#lotg2017

[suburbanroads]

Minus The Bear 8/17/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Nathan Zucker

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LP 9/2/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Cody Osen

[suburbanroads]

Spoon 8/24/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Kate Cauthen

[suburbanroads]

Show Review

Live on the Green Featuring Minus the Bear, Real Estate, Local Natives 8/17/17, Nashville, TN

Live on the Green reached a milestone last week.  For the 50th time in its ninth year, Nashville gathered to listen to free music and watch the sun set on Public Square Park.  Put on by quite literally the best radio station (they just won FMQB’s Triple A Station of the Year!), Lightning 100 has built a radio festival that competes with the big dogs of the festival circuit.

What I love about LOTG is even if you just know one band on the lineup for the night, you’ll find something you can appreciate about the other bands you don’t know.  Lightning 100 does a great job of organizing each night of music to fit the same general vibe.  Previously unknown to me, Minus the Bear kicked things off and I found much more than one thing to appreciate.  A careful mix between laid back and hard rock, fans weren’t out of place taking a nap in the field or jumping around in the front row.  “Invisible” illustrated this perfectly, with an intro that lead you believe it will this would be a fast-paced punk rock thrasher.  However, once the drums came in, it slid into a groove and the guitar riff went in double-time.  Whether you were front row or trying to find a food truck to satisfy your hunger cravings, Minus the Bear was a perfect start to the night.  

Following them was Real Estate, and oh my is this band good.  Reverb drenched guitar riffs rolled smoothly into the crowd as the audience swayed and danced with unwavering smiles.  “Two Arrows,” from their six-month-old In Mind, was definitely a highlight of the live show.  This song’s lengthy outro was exaggerated in the best possibly way, getting even noisier and more chaotic as the song went on.  On the record, the song ends without warning when the noise reaches its high point, but once they reached this point live, all the tension released and they fell back in to the beginning part of this riff.  They closed with “It’s Real,” and a chorus of “Whoa, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh” filled downtown Nashville.  The timing felt like a movie, but literally as soon as they let the last notes ring, a soft rain began to fall over Public Square Park.

Fortunately it never was anything more than a soft rain, but it was still enough to clear out all the fair-weather Local Native fans.  The rain began to let up as the Los Angeles natives (or should I say, locals?) took the stage, and those who stuck it out through the light drizzle were rewarded appropriately. Local Natives’ percussive style of indie/experimental rock was dance friendly, overflowing with energy, and so easy to have a great time with at this show.  They played “Wide Eyes” from their debut Gorilla Manor early on, and the polyrhythmic, percussion centric classic had things off to a great start.  The band worked together so well, and it was amazing how they so effortlessly created a wide range of convincing emotions, from the uplifting synthy dance track “Villainy” to the emotional and longing “Airplanes.”  The set continued on without a dull point, and rightfully so finished incredibly strong with their hit “Sun Hands.”  Lead singer Taylor Rice crowd surfed, every single person there belted out the chorus, and week 2 of LOTG came to a massive end.

Reviewed by: Nathan Zucker

[suburbanroads]

Local Natives 8/17/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Nathan Zucker

[suburbanroads]

Arkells 8/10/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Jessi Rooks

[suburbanroads]

Future Islands 9/2/17, Live on the Green Nashville, TN

Photos by Cody Osen

[the1010creative]

Filming @sherylcrow last night at @liveonthegreen no big deal 😉. So @lightning100 how bout we just make the LOTG movie/doc next year for 10 years??? #liveonthegreen #LOTG2017 #nashville #lovethiscity #sherylcrow #music #film #live (at Nashville, Tennessee)