Live From Nashville… It’s Tuesday Night!
The Band Feel, supported by The Retrograde, fueled souls at Cannery Hall
I can honestly say that my life was enriched for going to see The Band Feel, with The Retrograde opening at Cannery Hall in Nashville. My colleague and fellow music nerd Steve Lynch reported to the Rock Oracle about a month ago on the power of The Band Feel. In Steve’s earliest lines of his article he said, “Who is going to be the next great rock n roll band? That is a question I am always out searching the answer for while attending local shows. A friend told me about one such band that recently opened for Blackberry Smoke that hits the mark! The Band Feel has it all, the sound, the look, and the showmanship. It is as if they were right out of central casting from the movie Almost Famous.” His prose rang true to be sure, and because of Steve’s wonderfully written article about the ensemble I was able to procure a media credential from the venue and the groups management.
The Cannery Hall is located along “Music Row” in Nashville, Tennessee and it is a staple of Music City. It is the largest independent music venue in Nashville. Anchoring Cannery Row, just outside of downtown Nashville’s lower Broadway and “The Gulch,” Cannery Hall is in the Station District. The historic building dates to 1883 and has been a music venue for over 40 years. The last time I was here I saw The Lemonheads supported by former band member John Strohm. Tonight’s show was at the Row One Stage of the buildings four available spaces for shows.
The sound is always amazing, and the space is utilized to perfection, boasting an open room that holds about 300 people. Tonight, there was every bit of that capacity represented on a Tuesday evening and our first act was a band out of Tallahassee, Florida called The Retrograde. The four-piece crew has skyrocketed into the music scene after just a few years. Their sound is hard and fast and riddled with excitement. The band is comprised of vocalist and lead guitarist Joey Fox, guitarist Cade Pickering, bassist Josiah Pye, and drummer Carson Degner. I can honestly say that it is so effervescent to see a band having so much fun on stage together. They were smiling from ear to ear their entire one-hour set.
I had a brief interaction with the band just before the show. Josiah told me that he personally, was “pretty exhausted” and his voice a little drained… and then they exploded under the lights, with no signs of being tired, they dripped with sweat and gave it every ounce of everything they had. It was like this was stop number one of their tour. Fox reminded me of when I first saw Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day in 1994 (ish) at The Edge in Orlando, Florida. He exhausted that same raw and edgy veracity with a glowing grin and humorous facial expressions. The same could be said for Denger on drums. He pounded his kit into pure submission and his joy flowed out into the audience. Josiah stands around 6’4” and initially dressed like John Cusack’s character in the movie “Say Anything” (Google it). He was draped by a khaki-colored trench coat to start the show, but it was not long before the heat of the room made him drop the jacket and the rest of the band chugged water whenever they had the chance. The room warmed up quickly, but The Retrograde never waned. Cade seemed to stay the most stoic, although not lacking personality, his hair cascaded in front of his face between head flips. When we did see his face- it – like all the players- was beaming.
Fox started with “Live from Nashville… It’s Tuesday Night!” and then announced how they recently recorded their 10-song album at the historic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. With a fusion of classic influences and a contemporary edge, they are clearly a band to look out for. Sometimes resonating more punk, but keeping a clean vintage rock sound, they captured the attention of everyone in that room. Notes of bass lead blues with heavy electric lead guitar riffs and pummeling drums are quintessential staples in almost every track. They are loud, they are fast, they are fun, and they are everything that is right with music. They played an array of badass originals plus a medley of ‘Devil with a Blue Dress On’ and ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ and then added a rip roaring and raucous version of ‘Long Tall Sally’.
After reading Steve Lynch’s review of The Band Feel, I knew I wanted to see them perform live. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to write about the show, but after seeing them, I had to get my own words down on virtual paper. The St. Louis based group has a look that certainly screams southern rock but there is a jazz element melded with classic rock that creates a delightful ambience of musical comfort. Their sound is soulful and organized with brilliant compositions of tonal excellence. I read the book by its cover and thought I would hear a more Black Oak Arkansas vibe (which isn’t a bad thing), but what I heard was more refined and less chaotic. The group is comprised of singer Garrett Barcus, drummer TJ Steinwart, guitarist Tyler Armstrong and bassist Kadin Rea.
They took to the stage as if they owned it before their feet even slid onto the wooden floor. What they gave us was a time machine to that glorious golden age of rock ‘n roll between 1964-1972. However, the sound isn’t old. This is no tribute band to be sure. The sound of FEEL (as I have seen them referenced) is a reprisal of those beloved groups like Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie and CCR with a sweet twist of modern rock that taps the soul. The frontman leans into the spirit of a Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey with beautiful vocals that make it no wonder why everyone is tracking this quartet. His voice oozes with remembrance of the old souls that crooned the classics before him.
The rest of the group also pays homage to the legends of yesteryears. Guitarist Tyler Armstrong plays with the fluidity of Santana splashed with the fabled fingering of Chicago’s Terry Kath. Meanwhile, the rhythm section of Steinwart and Rea groove graciously -then intersect the jazzy overtones with booming awareness and heightened control. Lyrically, they are professors in metaphor and imagery, allowing the audience to take what they need. “I try to write lyrics in a way that allows people to interpret it their own way,” Barcus told one Alabama publication. “What we want you to do is to care and to read into the lyrics and find your own meaning through the song.”
FEEL is engaged in the needs of their audience and feeds them nutritional tidbits of magical melodies throughout their set. We are in the mystical forest that the band has designed for us. We gasp at the wonderment of our surroundings that the band has delivered through reverberation, and we ask for more. The Band Feel gives us more. As I stood side stage clicking off photos, I quit my job for a second and took advantage of my point of view and just watched. They have a new single on this leg of the tour too called ‘Hands in My Pocket’ with the lyrics:
Her hair turns from gold to brown
The lights knew her favorite sound
They made her turquoise aura glow
I saw her coming but could only stare
Her words rang a fiery red
She looked at me, whispered and she said
Baby, won′t you come with me
I can show you what loving means
It harkens back to those hippie summers that a lot of us wish we could have experienced, yet we have our own counterculture now too that still holds on dearly to those idyllic beliefs and unforgiving loves. The Band Feel is in the name, and they invoke those feelings of love, hope and societal harmony.
In the end it was a glorious night of rock and roll and solace. We the people were able to get out on that Tuesday Night and let our hair down and share in the monumental experience of seeing live music. So, thank you to venues like Cannery Hall who keep the music alive and to those bands like The Band Feel and The Retrograde for grinding on the road to not only follow their dreams but to include us in those dreams as well.
