[Review + Photos] Generationals & ELEL | January 19th @ High Watt

ELEL. Photo by Matt Cairns.

Generationals and ELEL
High Watt, Nashville, TN
January 19, 2015
Photos by Matt Cairns

Show of hands. How many of you made it out to The High Watt on Monday night for Generationals and ELEL? Show of hands again. How many of you danced? C’mon, put your hands back up, you know it was one of the grooviest, most danceable sets that you have seen in a long time, especially for a freakin’ Monday.

Head below for our full review of the evening, and check out a plethora of great shots (from a very dark room) from Matt Cairns.

We dusted off the Monday work blues, grabbed a quick bite and settled in at a fairly sardine-ish High Watt just in time to catch rising hometown heroes ELEL get things started. If you haven’t heard of ELEL before, then welcome to No Country For New Nashville, because you clearly aren’t a regular reader of this blog. We’re friends with, but even bigger fans of, ELEL, and have literally been watching their ascent from their very first show.

ELEL. Photo by Matt Cairns.

So, why would we feel it so important to push this review out about a show on a Monday night from a band that you probably already know about? It’s because something pretty magical happened to us on Monday night. Having watched a band this long, you sometimes forget that they are improving together and maturing as a band, but we were smacked in the face by a road tested team that have managed to hone their sound to create an incredibly full and balanced overall wall of easily digestible jams. Everything is tighter now and infuses the crowd with a desire to dance, clap, and sing along, which many a musician in Music City will tell you is a hard feat to achieve. As they’ve continued to increase their touring under new label Mom + Pop, they’ve also expanded some of their songs in deliciously extended live cuts, including an almost seductive slide into a slightly slowed down cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”. It’s a clear sign that ELEL has finally found what they’ve been looking for, and are primed to have a HUGE 2015. They’re having a release party for their highly anticipated self-titled debut EP coming up later this spring which we told you about yesterday, but stay tuned for more from ELEL. You won’t be sorry.

Generationals. Photo by Matt Cairns.

The set break consisted of a lot of ELEL supportive friends catching up, along with a surprisingly large remainder of the crowd that was excitedly cheering for the upcoming Generationals. Again, this is a Monday night in Nashville, where is all this energy coming from? Clearly, the stand-against-the-wall-and-judge memo was not distributed before this party, because the energy never stopped. At the moment that the lights dimmed and the irridescent stage ornaments illuminated, a still strong crowd was jumping with hands in the air with rapt anticipation.

Generationals. Photo by Matt Cairns.

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Generationals. As long time followers of this site may remember, we saw them here in 2011 performing with Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr at The Basement, and clearly underestimated the then openers prior to our first encounter. In the years since, we’ve kept an eye on the New Orleans based duo, but had not realized that their sound had gone from synth influenced indie rock to full on danceable electro rock. Needless to say, it sounds nothing like the New Orleans bands that your parents have on vinyl. This is a stand out sound that is hopefully gaining traction in the Crescent City the same way it is in Music City. Give their new album Alix a spin, and we’re pretty sure you’ll agree that you would have been dancing on Monday night too.