The Underdog Wins 

Catch Fire and Havana Affair Release New Music 

Another night in Nashville and another gem of a dive bar found to watch local and live music.  Finding these spots is like collecting medals for myself.  Live music is my Olympics. I have found myself once again on the podium with The Underdog. The bar and venue, located at 3208 Gallatin Pike in Nashville, might be described by your real estate agent as quaint and rustic, and I would tend to agree with that assessment. It’s everything you want in your local watering hole.  The place is fairly small, with mix and matched lighting fixtures, a disco ball, pool table, photo booth and stage.  It’s absolutely everything you could want if you a minimalist bar hunter like me.  You can keep all your stainless steel and pretentious add-ons.  Give me lumber and heart and I’ll show you a place that cares.   

There is seating for maybe 40 inside, but if you packed them in there, I bet you could get 75 for a show, although the Fire Marshall might not like that. There is a large space out front too with a couple of picnic tables and plenty of room to lounge around and get outside for a minute. I met the owners of this eclectic scene, Amanda and Cal, and they couldn’t have been nicer and harder working people if they tried. Their passion resonates across this 1,500 square foot space.  You can see them on the walls, as you gaze around and spot fun and unique props on the walls.  The atmosphere is laid back, the vibe is genuine, and the drinks are affordable.  Now let’s get to the music. 

Unfortunately, one of the bands dropped from the bill that night, but that just left more time for us to engage ourselves with Catchfire and Havana Affair.  Catchfire would be playing first and giving off a classic rock vibe with originality and big spark. Formed in December of 2022, two co-workers and two brothers from the Pacific Northwest blended to create a vibrant and energetic sound.  They are Maddy Terri on vocals, Travis Fairley on lead guitar, Lorenzo Roman on rhythm guitar, Gabe Roman on drums and Chance Ruster on bass, whom they added just a week prior to this event. 

You could tell that their parents, who are probably my age or just slightly older, might have introduced them to bands like The Who, AC/DC, and Led Zepplin.  Or maybe they found out on their own, when they were learning to hone their craft or scrolling through Tik Tok.  And that’s not a dig, I think social media can be wonderful in a lot of ways, when it’s used for good and not evil.  When it is used to spread the gospel of music and unity. I’m not a begrudged old man yet.  Maybe in three days, when I turn 50. 

From the opening moments of their first note into “56 Thunderbird” you could tell that in their minds, they were playing a stadium show, in front of 50,000.  The sound quality of this room could still hold on, as they cramped down on their strings, and slammed the skins into submission.  At one point, drummer Gabe Roman, played an absolutely sick solo that had us all up on our feet, phones out, and looking over his set up, to see the ferocity of this player.  Travis also adds an element of vitality to the performances of the evening as he shreds his guitar and bounces around the stage as if he is intentionally hiding his face from us.  Not because he is shy, at all, rather his long red hair covers his features as he bounces across the stage.   

Chance hovers in the back somewhere, but you can feel his presence.  He looms in stature and height above the rest.  I suppose that’s why he is in the back tonight. He keeps the time with the Roman brothers, and they all play with vehemence. It’s evident and wonderful to see. 

Maddy infuses her voice with sounds of this quintet in lovely passion and outstanding vocals. The band says that the namesake of the group comes from Maddy and her experience working in a bakery and cafe.  A toaster caught ablaze and Maddy said, “Damn! That thing was catching fire!”, and Catchfire was born. 

The band is well calculated and well-rehearsed.  Maddy gives us what we what in our lead singer.  Her showmanship while she delivers a song is engagingly poetic. At one point she sat on the stage floor in a near melancholic state and brought us into the realm of “You Bring the Rain”.  Then Ferri, arose as the power of the song found crescendo into a heavy ballad and verbalized repetition of the melodies title. This is their new single and it’s gorgeous.  

Havana Affair gears up to ease our worries away on this late Thursday evening. Havana Affair was the band that invited me out tonight to watch their very first live performance.  They have been jamming and recording for a few months now and are finally ready to showcase their hard work.  The name of the band evokes a track by The Ramones called “Havana Affair”. When I asked him if this was the case Brendon iterated, “Yes, because the song has an anti-establishment ethos.  A willingness to question authority when necessary, and one of my favorite bands is Radiohead, who took their name from a Talking Heads song.” 

This project has been calculated, recalculated and launched by a young and talented, multi-instrumental musician, from Ohio named Brendon Kontur.  Brendon told me that, “this amalgamation of the band and it’s music has been a passion project for quite some time.” He said that he took extra time and care with getting things right.  “I am a perfectionist” he stated, “I needed the sound that we play to match the one in my head.” The music is also a mixture of sounds.  The band wanted to pull from all sorts of different genres of music and not be pigeonholed into one category.   

Even the bands leader, Kontur, takes a different approach when announcing himself.  As they take to the stage, he announces that he is John Tableaux.  I asked him about it after the show and he said he wanted a creative moniker and drew the name from the word, “tableaux” which means a dramatic representation of a moment in history, like a drama.  

Tableaux (as I will refer to him going forward) is around 6’4” and speaks quietly but informatively.  He chooses his words in casual conversation and on stage with reverence and specificity. He has the presence of a more mellow and statuesque David Byrne.  The rest of the band includes Ethan Michael on drums, Cameron Romero on guitar, and Wesley Williams on the bass.  Their sound is certainly non-conventional, and I received a bit of a Ventures tone when the first licks were plucked on “Trainspotter”.  Although this is certainly no surf-rock jam band you can tell that they studied it all. From their Spotify bio, I pulled this, “Our style of music is not easily defined, and it’s not our intention to create music that is. We create music that represents our varying influences, without a concern on whether it molds to current musical trends.”  

They show that mentality throughout their set. As they get to their newest release called “Scarlet Fever”.  Scarlet fever is the track that Tableaux and the group have been most heavily focused on during their recording sessions. Much like what I have heard of David Byrne’s process, through people that worked with him, Tableaux wanted precision.  The way Brian Wilson orchestrated “Pet Sounds” for The Beach Boys, also comes to mind.  Each piece of the puzzle fits in an exact space and cannot be connected to another piece if that is not its intended match. 

Tableaux told me, “It’s a song that was inspired by reading “The Plague” by Albert Camus.  In the song Tableaux serenades us with “Feel that Scarlet Fever/ Coming on again/ Chill on my spine/ I can’t comprehend” and closes in part with “Sometimes the idle mind can’t sit still”. Something that we can all relate to and reflect on.  The band is a strong compliment to John’s lyrical outpouring.  The band dances musically around the lyrics and invokes love, unity and dance. It is a joy to watch them play.  John announces that his family is in the back of the room on this eve.  We have noticed as they dance and sing and clap with every note. 

The ensemble then hits us with a cover of “Damaged Goods” by Gang of Four.  I didn’t know it was going to happen, as everything else up to this point and after was an original.  I am a huge fan of Gang of Four and knew it was happening from the get-go.  Also, as a fan, you better get it right in my presence.  They certainly nailed the tune from the English post-punk band out of Leeds.  

From there Tableaux, almost exasperated, yells, “I know a lot of you go to Starbucks- order a drink called Medicine Ball- this is not that Medicine Ball!”  This is the title of that next song.  The crowd is hooked the way the patrons of the aforementioned coffee shop get addicted to their favorite morning drink.  We are now fully fastened to their sound and engaged with their spirit. 

They close with “Suspended Animation”, which Tableaux wrote with Seth Fronteen of January Man. John says that January Man is influenced by Bauhaus, who are sometimes dubbed the pioneers of Gothic Rock. This song is a little more subdued in its presentation, and Tableaux switches over from his guitar to the keys.  “We had no idea what we were doing when we wrote this song”.  Whether they knew what they were doing, or not, the song is quite lovely and quite introspective I’d say.  We do the same thing in life.  Sometimes we have no idea where to start.  We get lost in where we are going, but hopefully we get on the right path, and we discover the allurement of life.  We find community and purpose, and maybe we get lost again.  It’s all about that journey, and “Havana Affair” took us with them on their expedition tonight.