Over the summer, Spotify recommended a song called “That Nicotine” to me. I listened to it, and within two days, it immediately rose to the top of my “On Repeat” playlist. Curious, I looked up the artist, hoping they would perform in Nashville soon. To my absolute surprise, I found out that Ava Beathard was not only performing at Eastside Bowl, but she also lived in Nashville. After racing to check the details, I saw Charli Adams was headlining her show. When I listened to Charli’s newest EP, I knew I had to attend the concert.
Hannah Flora was the first opener of the show and brought the energy with her rock performance. After getting the crowd moving with her first song, she performed “Orange Tree,” which was one of my favorites. She wrote the song during the COVID-19 pandemic while in love. The crowd listened to the emotional performance, swaying with the rhythm and atmospheric instrumentals. Soon after, she returned to heavier rock music with her song “Burden.”
Flora introduced her band and stated her gratitude for being able to open for Adams, who she had been listening to since she was 17. She also expressed her appreciation for the crowd’s calming of her stage nerves and performance hype. Her final song was “Imagine How God Feels,” and she announced that the music video for that song would be released the following week.
Compared to Flora’s rock vibe, Ava Beathard was more calm. During her set, I felt at ease and relaxed, a feeling I definitely appreciated at the beginning of a long week. Beathard’s opening song set the mood for the rest of her set. Right when the instrumentals of her second song started playing, my eyes lit up — it seemed familiar. Hearing “That Nicotine” live seemed surreal and made me realize how coincidental it was that Spotify had recommended this song out of millions of tracks. There I was, singing along to the lyrics in front of the artist herself just a couple of months later. Beathard continued her set by performing more of her original songs, such as “1 out of 10” and “Firefly Lullabies,” the first song she ever released.
Beathard then picked up her guitar to perform “Wet T-shirt,” another beautiful song with a calm vibe that filled up the cozy venue. The audience swayed along with the instrumental as they watched Beathard sing with her heart on her sleeve. For her final song, “I Wanna Feel Good Naked,” she requested the audience to sing along with the lyrics to conclude the show.
Adams soon after came on stage, beaming at the audience. She announced that she would perform all her songs from her recently released EP, “nothing to be scared of,” which came out Aug. 31. The first song, “everything she wanted,” had a catchy rock beat that got the audience moving. She continued down her EP tracklist, of which “cry over everything,” and “how do u know to love me” were my favorites.
Between songs, Adams shouted out Andy Seltzer, who produced the EP with her and showed up to the concert to support her. She continued her performance by playing some throwback songs, switching back and forth from solo performances to having her band join her. As Adams prepared to surprise her fans with her last song, her guitarist dropped a clue for the title by stating Taylor Swift had added it to her playlist. After a collective gasp from the audience, Adams revealed the title, “Backseat.” The singer added that it was nostalgic to play it in Nashville as she has played it many times before in Music City.
After ending with one of her top songs, Adams played an encore, performing “Cloverland Drive,” a very personal song about growing up. The audience erupted into cheers after the final note. As an avid Spotify playlist curator, my playlists have been upgraded since attending this concert, and I’ll be on the lookout for more live performances by Flora, Beathard and Adams in Nashville!
