Nashville Music Blog

Lone Official. Photo by Tonya Wright.

For more photos, check out the slideshows at nashvillescene.com: Altered Statesman; Lone Official; Small Axe.

A sizable and pleasantly diverse crowd shook off their tryptophan-induced comas and braved the gloomy weather to join Altered Statesman and Lone Official for their 7-inch release at The Basement Saturday night. We entered to the hyper-funk sounds of Small Axe, a slick five-piece armed to the teeth with sticky chops and a smooth-ass frontman. Seeing a funk rhythm section--and believe us, this was the genuine article--was somewhat refreshing, and we thoroughly enjoyed their song "Pimps," a tune about the rigors of pimpology in which Small Axe's trumpet-toting lead singer warned us to "watch out for them pimps," because "a pimp gotcha lookin' for the king and queen while he's sitting on that ace."

By the close of Small Axe's set, The Basement was mostly packed, a good portion of the crowd made up of several members of Lambchop and Silver Jews. Altered Statesman set to their hypnotic, practiced grooves with singer Steve Poulton leading the pack and local jack-of-all-trades Luke Schneider kicking ass on vibraphone.

Altered Statesman's energy definitely isn't through the roof--they're more "'n' roll" than straight up "rock 'n' roll"--but their ethereal soundscapes are certainly impressive and atmosphere-inducing. Folks drifted back and forth between the smoking porch and the bar throughout the set, but we were dismayed to see that the cash bar up front--one of our favorite Basement features--was unmanned...or unwomanned. As the Statesman wrapped their set, Poulton left us with his sales pitch for the split: "Buy one of those damn records."

Lone Official's set-up was a bit delayed as Grimey fiddled with the bass settings and blasted the vocal mics with a healthy dose of disinfectant...it is cold season, after all. We noticed immediately that Lone Official was missing the ivory tickling of one Mister Ryan Norris, but L.O. still worked as a no-frills, streamlined four-piece. Guitarist Sami Elamri and lead singer Matt Button's riff swapping was pretty handy, though occasionally not perfectly in tune, on favorites like "Amelia Earhardt" and "Le Coq Sportif."

For a band that constantly seems on the verge of no longer being a band, Lone Official definitely sounded well rehearsed. Button's wife was front-and-center for most of the evening dancing her ass off, which set the tone perfectly. We can't say the same for The Basement's hitherto unnoticed disco ball, however, which inexplicably kicked on mid-set, casting its bizarre, sequined glow over the room and sending out vibes not unlike that of a middle school dance. By the time Lone Official started in on their last song, we decided to slink back outside into the shadows--far from the dazzling lights that threatened to shatter our anonymity.