Thousands of people gathered at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium to bring home Nashville-based The Band CAMINO on Oct. 21. The electro-rock band was founded in nearby Memphis, Tenn., but relocated to Nashville five years ago. Upon arrival at the venue, the line wrapped around the building as fans waited to hear a lineup of alternative-indie rock bands perform.
The first band to take the stage was The WldLfe, a band from Indiana that is growing very quickly after a series of tours. After hearing the first song of their set “Lonely,” I knew that they were a good choice for an opener due to their similarities to headliners. However, The WldLfe forged their own sound as people in the crowd sang along to their set — which included a cover of “The Best of Both Worlds” by Hannah Montana. Despite not knowing the band prior to this show, it was very easy to get into their songs and jump along with other people on the floor to their last song “Somebody’s Gonna Love You.”
The next opener was a band to which I have listened since I was in middle school: Bad Suns. They were last in Nashville on 2022’s “Apocalypse Whenever” tour when they played at the Brooklyn Bowl. Saturday night’s crowd was much larger, and it was great to hear some of my favorite songs played live again. The Los Angeles-based band played songs both old and new, ranging from their first album in 2014 to their most recent single from earlier this month. Lead singer Christo Bowman called out to the crowd amid cheers.
“Anyone remember the ‘90s?” Bowman said. “This is a song for you, then.”
Bad Suns jumped into a cover of “Lovefool” by The Cardigans to continue the high-energy set. Bowman also shared a recent success of his: being one year clean. A year ago also coincided with the creation of “The One I Used To Love,” another single released last month. Towards the end of Bad Suns’ set, Bowman also stated that the band is currently working on a new album.
“We’ve been in the studio all year hard at work on making a new record,” Bowman said.
After taking a quick video for Instagram, Bad Suns played their final song, “Daft Pretty Boys” off the 2016 album “Disappear Here.” Bowman and bassist Gavin Bennett threw frisbees into the crowd. They will return to Nashville again this upcoming April, hopefully touring their new album.
Finally, The Band CAMINO emerged to a screaming crowd. They opened with “Afraid of the Dark” from their most recent album “The Dark,” which is the inspiration for the tour’s name. I immediately could tell that this performance was going to be a special closing night of the tour. Jeffery Jordan, a vocalist and guitarist for the band, echoed similar sentiments.
“Nashville, Tennessee, it feels good to be home,” Jordan said. “Welcome to the 26th and final show of the ‘Screaming in the Dark’ tour.”
The last time they played in Music City was to 400 people at the Basement East — a stark difference from the 6,000 tickets that they sold for the Oct. 21 show. For their biggest show to date, the Band CAMINO brought fan favorites back to their Nashville setlist as they performed songs like “Hush Hush,” “Three Month Hangover” and “What I Want” during the first part of their set.
(Sharmila Adapa)
As artists grow and develop larger fan bases, it becomes difficult to continue playing intimate shows. Jordan and fellow bandmate Spencer Stewart challenge this notion during their acoustic set at every performance, changing the songs each day to keep things personal like at shows in the early years of the band’s career. It is just Jordan and Stewart on stage — just like how the band started. This aspect was my favorite part of the show as they played snippets of songs that fans requested like “Something To Hold On To,” “Fool of Myself,” “My Thoughts on You,” “Know Me” and “Less Than I Do.” I was also surprised and thrilled when they played my personal favorite The Band CAMINO song “Know It All,” as it typically does not make official setlists.
Another surprising moment happened when Jordan and Stewart welcomed vocalists from both opening acts back on stage to sing an acoustic cover of “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. Brothers Carson and Jansen Hogan from The Wldlfe and Bowman from Bad Suns joined The Band CAMINO on stage as the audience sang along to Swift’s nostalgic lyrics. The acoustic portion of the set ended with “The Black and White,” a song recorded in an attic in Arkansas from their first EP as the crowd raised their flashlights for Jordan and Stewart.
The rest of the band returned to the stage for the next part of the set which began with them taking a shot to commemorate their largest show to date. Starting back up with “2/14,” which alludes to Valentine’s Day, the band utilized glow-in-the-dark set pieces and instruments. The entire set was very engaging as The Band CAMINO played their unique mix of electronic, alternative and rock music. Fans in the audience sang along to “See Through” before the band left the stage.
However, they did not depart for long before returning to play “I Think I Like You” as the first song in their encore performance. During the next song “Berenstein,” fans coordinated to pass out multicolored paper to shine a beautiful display of colored lights to the band. For their last song, the Band CAMINO played “Daphne Blue” as audience members ranging from babies to senior citizens watched.
Over the past three years living in Nashville, I have had the amazing opportunity to see many different artists perform. The Band CAMINO is a group I will recommend to anyone, regardless of their taste in music, because of how they made an arena show feel like a smaller Brooklyn Bowl concert. It was a memorable experience to welcome The Band CAMINO back home to Music City after a successful tour, and I am looking forward to seeing them evolve more as a band.
