awe doesn’t translate the same past the computer screen, where there are no real-life jump cuts or do-overs. This is far from the case for Dodie, who captivated the flower-crowned and glitter-covered audience. She performed her hits (“She,” “Would You Be So Kind,” “Secret For The Mad”), as well as a charming a cappella cover of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” to celebrate being in Music City. Dodie managed to make Marathon Music Works feel as intimate as one of her YouTube videos, as if we were sitting there, watching her magic unfold in her bedroom.
