Nashville Five /// Neulore

Nashville’s Neulore is an indie folk-pop band unafraid to admit some mainstream musical tastes. It’s refreshing, really: we believe it’s not the label a band is on that signifies whether or not they are worthy of attention, have “sold-out” or whatnot, it’s whether or not they compromise their music or artist vision, at any level or record company. Sorry for the tangent…

Anyway, in their songs Neulore finds inspiration in acts of all sizes – it’s easy to hear the early Coldplay influences on their concept EP, Apples & Eve, but Local Natives seep in there too. So we asked the band to detail their top five Nashville shows ever, which includes Chris Martin and company as well as other marquee names. They didn’t try hard to hard to conjure up acts that no one is ever heard of, they just were honest. Which is a good way to describe their approach to music in general.

Catch them on 5.24 at 12th and Porter. $8; keep reading for their top five Nashville shows, well, ever.

And do some listening here:

Now time for us to go squeeze Andrew Leahey at the 5 Spot and Natalie Prass at the High Watt into one slowly-dimming, somewhat damp Nashville night…

Neulore’s Top Five Nashville Shows:

1. Damien Rice at The Ryman: He ended the night with “Cheers Darlin”…. Telling the story of how the song was written while drinking numerous glasses of wine as fake snow fell from the roof. He went through 3 glasses within 10 minutes. It was real life theater, and incredibly captivating! Footage of Rice at the Ryman.

2. Coldplay at Starwood (XY Tour): The night was just mind blowing. It’s something you can’t explain. Footage here.

3. Mumford & Sons at War Memorial: Most shows in Nashville [seem to] have a stuck up posture, all arms are crossed and eyes are ready to judge. This show was different! It felt like we were in an Irish pub dancing to our life’s soundtrack. Footage here.

4. Mutemath at War Memorial: Those guys not only are super tight live, but bring incredible energy to the stage and the crowd (handstands on and over a keyboard never get old).  They always seem to come up with something you’ve never seen done at a show, whether that’s backflips off of a bass drum or playing a beat on a projected and choreographed image on the backdrop.

5. Feist at The Ryman (The Reminder tour): Anybody who can find a way to mix hand drawings on a home projector and a disco ball is going to win our hearts! Plus her cute and clever banter doesn’t hurt.