The Beths concert at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville March 8, 2023

I went to see one of my favorite current bands, The Beths, on Wednesday March 8, 2023 and I'm still vibing off their great performance at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. 

 

My three grown children accompanied me to the show and we got there just as the doors opened. The original plan had been to eat supper there, but we decided to forgo the food and get spots on the front row instead. It was 2 hours before the show was to begin. There was a couple beside who were around my age and we agreed to hold our positions if anyone needed to go buy merchandise or use the restroom before the concert started. 

The couple were from Chicago and they had seen both shows by The Beths there so they decided to see them again in Nashville. They had arrived early and met the whole band that afternoon. We talked about the best live acts we had ever seen while the crowd began to fill up the venue. A much younger couple moved in behind us from Indiana (I met multiple people at the show who had drove down from Indy) and they were super excited to see show. My usual borderline Asperger's behavior eventually drove the Chicago people to ignore me the rest of the evening other than the dude telling me to not talk during Sidney Gish's set since he was going to shoot video of it. "Okay....," I thought to myself, "I don't talk while singers or bands are playing. Whatever."

Sidney came out to play and I must admit that I had only listened to her on YouTube a few times weeks before the concert so I would know what to expect. She was really cool. She would begin by playing some rhythm lines and some bass type runs on her guitar which then got looped while she played the melodies and lead lines while singing her songs. She is blessed with perfect pitch, but she's no showoff. Her songs are disarming and filled with humor. There were several people near the front that came just to see her. I got to talk with her after the show and now wish I had gotten a photo with her. 

I haven't found any video of her from Nashville so instead I'll embed the video for her song "Sin Triangle" which is awesome plus her Audiotree performance of "I Eat Salads Now." Go out and see her her, buy her tunes. She is excellent! Plus The Beths are teaching her how to play cricket. My favorites from her brief set were "Sin Triangle", "I Eat Salads Now", and "Presumably Dead Arm."

Sidney Gish - Sin Triangle

Sidney Gish - I Eat Salads Now

After her set she took away her pedal board and it was time for the glorious guitar technicians from The Beths to make sure everything was squared away for their upcoming set.

Doppelgänger Guitar Tech's at your service!

So yeah...I took a bunch of photos of the pre-show activities yet didn't get the drums or bass guitar setups. One of the things I love about The Beths is their sense of humor and putting on guitar tech hoodies is an excellent prank, both funny and an efficient use of their resources. I'm sure it flew over the casual fan's heads. The anticipation was growing and the Brooklyn Bowl was looking much more full than it did earlier in the night. An 8bit version of "Future Me Hates Me" rang out as the band made it to the stage. Oliver Devlin of the band Hans Pucket (who would have been playing on this show if not for VISA issues) came up with this walk-on music only 3 hours before their first show in Portland, Oregon on this tour. I whipped out my phone just to tape bits of it and decided to keep shakily rolling film throughout the opener. I do, sometimes sing along, but I was dead quiet on this one so the other voices you hear are not me. Sorry for the quick cutoff at the end, but I came to watch and listen (while taking photos here and there) and didn't want to have to keep up with video all evening. The sound isn't the best through the iPhone, but the sound in person was sharp and powerful with us really getting to hear the amps bite.

The Beths - Future Me Hates Me live at Brooklyn Bowl

I guess I can thank the pandemic and Bandcamp for bringing me The Beths. "Future Me Hates Me" was a recommendation for me and after seeing the video for the song I became a forever fan. The Beths YouTube channel was a source of comfort during what Liz later said was "weird times." I had not gotten to see them in February of 2022 when they played the Mercy Lounge, but I was not going to miss them this year so I didn't!!! Here are some more photos from the concert. There was a quiz given by Tristan midway through the show and Jonathan did well in knowing so much about Tennessee's official fish, fruit, and insect among other things. Guess which photos were from the quiz. This is covered in Benjamin Sinclair's great blog Breakfast and Travel Updates. The Nashville specific one is here. Sorry I didn't get any great photos with drummer Tristan, but my front row angle didn't have great photo sight lines for him.

YouTuber Andy VanCleve was at the show in the balcony and he's been nice enough to post some tunes from the show. If you look closely you can find my big bald head bopping along in the front. 

The Beths - Silence is Golden live at Brooklyn Bowl

The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field live at Brooklyn Bowl

 A poll was held and the backline fish was named Sidney Fish on this night

When they returned for an encore after "Expert in a Dying Field" Liz grabbed her acoustic guitar while the guys put down their instruments so they could add the wonderful harmony to "You Are a Beam of Light." While Liz delicately fingerpicks the beautiful tune which provides us all with a hushed feeling of reverence we could hear a bowling ball roll down an alley and strike the pins. Brooklyn Bowl is, after all, a bowling alley, restaurant, and music venue. Some other performer might throw a tantrum, but not The Beths. Liz just keeps on with a chuckle after asking "Did ya get a strike" which made the song that much 

more endearing. 

The Beths - You Are a Beam of Light live at Brooklyn Bowl

"Little Death" ends the show and then Liz grabs the setlist, leans over, and I got it from her and shook her hand as the man from Chicago beside me protests that she meant to give to him. I think he didn't expect me to say "You can have it if you want it" as he then backed off and told me to keep it. Several people came up to photograph it while we stood around waiting for the crowd to thin out. We should have stayed inside as the band would be doing their own load out, but we decided to wait outside in the cold to see if we could meet them by the bus. 

Benjamin Sinclair came out first, went into the bus, came back out and said I'll chat with you later. We never spoke with him again as he was too busy going to and fro after this. I talked with another young couple from Indiana, but they gave up and left to home. A young man came up asking if Sidney Gish had come out yet, but she hadn't yet. We talked with a young couple playing Hangman on a tablet. They were very nice. Then Sidney Gish did appear and I told her how much I enjoyed her set and how impressed I was with her ability to loop so much stuff live. The young man who was looking for her wasn't there so my daughter Emily went to find him around the corner. He was so happy and Sidney posed for a photo with him that I took. 

Then Liz appeared and the girl who had been playing Hangman went to where she was. The girl came back and I asked if Liz wouldn't talk to her, but the girl said she chickened out. I was much older than that young lady and well over being starstruck....mostly....so I went up to Liz and talked with her. I told her how much the concert meant to myself and my children, got her to sign the set list and then she posed for a photo with us. My other daughter Harper then took a photo of the Hangman couple with Liz. 

My son Liam was starving, but I talked him into staying for a little while longer so we got to meet Jonathan Pearce which was very cool. I talked to him for several minutes about Les Paul guitars, Jansen amplifiers, The Beths videos, Hans Pucket, plus when I asked if he liked The Cars, he replied, "Of course." The reason I asked is I always felt The Cars, especially early Cars music had to be an influence on his bright and angular tones. My daughter Emily got a candid photo of me spieling with him. Then we got his autograph on the setlist and the obligatory shot of him and the gang. We just missed Tristan as we had to get my son some food. Teenage boys don't do well with missing supper. 

The Beths rocked!! I love the song craft of Elizabeth Stokes. Jonathan Pearce's guitar playing is top notch along with his production techniques. I told my children that if I could get Jonathan to produce a record by me I could die a happy man. Tristan Deck and Benjamin Sinclair were rock solid all night. I look forward to seeing them again soon.