Music Nation is a Music Video Competition for Independent Artists

Nashville Scene - The Spin headed out into the unseasonably warm weather a bit late on Saturday, thanks to a nail biter of a divisional playoff game. (Who punts on fourth down with under two minutes to go when you’re down by a field goal?!) But that ended up being a blessing in disguise—we missed the supposed hour-wait to get inside the rapidly filling Cannery. It was the place to be Saturday night for a big, bad, diverse, local bill. Kings of Leon showed, as did that other Raconteur, “Little” Jack Lawrence (the one with the glasses), and so did some 1,000 other Nashvillians who were ready to party. Bang Bang Bang brought their hard-charging Southern rock to the level with a tight, loud set of professional swagger, and earned a mostly captive audience for it. By the time The Features took the stage for their headlining slot, the place was full up. Every time we see The Features it becomes harder to believe they’re not one of the biggest bands around. Their creative prowess and obvious love of pop music makes for a batch of dynamic, clever and damn catchy material. Their marathon set included several promising new songs and a myriad of tracks off Exhibit A, their Universal (-ly dumb for dropping them) debut. But the punchiest tracks we heard all night might have been the standouts from the band’s self-released EP Contrast. The insistent, organ-drenched “Wooden Heart” filled the room with joyous noise and “Commotion” rocked socks. The band never say much, but the crowd never seems to mind—Features fans are easy like that—and with a five-song encore (that ended faithfully on the massive sing-along “Thursday,”) and the preview of new material, we couldn’t complain. Hey blogosphere, here’s your next big thing, the band who’ll moisten your Cheeto-cheese coated blogging fingers with sweat and cause the hair at the base of your ironic mullet to stand on end. Come and get ’em!