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The Spin: AutoVaughn, De Novo Dahl, and The Pink Spiders

Friday night The Cannery gave us all a little more bang for our buck than usual, offering up three of Nashville’s hardest working rock bands on a triple-headlining bill. Determined to get things off to an early start, the show was advertised as starting at 9 p.m. so we were sure to get there on time for once.

Of course, common sense dictates that just because a gig starts early, doesn’t mean folks are going to straggle in on time. It was 9:30 or so before The Pink Spiders greeted the early bird crowd who had the Cannery filled to less than a quarter of its capacity. With their sleazy, razor sharp punk-pop flavor in full roar, singer-songwriter Matt Friction and company delighted what was obviously a group of hardcore fans and friends with an even-handed survey of their last two records and a few new tracks from their forthcoming Sweat It Out thrown in toward the end. The Spiders ended about the time most normal fans start showing up to a rock show, and as TPS constituents trickled out toward the back, an entirely new congregation replaced them up front.

Decked out in their famous rhinestone regalia, De Novo Dahl kicked things off with a cover of the Speed Racer theme, working up a sweat in record time with the front row in full-on dance party mode by the end of the second or third song. The band focused mainly on songs from their newest, Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound, for which this show served as a CD release party. Shying away from the more experimental elements of their previous work, DND has focused itself into a well-oiled, organ-driven, melody-heavy, rock 'n' roll party machine. The Dahls did grace us with a handful of older tracks from previous records, for which the crowd expressed a great deal of gratitude, and rounded out the set with a bad-ass rendition of Rod Stewart’s “Young Turks.”

Filling the final place in this unholy trinity was Music City’s most recent major label fiasco, AutoVaughn, who were celebrating the release their new EP,The Cycles. By this time, attendance had reached its peak, still far from maxing out the cavernous Cannery, but providing much more elbow room than would have been afforded upstairs at Mercy Lounge.

Once again, a whole new crew of fans swapped places up front to hear AutoVaughn’s radio-friendly alterna-rock jams. The band’s slightly angular approach often prompts comparisons to new wave bands of the '80s, but sounded to us like it owed a little more to second wave acts like The Killers than Ultravox or Joy Division. Either way, there was no denying the appeal of their effortless delivery and easily decipherable lyrics.

Once AutoVaughn had ended, the party was far from over. Upstairs at Mercy Lounge, an after party was already underway and was in full swing by the time the Cannery emptied out. DJ Gumby adequately filled the silence during that first awkward hour, but the dance party didn’t quite bloom until local prodigious electro duo Jensen Sportag took the reigns. Their fractured club beats and eerie electro-pop melodies had bodies moving and speakers thumping with maximum efficiency.

Following up around 1 a.m. was what was allegedly the final performance from novelty club act Spring Hill Spider Party. As is typical of a Spider Party show, what was left on the dance floor was a small but incredibly rowdy mob of individuals who were determined to get their final fill of the group’s absurdist techno spectacle right on up until last call.

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