Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl is one of the first concert venues I went to after moving to Nashville and is still hands down one of my favorite venues in the city. When I heard that Peter McPoland was playing there, I knew I had to jump on the opportunity to be at the show.
McPoland released his debut album “Piggy” in August 2023 and has been on tour since mid-October. After his acoustic rendition of “Romeo & Juliet” went viral on TikTok in 2021, McPoland’s music career took off. All of this only fueled my anticipation for the Nov. 15 show.
The night kicked off with Stephen Dawes, a young alternative pop artist with a similar sound to McPoland. He started his set with “Lucy,” giving a quick shoutout to all the attendees named Lucy in the crowd. The sound of his songs varied from indie rock to dance. Dawes’ most popular song is a cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” to which many people in the audience sang along. The singer-songwriter ended his set with “19” from his debut EP “The Day We Met,” which came out mid-tour.
After a brief intermission for setup, the crowd began to cheer as McPoland entered the stage wearing wired headphones and a bright smile.
“Nashville! Are you with me?” McPoland said.
During the opening song, “Mold,” audience members jumped along — some fans even held up stuffed animal pigs from the merch table.
Over the course of the set, McPoland broke into eccentric dance moves and performed with great stage presence. After “Tonight,” a fan threw matching pig ears onto the stage, and McPoland put them on. At this moment, I noticed the boot that he had on his right foot. McPoland went on to explain that he usually jumps over the barricade and into the pit, which led to an injury during the Chicago stop of the tour.
Despite his injury, McPoland’s energy never came down. “String Lights” made the venue feel like a private performance as he became emotional during the song. However, he quickly switched gears by cracking jokes about his bowling abilities — a reference to the other side of the venue which houses bowling lanes.
“I’ve done a lot that I’m proud of in my life like opening for Twenty One Pilots and getting a strike during VIP,” McPoland said.
As the night started to wind down, the vibes at the concert were still high. McPoland was jumping around on one foot on stage as the crowd shook the ground with their jumping and formed a mosh pit. Even though he said he would stay on stage, McPoland came down to be with fans but kept his promise to stay behind the barricade. During a guitar solo, McPoland also took to jump skipping his microphone cord — still on one foot.
Due to his injury, McPoland did not leave the stage for the encore, jumping straight into his most popular songs: “Shit Show,” the TikTok viral “Romeo & Juliet” and the finale “Digital Silence.”
Overall, McPoland had a killer performance of songs from the past three years of his musical career. I walked out of Brooklyn Bowl a bigger fan than when I walked in.
