Sunday nights in Nashville are a hard battle to fight under any circumstances, and this was no exception. Just to get it out of the way,Goodnight Anthem and 2AM Club are touring bands not endorsed by Pitchfork, so as expected there weren't a ton of people. The Goodnight Anthem were a pop-punk quartet, syrupy thick with the elements that define said genre. They had a ton of fun onstage and were quite effective at working the room, but overall the band wasn't anything too special. They are super young though, so time could tell on that one.
The 2AM club visually defined the word "douchebag", and their overwhelmingly diva-esque actions during the course of the night backed it up. The players were quite skilled themselves; notably the drummer who held super solid grooves and had just the right amount of flash in his playing, but the unfortunate vocalists ruined their efforts. There was some element of vocal skill, but the Linkin Park rapper/singer approach resulted, oddly, in a New Kids On the Block sound that was overwhelmingly unappealing. All in all, it's relatively sure that they'll get some small modicum of success at some point, but honestly it was pretty awful.
Local band Leach was refreshingly impressive, with a garage-y pop rock sound a la early Weezer. This was their debut outing, and they were extremely tight and showed a writing and performing penchant rare even in seasoned local acts. Look for more from these guys. Closing the show wereTrans-Am Radio (who generously acquiesced to the demands of the touring bands and closed the show on short notice), who kicked out some straightforward blues rock jams that were pleasing to the ears as much as their high energy performance was to the eyes. The guitarist moves in december, so be sure to catch TAR while you still can. -Jesse Baker
