This past Thursday, I returned to The Basement East for an evening of indie-pop and indie-rock entertainment by The National Parks and Zach Seabaugh. Two-and-a-half hours later, I left with memories of new song releases, stripped acoustic covers, campfire in the crowd performances, neon cactuses and a new competitor on my best concert ever list.
Over the past year, my music taste has morphed to embrace my granola girl roots. I’ve created playlists for long drives through the mountains, nonstop streamed Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” and favorited as many Lumineers songs on Spotify as possible. My Spotify algorithm responded accordingly, flooding my Daily Mixes with artists like Zach Seabaugh and The National Parks. You can imagine my excitement when I learned these two artists would be performing in Nashville together — and at The Basement East, where I photographed my first-ever concert for The Hustler.
The BEast was packed when I arrived several minutes before the opening act. Seabaugh opened the evening with his hit “Slingshot,” followed by “I Miss Who You Were” and “Telluride”. The Nashville-based artist’s friendly demeanor and warm vocals through “Not How I Want To” elicited cheers of excitement from the audience and set the tone for an evening of heartfelt lyricism.
Seabaugh continued with “Maybe We Do,” a song co-written with drummer Blake Ruby. Mid-song, the MTSU alumnus wove in the bridge of the timeless “You Are My Sunshine,” and the audience sang along to his soulful vocals.
“You sound so good, Music City!” Seabaugh said.
After a moment to reminisce about his time at MTSU and acknowledge some college friends in the audience, Seabaugh treated the crowd to an acoustic performance of “Girl in a Coffee Shop.” Every couple around me swayed along to his sweet and soulful performance. Seabaugh then introduced a new song, “Forget About It,” which was released later that night.
“We want to teach y’all a song that comes out in two hours on ‘Mr. Nobody,’” Seabaugh said, referencing his newest album.
Zach ended his set with the upbeat “Christmas Lights,” bidding the audience farewell before heading backstage.
The National Parks bounded onto the stage for their opening song “Angels,” singing the lyric, “I’mma tell our kids about this someday.” This phrase set the mood for the rest of the evening. From the colorful spotlights to the neon cactus light fixtures to the high-energy headbanging to seemingly acrobatic fiddle player Megan Taylor Parks, the performance was a delight.
“We’ve been coming to Nashville from the very beginning; we’ve played at The Basement, at EXIT/IN and now it’s great to be here at The BEast!” lead singer and guitarist Brady Parks said.
Parks introduced the titular song of the Salt Lake City-based band’s most recent album, “8th Wonder,” which is an ode to life’s highs and lows. This track was followed by “Wildflower,” one of my favorite songs of the night and “History Channel.” The band maintained their infectious energy through “I Can Feel It” but then brought it down with a mellow version of “UFO.”
In honor of small outdoor shows that the band performed during the pandemic, they played several songs as acoustic covers on one stand microphone. They began with a humorous cover of “The Campfire Song” from “Spongebob: The Movie” and then followed it with their own “Let’s Go Outside.”
“Going outside is about what we think is one of the best cures for stress and feeling overwhelmed,” keyboardist and vocalist Sydney Macfarlane said. “It’s very grounding to be out in nature and just breathe in the fresh air.”
After performing “Chance,” the band brought their guitar, fiddle, tambourine and mic stand off the stage and performed in the middle of the audience floor. It truly felt like we were standing around them at a campfire, adding a level of intimacy to a show I had never experienced before.
Once back on stage, Sydney and Megan’s duet on matching flower-covered drum sets segued into “I Better Go.” This track is a love song that Parks introduced as “very cute and about dying like all great love songs are.” The National Parks finished their set with “Where I Wanna Go” and a cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” Once again, the audience eagerly joined in harmony, complimenting the funky riffs of the guitar and fiddle with their own happy tune.
“This is usually the part of the show where we hide in the dark down there [gesturing towards the green room] and wait to see if you guys want to hear a few more songs,” Parks said. “But I think we can just skip that tonight, what do you think?”
The audience’s delighted roar was a pretty clear answer to Parks. The band finished with exuberant performances of “Great Sky” and “As We Ran.”
This concert captured the feeling of driving up a mountain highway with the windows down and the wonder of coming across a scenic lookout. The honey-smooth vocals and kind smile of Seabaugh, infectious energy and head-banging excitement of The National Parks and surprisingly intimate acoustic covers from both are not something I’ll forget. These two artists have more than earned their places in my road trip playlists. Who knows…maybe I’ll even tell my kids about them someday.
