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OCTOBER 29–NOVEMBER 4, 2026 I VOLUME 45 I NUMBER 39 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

NEWS:

THE BATTLE FOR THE 5TH COULD BE TENNESSEE’S MOST COMPETITIVE RACE >> PAGE 5

CULTURE:

NASHVILLE STEEL GUITAR SOCIAL CLUB CELEBRATES THREE YEARS OF JAMMING

>> PAGE 25

BRUTAL ITY S O R E N E G FOR TWO D NOVEMBE AYS IN EARLY R, PU HENRY R OLLINS NK ICON IS SHAR HIS ROC ING K ’ N ARTIFAC TS WITH ’ ROLL NASHVIL LE BY D. P A

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Though the autoharp isn’t known for its volume, Sara Carter’s Zimmermann still echoes through history as a key part of the “Big Bang” of country music. Sara played this autoharp on hundreds of Carter Family recordings as the group earned the nickname “the First Family of Country Music.”

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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CONTENTS NEWS

5 The Battle for the 5th Could Be Tennessee’s Most Competitive Race Republican Charlie Hatcher and Democrat Chaz Molder are locked in a congressional faceoff that centers on affordability and affects 17 counties BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

6 Two-Minute Drill

Talking with longtime local sports journalist Teresa Walker as she enters retirement BY LOGAN BUTTS

8 Pith in the Wind This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

COVER STORY

11 Brutal Generosity For two days in early November, punk icon Henry Rollins is sharing his rock ’n’ roll artifacts with Nashville BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

17 CRITICS’ PICKS

GloRilla, Death Becomes Her, Clown Mart, Total Wife, Coven, Nicest Night in Nashville and more

29 Doll Parts Ahead of a co-headlining show with Mannequin Pussy, Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman discusses roadside attractions, her porcelain doll collection and why more bands should tour the South

FOOD AND DRINK

23 The Brothers Nicoletto Several major developments are making 2026 a growth year for the family-run Nicoletto’s Pasta Co. BY MARGARET LITTMAN

CULTURE

25 In the Club: Heavenly and Hellacious Nashville Steel Guitar Social Club celebrates three years of jamming

BY ANNIE PARNELL

FILM

ON THE COVER:

31 Inside-Out

Henry Rollins; photo: Hamilton Matthew Masters

Nashville-shot The Other People is a mysterious, timely horror-thriller BY LOGAN BUTTS

31 Best of the Fest

A dispatch from the 2026 New York Film Festival

BY HANNAH HERNER

BY JASON SHAWHAN

ART

27 Supernatural Surrealism Ruth Chase summons the spirit of the season with Unbreakable Light at Galerie Tangerine BY JOE NOLAN

Visit nashvillescene.com to read about Noko Yaki, the newest spot from the owners of Noko and Kase x Noko, opening Nov. 6 on West End Avenue.

A selection of dishes from Noko Yaki; PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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MUSIC

28 Have a Seat Lords of Acid breathe life into the art of transgression BY JASON SHAWHAN

28 Working Together Allison Russell and Neko Case seek the power of collaboration ahead of their Ryman quadruple header BY SEAN L. MALONEY

R.I.P. READ IN PRINT

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

NEWS

THE BATTLE FOR THE 5TH COULD BE TENNESSEE’S MOST COMPETITIVE RACE Republican Charlie Hatcher and Democrat Chaz Molder are locked in a congressional faceoff that centers on affordability and affects 17 counties

THE CONTEST FOR Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District is proving to be one of the state’s most competitive races, as Republican nominee Charlie Hatcher struggles to defend Trump policies that he admits are hurting American’s wallets. Following successful gerrymandering efforts by the state’s Republican supermajority, the 5th — which until 2022 was a Democratic stronghold encompassing Davidson County — now has a completely different look. It includes the western half of Williamson County, along with all or portions of 16 other counties, stretching all the way to Memphis. The winner of this race will succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who was defeated by Hatcher in August’s Republican primary. On Oct. 10, Hatcher appeared alongside President Donald Trump at a Clarksville rally, where he urged economic patience amid rising fuel prices. “I know we are facing fierce economic headwinds,” Hatcher told the crowd. “Just give it a little time. We’ll get that taken care of.” “We cannot afford voter apathy,” he said — a message he’d visibly scrawled across the palm of his hand ahead of his speech, along with other notes. Hatcher, a Williamson County dairy farmer, veterinarian and the state’s former agriculture commissioner, leans heavily into his farmer identity as a candidate. The Republican argues that he will bring “common sense” to Washington, D.C., a long-repeated promise of GOP candidates of days past. “I live 50 feet from the dairy farm, so there’s this constant smell of cattle manure,” Hatcher said during an Oct. 21 Spring Hill forum. “Any given day, I’ve got a little bit on me, so be careful shaking my hand.” The forum was a rare opportunity for the public to hear competing ideas from the candidates ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. Hatcher appeared alongside Democratic candidate Chaz Molder, the current mayor of Columbia, and independent candidate Micheál O’Leary. Organizers made sure to remind attendees that the event was not a debate. In September, both the Hatcher and Molder campaigns told Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene that they would debate the issues, but Hatcher told reporters after the forum that he was “satisfied” with what the event offered voters. The 5th Congressional District race, like most races this election cycle, centers on affordability. The issue has been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs on adversaries and allies alike, as well as by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

CHARLIE HATCHER (RIGHT) LISTENS TO REMARKS FROM CHAZ MOLDER DURING A FORUM IN SPRING HILL, OCT. 21

AT A FORUM ON OCT. 21, DEMOCRAT CHAZ MOLDER SAID HIS FIRST PRIORITY IF ELECTED IS TO “WORK AS HARD AS I CAN TO WORK WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM TO REDUCE THE COST OF LIVING BY GETTING RID OF THE TARIFFS AND BRINGING AN END TO THIS WAR.” MEANWHILE, REPUBLICAN CHARLIE HATCHER DEFENDED TRUMP’S TARIFFS, CALLING THEM “A TOOL IN THE TOOLBOX, AND IT’S BEEN VERY EFFECTIVE.” HATCHER INSTEAD BLAMED SOME RISING COSTS ON BIDEN ERA POLICIES ENACTED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. At the Oct. 21 forum, Molder said his first priority if elected is to “work as hard as I can to work with as many people as I can across the political spectrum to reduce the cost of living by getting rid of the tariffs and bringing an end to this war.” Meanwhile, Hatcher defended Trump’s tariffs, calling them “a tool in the toolbox, and it’s been very effective.” Hatcher instead blamed some rising costs on Biden era policies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite his support for Trump’s policies, Hatcher agreed with Molder that the “quickest” way to reduce the cost of living would be ending the war in Iran. But he said he would support that decision only under two conditions. “No nuclear weapons, and they can’t have a stranglehold on global oil,” he said, promoting a long-term fix to “unleash American energy.”

While both major-party candidates have kept their talking points centered squarely on reducing the cost of living, the district’s next representative will be tasked with tackling a wide range of issues. When speaking with reporters at the Spring Hill forum, Hatcher seemed unaware of several issues facing U.S. Congress, including ongoing Republican-led efforts to impeach U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — an effort Hatcher said he doesn’t support. Molder avoided the issue, telling reporters that he’s focused on affordability and healthcare and “not getting up there to play political games to talk about impeachment.” Molder has said he believes Congress needs to act as a check on Trump, specifically in regard to declarations of war (the responsibility of Congress per the Constitution). Hatcher, however,

told reporters he doesn’t “think it’s a big deal” for a president to unilaterally launch a war. As of this writing, the Pentagon lists the total number of American deaths in Iran at 21. Molder later criticized Hatcher’s statement, telling the Scene, “That’s exactly why I’m running in this race, to show that I will not be a rubber stamp to failed policies.” If Democrats retake the U.S. House, investigations into numerous Trump officials will likely be on the table, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. When asked if he thinks ICE has gone too far in Trump’s second term, Molder said yes, although he said he thinks Trump’s general border security efforts were correct. “It’s important that we have secure borders,” said Molder, “and the president, that’s been one of his initiatives, and I think the border is more secure today than it was before he got in. And that’s something that I’ve been consistent about on the campaign trail.” Molder said he supports “fully invest[ing] in law enforcement,” adding, “ICE is not designed to be law enforcement agents, and that’s not what they should be doing.” “They should not be tearing families apart in the darkness of night,” he said. “If you’re here illegally, then there’s no place for you here if you’re committing a dangerous crime. If you’re here and you’re working, and you’re contributing to society, then you shouldn’t be stripped away from your families from a non-trained law enforcement agency.” Molder also said he would “absolutely support” a congressional investigation into ICE. “The first thing I’m going to do when we’re elected to Congress is pick up the phone and call the Department of Justice and the [U.S.] attorney general to figure out what is going on with the task force in Memphis. We’re seeing violations of constitutional rights, due process rights. This is not right. This is wrong.” Hatcher also voiced some concerns over ICE’s actions. “I think you could see instances where [ICE] did [go too far], and Minnesota was one of those,” Hatcher said, referencing Operation Metro Surge — the large federal operation targeting Minnesota last winter that resulted in sustained protests and the killing of two American citizens by federal agents. “They’ve backed off since. I think we’re in a good spot now.” Hatcher doesn’t support congressional investigations into ICE, saying the agency already “made a conscious attempt” to correct any issues. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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TERESA WALKER

FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS, Teresa Walker has covered just about every sport across the state of Tennessee and beyond. She has been frontand-center for seven Olympics, six Super Bowls, Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols dynasty and the Titans’ Music City Miracle. After beginning her career at The Daily Times in Maryville — where she covered school board meetings, chronicled the police department, took photos and even laid out advertisements — Walker moved to Nashville in 1989 to work for the Associated Press. She took over as the state’s AP sports editor in 1992, a role she held until her recent (partial) retirement this month; she’s finishing out the Tennessee Titans season as a freelancer. “I was six weeks away from leaving journalism when the Associated Press called,” Walker tells the Scene by phone one afternoon in October. In the early days of the gig, the University of Tennessee alum cobbled together a sports section out of Vanderbilt athletics, Nashville Sounds games, PGA and LPGA Tour events, high school football and more while moonlighting on the AP’s news desk. But the arrival of three top-flight professional sports teams in quick succession — the Tennessee Titans (at the time still called the Oilers) in 1997, the Nashville Predators in 1998 and the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 — dramatically changed the beat. Walker, a one-person sports bureau, shifted her attention to sports full time. “Part of the job, in addition to just covering the sports, has been finding, curating, working with and building a relationship with people,” says Walker. “The fun part is going to the games. Now that I’m retired, that’s the part I get to do now.”

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

With just a few Titans home games left in Walker’s nearly four-decade AP stint, we spoke with the journalist about her career, the future of the beat and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. When did you first know you wanted to be a journalist? I love asking questions. I even tried to have a newspaper in my neighborhood when I was a kid. So that’s how nosy I really am. … A long time before I ever saw All the President’s Men or any of the great journalism movies, I always knew that I wanted to be a journalist because I love talking to people and telling stories. When the pro teams arrived, how did that change the beat? Was there a sudden influx of sports reporters? Well, it was more of a redistribution. [Publications] did staff up because there was much more to do in town. I was suddenly covering an NFL team, but earlier in the ’90s, Memphis had lost out in the bidding for an NFL expansion franchise to Carolina and Jacksonville. My bureau chief had told me if Memphis wins their bids, then you will be moving to Memphis. So I ended up being able to stay in Nashville and have an NFL team move to me. With so many sports going on, how did you decide what took precedence and what didn’t? I refer to what I did for AP as a buffet table. My job was to triage and be exactly where I needed to be when. And if I wasn’t at some place because I was, say, at the Titans, I made sure I had somebody at, say, the Lady Vols. When it comes to print reporters especially, you were often the only woman on the beat in town. What was that like, and what did that mean to you? Well, two things. Yes, I noticed, and I was incredibly grateful when I started seeing more women coming through. But on the other hand, I had a job to

do, so I tried to keep my head down and do it. Journalists, we’re not trying to make friends. We’re competing with each other. That said, I try to be friendly, but I was very, very happy when we started getting more and more women on the beat. … For a while there, it felt like we could not have more than two women in journalism in sports in Nashville. A few years ago, there were so many women in media that we took a big group picture, and it was really awesome to see that many women working in sports media, no matter the format. It was lonely, but I was doing what I loved, and, for the most part, people were accommodating. What do you see for the future of the beat in Nashville? Media is being challenged this year more than ever before. I wish the industry had done a better job of finding a way around the paywall to make people pay for the information they used to get. Because if you’re getting it for free, consider the source. … That said, we’re seeing the development and growth of YouTube and so many different platforms for people to tell stories and to cover teams, and thankfully the teams in the Middle Tennessee area have been very open and accommodating. It does feel like we’re morphing. … My biggest thing is — people, please read a story. You might be surprised at how much you learn and how much you enjoy that. If you love your folks that work for the team or the university, that’s fine. I also encourage you to get your news and information from other sources, because everybody has a reason for the story that they’re telling, and as great as in-house media is, they are telling the approved versions of things. … Get your news from as many sources as possible. It’s hard work. ▼

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

PITH IN THE WIND

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/NEWS/PITHINTHEWIND

Nashville’s North Branch Library earned an official historical marker last week after a yearslong campaign by manager Cloreace Eppenger. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded the stout Beaux-Arts building more than a century ago. It has survived as the city’s oldest remaining “Carnegie library,” narrowly avoiding tornado damage in 2020 amid a rapidly gentrifying section of Nashville. Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who lives nearby and frequents the library with his two young daughters, spoke alongside Eppenger at the marker dedication.

Billionaire tech mogul Peter Thiel wrapped up his anticlimactic lecture series on the “Antichrist” in the most boring way possible. After four evening shows downtown, Thiel, who built and ran Silicon Valley giants like Paypal and Palantir, predicted that the world’s future satanic force will be a politician aligned with the Democratic party, reinforcing his obsession with partisan politics. Thiel has spent big backing Trump and Republicans in past elections and donates with a particular fondness for Vice President J.D. Vance — the two worked together at Thiel’s venture capital firm, and Thiel is often credited as Vance’s intellectual mentor. At his closing lecture, Thiel said he chose Nashville to follow San Francisco and Rome on his lecture circuit because the city has embraced non-hier-

Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke in Nashville over the weekend, expressing support for Democratic candidates running in Tennessee, including gubernatorial candidate Jerri Green. Walz was the keynote speaker at the Davidson County Democratic Party fall dinner on Oct. 23, which also featured remarks from Mayor Freddie O’Connell and others. “You have got candidates that are top-notch here,” Walz said, noting what he called the “clear dichotomy” between Green and Republican gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn. Walz advocated for policies that have been implemented in Minnesota, such as free breakfast and lunch in public schools, Medicaid expansion and a state-level child tax credit.

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Thanksgiving Break

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

archical Christianity. His rallying cry echoed the Christian nationalism that has taken hold across Tennessee and shaped state politics.

Limestone and bedrock won’t hold up well to tunneling by The Boring Company, according to a new report from the Southern Environmental Law Center. Potential groundwater contamination under Murfreesboro Pike industrial sites also stands between the airport terminal and downtown launch site picked for Elon Musk’s Tesla tunnel thruway. Western Kentucky University’s Chris Groves, a hydrogeologist, prepared the report and specializes in karst formations — the cave and sinkhole topography common across Tennessee when acidic water dissolves bedrock and limestone. The Boring Company did not respond to the report but said in previously filed paperwork that it would avoid areas prone to karst development.

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

BRUTAL GENEROSITY BY D. PATRICK RODGERS; PHOTOS BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

FOR TWO EARLY N DAYS IN O PUNK IC VEMBER, ROLLINS ON HENRY IS HIS ROC SHARING ROLL AR K ’N’ T WITH NA IFACTS SHVILLE

HENRY ROLLINS LOOKS THROUGH HIS COLLECTION AT HIS NASHVILLE HOME “THIS IS WHERE all my passion and excitement is — in this.” Punk icon Henry Rollins is seated behind a desk in the office of his Nashville home, gesturing toward the framed photographs, posters and other rock ’n’ roll ephemera that surround him. To many, Rollins is known as the onetime frontman of formative American punk band Black Flag, and of Rollins Band after that. To others, he’s known as a spoken-word artist, author, radio DJ, historian and archivist. To the folks in his neighborhood, he’s just Henry. “It’s just nice meeting everyone in your neighborhood and going to their houses and saying hello,” says Rollins, who moved to Nashville in October 2021 after decades in Los Angeles. “They give the wave as you drive by. And that’s all kind of a new language for me, and I must say, I quite

enjoy it. In Nashville, it seems you can talk to anyone, like at the supermarket. … It’s like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.” He’s befriended an elderly couple in the neighborhood, and sometimes goes over to their house for backyard cookouts. The couple’s entry point to understanding who he is: Their son is a big fan of FX biker drama Sons of Anarchy, in which Rollins played a violent white supremacist. Now neighbors will keep an eye on Rollins’ house when he goes out of town, and vice versa. “I fell in love with Nashville immediately,” he says. “I liked it already because I’ve been touring all my life. I’ve been here a bunch of times. I met all my neighbors, the nicest people. … It’s that Southern thing, and I know the South because I’m a touring guy, and the South gets a bad rap.

‘Oh, they’re all dumb.’ You’re dumb to say that. ‘They’re all racist.’ There’s racists everywhere.” From the outside, Rollins’ home — he asks that the Scene remain vague about its precise location — looks nondescript and suburban, a “snore fest” with “nice little rooms for a breeding family,” as he puts it. Inside, he’s converted what the previous owners used as a two-room TV-watching and gaming area into an archiving and cataloging HQ. It’s bursting with artifacts from legendary American rock ’n’ roll outfits, many of whose members Rollins knows or knew personally and professionally. Some of the “major food groups” of his collection, as he describes them, are The Cramps, Black Flag, The Damned and Iggy Pop’s The Stooges, the latter of whom he calls America’s best band. For two days in early November, Rollins will

share some of his immense collection — not a majority share of it, more like “the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg” — with his fellow fanatics. His show Cool Evidence: Captured Moments From the Last Century will take over indie art space RADAR615 on Nov. 6 and 7. The event will be free and open to the public.

Why Nashville? Now 65 years old, Rollins doesn’t cut quite the hulking figure he did in his ’90s prime, back when he was stalking stages with Rollins Band and getting thrown through a plate-glass window by Al Pacino in Heat. But he’s in good shape — he still works out twice a day, he says — and those unmistakable Misfits and Black Flag tattoos still dot his arms.

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

“I moved out here because of this,” he says, spinning his laptop around to reveal a photograph of a room packed with framed photos, posters and other materials, all crowded and leaning against the walls of a living room. “Basically, where I was standing taking this photo, that’s my old living room in Los Angeles. And [my manager Heidi May] said, ‘OK, what are you doing with all this stuff?’ I said, ‘I just find rare stuff and frame it. And I ran out of wall space, so it’s now all leaning.’ All three floors of the house looked like that. She said, ‘OK, you’ve now tipped the scale, and now, because no one comes to your house, you need to make this available for people. They should see this. Otherwise, you’re just a weird hoarder. You should do a museum or a pop-up or something.’” Rollins’ initial plan was to open a brick-andmortar location in Nashville that would function as a sort of rock ’n’ roll museum, as well as an office for himself and May. And so in 2022, he bought a building in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood, not far from downtown. Much speculation from the general public followed. “I’m old, so my ideas are old, and my aim, and Heidi’s too, was to come out here, buy a building, and move our offices into it, move our mail order into it — 9 to 5, we show up every day,” he says. As it turns out, in New Nashville, that was going to be an arduous and cost-prohibitive process. So he sold the building last year. Its buyer is now planning an eight-story mixed-use building on the property. Rollins later tried to lease a space. That too was going to be prohibitively pricey. And so the idea became “pop-ups.” “It would have turned into this money-eating thing that would have killed me,” says Rollins. “I wanted a museum. I wanted my piece of the rock. But as a rootless, faster, more agile cheetah, it moves better than an elephant. It just makes more sense. And so it took me a couple of weeks of my ego, my dream getting crushed, to come up with a new dream. And I’m like, ‘Oh, wait a minute! This is better.’ So it’s a smart idea to do pop-ups. I hate the term, but I get it, and people like Raymond Pettibon do them. Shepard Fairey does them.” So he’d warmed to the idea of pop-ups. But where?

RADAR615, and Nashville’s Punk Ethos “My God, just the whole punk ethos, DIY ethos, and my particular generation,” says RADAR615 director and native Nashvillian Lain York when asked about how Rollins’ work in Black Flag and elsewhere has affected him. “I mean, personally speaking, I learned DIY from those examples. … I feel like those [projects], for me, really carried through here with my work with the Untitled group and really in the community.” Untitled, of which York was a member, was an artists’ group formed in Nashville in the ’90s that became known for hanging DIY pop-up art shows in unlikely spaces. York also worked with Zeitgeist Gallery, where he was the gallery

HENRY ROLLINS

LAIN YORK director, for 29 years, forging a strong working relationship with founder Janice Zeitlin. Zeitgeist closed last year, and York now operates art space RADAR615 out of the gallery’s former home on Hagan Street in the rapidly developing Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood. RADAR615 collaborates with MZA Architecture and Interiors to program the space. Chatting with the Scene from across a conference table in RADAR615’s space — in a gravelly, resonant voice that would sound great narrating audiobooks — York notes that RADAR615 “sailed into” its inaugural year with no planned programming, but shows have developed in the space organically and serendipitously. Throughout most of October, the gallery hosted A Lesson I Learned: A Lesson I Taught, a show co-presented with Tennessee State University

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

and the Educators’ Cooperative and coordinated by TSU students. Later in November — as part of IndigenNash, a festival featuring work by Indigenous artists — the space will host an exhibit by Indigenous chocolatier Sophia Ray and sponsored by The Forge exploring the history of chocolate in the Americas. As Rollins explains it, he jokingly asked Betsy Littrell — a Nashville real estate agent and architect with whom he regularly works — to recommend “a gallery where the people who own it know me, they’re fans, and they’ll let me do whatever I want.” “I was kidding,” says Rollins, noting that he didn’t think such a space existed. “You know, ‘I want everything.’” But Littrell immediately recommended York and RADAR615, and when the pair connected in March of this year, they hit

it off immediately. “I’ve found him to be an incredibly warm person,” York says of Rollins. “He’s very organized, which I certainly expected. … I’ve worked with a lot of curators on a lot of different levels, and Henry is every bit the professional and has the vision that any curator that I’ve worked with has.” In August, Rollins collaborated with York on a showcase of work culled from the archives of Memphis artist and musician Alicja Trout. That helped lay the groundwork for this collaboration. York speaks with authority on how punk rock, country music, avant-garde visual art and DIY printmaking all intersect in Nashville’s art scene. He references Lipstick Traces, a 1980s treatise by cultural critic and music journalist Greil Marcus, as well as Paul Grushkin’s The Art of Rock:

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place to display Rollins’ collection, York also references the ongoing work of Jon Sewell, a Nashville native who catalogs the city’s deeply rooted and far-reaching rock ’n’ roll scene with his project the Nashville Underground Music Archive. “It has so much depth, and it is so serendipitous what’s happening here,” says York of Sewell’s efforts. York notes that Sewell was also instrumental in bringing the archives of longtime punk zine and radio show Maximum Rocknroll to MTSU’s Center for Popular Music. “The narrative’s here,” says York. “It’s just picking up that narrative.”

So What’s in the Collection?

Posters From Presley to Punk and Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement by Bryan Ray Turcotte and Christopher T. Miller. He calls these works “amazing documents” showing the connected roots of punk music and American visual art. The Art of Rock, he notes, “opens with Nashville’s Hatch Show Print and closes with ‘the punk years,’ which includes Nashville-based designer/photographer Michael Ray Nott’s designs.” “Where’s the art scene?” York asks rhetorically. “It’s underground. What that has always been — it’s been fiercely independent. It’s been fiercely spiritual. I’ve always looked at music — rock ’n’ roll in particular, for me — to be that. It is about these fundamental underpinnings of human engagement. It is about art. It is about music. It is about dance. … You know, this is in [Nashville’s] DNA.” In outlining why Music City is a fitting

Rollins describes growing up in his native Washington, D.C., where as a child he’d take the bus to the Smithsonian Institution and other museums. “I was at the Smithsonian all the time,” he says. “I just became fascinated with like, ‘That’s a dinosaur bone? That’s John Glenn’s helmet? Like, it’s still around?’” That obsession with historical curation stuck with him, and he describes Cool Evidence as “a 15-year-old’s bedroom walls meets the Smithsonian.” “This is the idea: rare things to be put on the walls for people,” says Rollins. “The fun idea is anthropomorphizing time. Because it is trying to get away. [Time] is trying to hide. It wants to hide the Civil War. It wants to hide the Roman Empire. It wants you in the moment. ‘Forget about the past.’ Well, I don’t want to forget. … I think you lose a lot when physical objects are eradicated.” As a teenager, Rollins would attend rock shows with his best friend Ian MacKaye, who later became known as the punk rock icon behind Minor Threat, Fugazi and Dischord Records, among other projects. (Rollins notes

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

that, 52 years after first meeting, the two are still best friends who speak by phone every Sunday.) In the early days, Rollins says, most bands didn’t hang onto things like show posters. “We said, ‘Well, we’re just going to keep one of everything.’” So Rollins saved and cataloged flyers, posters, tickets, photographs, album art, vinyl records and tapes. Among his collection are early posters given to him by Misfits frontman Glenn Danzig, rough sketches for The Damned’s album art and recordings of his friends’ band practices. When he joined Black Flag in 1981, Rollins began to set aside various artifacts. He’d find “safe people” whose houses he could use to store shoeboxes full of photographs and flyers. In the years since, he’s also built up his collection with pieces he’s won on eBay. “Who knew that the punk rock stuff would be of value later on?” he says. “Because at first, you couldn’t give the records away. I bought my Misfits records for $2.99. Those are like $10,000 records. It’s ridiculous. It’s just eBay. But that’s just my wheelhouse. And so the older I get, the more I become aware of archiving and [storing recordings and paper in] acid-free environments.”

He talks about flying to Tucson, Ariz., to meet up with Kid Congo Powers from The Cramps and The Gun Club. There Rollins picked up much of Powers’ memorabilia, including the Claus Castenskiold painting featured on the cover of The Gun Club’s 1987 album Mother Juno. Rollins also drove to the home of a collector and associate of The Stooges named Michael Tipton in Alabama, where he gathered never-beforeseen live photos. From a different collection, Rollins came into possession of a Polaroid of Iggy Pop performing one of his first shows with The Stooges — in April 1968, hair permed and face painted white — that Rollins scanned and blew up to massive proportions. Rollins also mentions Susie J. (now Susie J. Horgan), a D.C. photographer who shot many of MacKaye’s and Rollins’ early shows, and also photographed the pair when they were her adolescent co-workers at a Häagen-Dazs in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood. One shot — a well-known photo of Rollins at age 20, just months before he joined Black Flag, wearing his work T-shirt in the back of the ice cream shop — has been blown up and framed. Rollins’ various Cramps relics are among his most valued possessions. Just this year, Rollins — along with MacKaye and Larry Hardy of In the Red Records — spearheaded efforts to release Gravest Gravy, a previously unheard collection of the psychobilly trailblazers’ earliest recordings, tracked with Alex Chilton at Memphis’ Ardent Studios in 1977. There are more Cramps releases on the horizon, Rollins promises. But first, Cool Evidence.

"[Time] is trying to hide. It wants to hide the Civil War. It wants to hide the Roman Empire. It wants you in the moment. ‘Forget about the past.’ Well, I don't want to forget. … I think you lose a lot when physical objects are eradicated." —Henry Rollins

In 1994, Rollins published his first book, a collection of Black Flag-era journal entries called Get in the Van. Bait Dog Boy covers Rollins’ life up to about age 20, where Get in the Van picks up. He hopes a mobile version of Cool Evidence can arrive alongside the “shameless” book-promotion process. “The dream is this thing starts moving,” he says. “We can probably do a thing in L.A. with somebody. New York probably. Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, and then eventually — and this is me dreaming out loud, me and Heidi — Paris, Tokyo, London, Berlin.” Rollins compares himself to a retired football player opening a restaurant or a used car lot in his hometown. He doesn’t play anymore, and isn’t interested in putting his body through the rigors of fronting a punk band. This is what he wants to do instead. “And all of these things have stories,” he says of his collection. “That’s my fourth quarter — museum-curator guy, archivist, researcher.”

Will Rollins Take His Show on the Road? “I wake up every day, this is what’s on my mind,” says Rollins of his Cool Evidence collection. “The demo tape, the toe in the water, is the weekend in November.” He says he hopes to gather “field data” at RADAR615 on Nov. 6 and 7, observing attendees to find out what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps rock fans will be more interested in his photographs than his show posters, or vice versa. And that will inform his focus in future exhibitions. The day after he speaks with the Scene, Rollins is set to start recording the audiobook for his recently completed memoir, Bait Dog Boy, which will be released on March 2 via Random House. Rollins is a prolific writer — he says he’s written four books in this very room in the five years he’s been in Nashville — but Bait Dog Boy is his first for a major publishing house, and his first to be sent through an intensive editing process.

A phrase pops up frequently in the Scene’s conversation with Rollins: “brutal generosity.” “It’s free for the people, and I’m paying for everything else,” Rollins says of Cool Evidence. “I said to Lain, ‘Are [the people hanging the art for us] pricey?’ He went, ‘Oh yeah, but they’re really good. … You’re going to pay.’ I’m like, ‘OK, what do you call that?’ He goes, ‘We call it brutal generosity.’” “We cannot ticket this event — it has to be free,” Rollins says. “And what a great way to say, ‘I live in Nashville now,’ to do a free event, and I’m going to pay. … I’m going to eat all of it. Brutal generosity.” Rollins truly cares about being a part of his community. He keeps up with local music, including excellent local art punks Snooper, going so far as to write press releases for them. He also says if he ever decides to charge a cover for an event or exhibit, he’ll ultimately give the proceeds to a good cause — a good cause like, he suggests, nonprofit Nashville punk venue Drkmttr, or a program for queer youth, or the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I want to be a good neighbor, and an asset to the city.” ▼

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895 aLIVE Presents Buddy Miller SUN with Adam Wright with special 11/1 guests Jim Lauderdale, The McCrary Sisters & more! MON 12:30 Bluebird on 3rd featuring 11/2 Brice Long, Marla CannonGoodman & Dylan Altman with Mike Kinnebrew & Michelle Pereira 8:00 The Time Jumpers 7:00

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BRINGING ORIGNAL MUSIC BACK TO BROADWAY

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Point of Grace, Rachael Lampa

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Scott Terry (Red Wanting Blue)

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TKA Takeover w/ Alli Walker, Colin Stough, and more

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Nik Parr & the Selfless Lovers

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Buddy’s Place Premiere Writer’s Round

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Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys

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Sunday, November 1

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Willis Alan Ramsey

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Julie Roberts

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CRITICS’ PICKS: WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

DEATH BECOMES HER

[THAT WAS RUDE]

DEATH BECOMES HER

PAGE 20

THURSDAY / 10.29 SHOPS

Thanks to over-the-top humor, stunning designs and a clever, poppy score, it’s no wonder Death Becomes Her was such a huge hit on Broadway. This outrageously dark musical comedy opened to rave reviews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre back in November 2024, earning a whopping 10 nominations at the 78th Tony Awards. Based on the classic 1992 film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, the campy story — which follows a pair of narcissistic rivals willing to do absolutely anything to hold onto their youth and beauty — easily makes the leap from screen to stage, with smart direction and choreography by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli. You can get in on all the macabre fun as the national tour of Death Becomes Her finally arrives at TPAC on Nov. 3. Audiences can look forward to plenty of stage magic and theatrical gags — with glitzy Hollywood scenic designs from Derek McLane and incredible illusions by Tim Clothier. I’m especially eager to check out Paul Tazewell’s Tony-winning costumes. They’re to die for. AMY STUMPFL NOV. 3-8 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL 505 DEADERICK ST.

SCREAM & HALLOWEEN

TIDES & SEASONS: FANCYPANTS X THE OPTIMIST PAGE 18

NOV. 3-8 THEATER

PHOTO: MATTHEW MURPHY

Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

[CALLING ALL CLOWNS]

CLOWN MART BY STARLAND

We’re living in the midst of a grand return of clowns. On Hulu, a new documentary called Clown Panic reflects on 2016’s bizarre run of “killer clown” sightings. Since 2020, “clowncore” fashion has evolved from a TikTok micro-aesthetic to the stuff of Louis Vuitton runways. Into all this comes Starland Vintage & Unusual’s Clown Mart pop-up — a vintage funhouse for the ages, from the collections of Starland co-owners Lynda Herdelin and Chad

NICEST NIGHT IN NASHVILLE PAGE 22

Swick. Clown Mart is set to run until their trove of clownish homeware, decor, art and clothes runs out — and it’s hard to emphasize enough just how many clowns there are. Whether you prefer a classic circus clown or chic Pierrot, pack an improbable number of friends into your car and head on down. ANNIE PARNELL OPEN SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY UNTIL ALL INVENTORY IS SOLD AT STARLAND VINTAGE & UNUSUAL 2110 EIGHTH AVE. S.

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

FOOD

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TIDES & SEASONS: FANCYPANTS X THE OPTIMIST

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INDEPENDENT LENS: ZALAVA

The folks over at Vanderbilt’s Independent Lens series will be giving moviegoers a preHalloween ghost story before they slap on Spirit Halloween gear and do God knows what on All Hallows’ Eve. Coming straight outta Iran, the 2021 thriller Zalava takes you back to the pre-Iranian Revolution days, as a skeptical military sergeant (the Lee Van Cleef-looking Navid Pourfaraj) deals with a Kurdish village full of people who believe a demon is among them. More moody than scary, this sometimes comical, sometimes exasperating yarn from co-writer/director Arsalan Amiri uses supernatural horror tropes (it looks like most of the budget went toward smoke machines for the really tense scenes) to address how much chaos and disorder can bubble up when fear and paranoia take over. Even in a horror-drama from the Middle East, demons ain’t got shit on heavily armed people who are steadfast in their beliefs. Keep that mind when you go to the polls on Election Day. CRAIG D. LINDSEY 7:30 P.M. AT SARRATT CINEMA 2301 VANDERBILT PLACE

THUR 6PM WHITE ANIMALS FREE

9pm HEAVY MUSIC 2.1 THU 10.29 FRI 6PM WHITE ANIMALS FREE 2.2 FRI 5pm ATABOY 9pm SANTA’S ICE COLD STRING BAND $10 10.30 SHUR AT PMW KEVIN FREEFREE T 64PM HITEW AOLF NIMALS 2.3 2.1 9PM CROCTOPUSS, PUMP ACTION SAT 11am &TERRY’S SONGWRITER POPLAR CREEKFREEFESTIVAL ANIMALS FRI 6PM WHITE 10.31 2.2 SUN 4PM JAY PATTEN BAND FREE 2.4 TERRY’S SONGWRITER FESTIVAL SUN SAT 11am WOLF FREE 4PM KEVIN 2.3 SPRINGWATER SIT-IN JAM 11.1 95PM C ROCTOPUSS , P UMP A CTION WED 4pm PM W RITERS @ THE W ATER OPEN MIC 8pm FEST 2.7 & TERRY POPLAR CREEK

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MUSIC

FRIDAY / 10.30 [WITCHY]

COVEN

Ken Russell’s The Devils returned to theaters this month in a restored 4K cut. The scandal the 1971 film created still echoes in today’s culture wars, and the spectacle of sexually possessed nuns, holy hysteria and church corruption is a reminder that Catholiccoded kink is trending. Consider Coven, a “haunt meets nocturnal femme concert” happening on what Michiganders know as Devil’s Night. Coven weaves genre-bending performance art into a live music showcase from creative director Wyatt Scott, a veteran of local haunted houses and Nashville Shakes. It’s also a benefit, with proceeds supporting

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

TOTAL WIFE the American Red Cross, Healthy and Free Tennessee, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an order of 21st-century queer “nuns” who’ll be attending in full drag. Host Karii Jaye presides over a lineup including Flight Attendant, Anastasia Elliot, Crystal Rose, Kitty Coen, Weeping and Arily Michele. Visit raganacreative.com/go-to-a-show for information and tickets. JOE NOLAN 8:30 P.M. AT THE MIL AT CANNERY HALL 1 CANNERY ROW [ARTFUL NOISE]

TOTAL WIFE

Experimental pop duo Total Wife is one of the more sonically adventurous groups currently making records in Nashville. Composer-guitarist Luna Kupper and lyricistvocalist Ash Richter explore the intersection of melody and noise with an artfulness that is rare. “Melody is so important to us because it’s the way to reach people with the more experimental stuff,” Kupper tells the Scene. Earlier this month, Total Wife released come. back.down.x.recovery, a remix EP featuring reimaginings by Winter, Full Body 2, They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Scott Cortez of music from their 2025 breakout album, Come Back Down. Come Back Down is the duo’s third full-length record, following 2022’s A Blip and 2023’s In/Out. Kupper and Richter will bring their wall-of-noise sound to Drkmttr Collective Friday night, playing the middle set of a bill that will open with Nashville post-hardcore outfit Sour Tooth and conclude with Kansas shoegaze trio Flooding. They will be accompanied by guitarist Ryan Bigelow, bassist Will Shepherd and drummer Sean Booz. According to Richter, the group’s set will

include some unreleased material. “It’s gonna be mostly new songs, and then a couple of the songs from Come Back Down.” DARYL SANDERS 8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR 1111 DICKERSON PIKE

MUSIC

[A GHOST STORY]

MUSIC

WHAT IS WHAT

FILM

Mathew Meeker, the newish chef at Fancypants, is teaming up with chef Mike Parhm from The Optimist for a Tides & Seasons dinner. The special five-course dinner will highlight autumn’s seafood and produce. (Finally, it is autumn!) Proceeds from the dinner will benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, which helps people in the Nashville area who are experiencing food insecurity. Each chef will bring his distinct perspective to the one-night menu. Reservations are available online through OpenTable Experiences; tickets are $95 per person, with optional beverage pairings at $50 each. MARGARET LITTMAN 6 P.M. AT THE OPTIMIST 1400 ADAMS ST.

[ONE NORMAL NIGHT]

OFF BROADWAY: THE ADDAMS FAMILY IN CONCERT

If you still haven’t experienced an Off Broadway at the Hutton show, you’re seriously missing out on one of the city’s hottest tickets. Introduced last fall, this polished cabaret series has quickly become a fan favorite, consistently serving up a stellar lineup of Broadway (and local) talent. Most shows are built around a specific theme — from Witch, Please (a colorful celebration of Wicked and all things Oz) to That’s So High School (featuring songs from shows like Mean Girls, Heathers, The Prom and Dear Evan Hansen). But this weekend’s edition is a bit different, welcoming Halloween with a spirited concert presentation of The Addams Family musical and an immersive experience that offers everything from specialty cocktails and a haunted house pop-up to a curated gallery of original Charles Addams cartoons. The cast features members of the Broadway company and the first national tour of The Addams Family, including Sara Gettelfinger, Brian Charles Rooney, Rachel Potter, Brian Justin Crum, Andrew Metzger, Megan Murphy Chambers, Geoff Davin, Carrie Brewer and Jeremy Parrish. And word has it that The Addams Family’s Tony-nominated composer Andrew Lippa will even be making a special guest appearance. AMY STUMPFL OCT. 30-31 AT ANALOG AT HUTTON HOTEL 1808 WEST END AVE.

IMMERSIVE ART. DJ + DANCING. DRINKS INCLUDED. Plus late-night bites by Chef Brian Riggenbach. Party for Nashville’s creative community.

AN IMMERSIVE CELEBRATION OF HUMAN CREATIVITY. JOIN THE PARTY.

GET TICKETS + LEARN MORE

Saturday, November 14 | 9-11 PM | Studio 615 | bignightforthearts.org

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

w/ dug

havok

w/ hellripper, slackjaw & xoth

11/12

11/11 mushroomhead/fear factory w/ nine treasures & sicksense

dan deacon

w/ terror pigeon

4/29

devon gilfillian

just announced

the sheepdogs

w/ alex lambert

Upcoming shows OCT 29 Donny BENÉT w/ OTNES OCT 30 THE BENDS w/ wanderbout Sold out! oct 31 Early show! rock and roll playhouse: halloween spectacular for kids oct 31 blade rave nov 1 southern underground pro wrestling: fear and trembling nov 2 maddie zahm w/ semler nov 3 the olllam w/ rachael davis nov 5 deer tick w/ dug nov 6 sawyer hill w/ never ending fall nov 7 havok w/ hellripper, slackjaw, & xoth nov 8 dan deacon w/ terror pigeon nov 11 mushroomhead / fear factory w/ nine treasures & sicksense

nov 12 devon gilfillian w/ alex lambert nov 14 hiss golden messenger w/ sam amidon nov 15 red leather w/ the romance nov 16 bryan andrews w/ lou ridley nov 17 protomartyr w/ j.r.c.g

nov 18 fruit bats w/ sarah klang nov 19 king buffalo w/ l.a. witch nov 20 the last waltz tribute nov 21 alyssa grace Sold out! nov 22 ethan regan w/ lily kershaw low tickets! nov 27 guilty pleasures 11th annual post thanksgiving bash nov 28 guilty pleasures 11th annual post thanksgiving bash dec 2 katie pruitt w/ anthony da costa & baerd dec 4 the wldlfe w/ landon conrath low tickets! dec 5 the emo night tour dec 9 ben chapman's peach jam dec 10 eddie 9v dec 11 sicard hollow & dizgo dec 12 wnxp presents: colour revolt low tickets! dec 13 john r. miller dec 19 johny jackson's soul satisfaction: christmas funktacular!!

CHARLIE RIDGELY

OCT. 30-31 AT FULL MOON CINEPLEX 3445 LEBANON PIKE, HERMITAGE

SATURDAY / 10.31 COMMUNITY

11/1

11/5 reed turchi

w/ aj fullerton & tim carman

molch

w/ the regulars & mycota

Upcoming shows oct 29 COLIN MILLER + STYROFOAM WINOS [7pm] oct 29 carver jones w/ stone [9pm] oct 30 john francis o'mara w/ mando saenz & suzie brown [9pm]

nov 1 reed turchi w/ aj fullerton & tim carman [7pm] nov 2 the angles w/ the citrus brothers [7pm] nov 2 kings of leon tribute night w/ nicholas collins & friends [9pm] Sold out!

nov 4 free show! bmi plug & play ft. Action Figurez, Kruse

nov 5 molch w/ the regulars & mycota [9pm] nov 6 the morning hollow [7pm] nov 6 certainly so w/ sarah henderson [9pm] nov 7 jt. moore's 2nd annual moore-aoke [7pm] nov 8 minka w/ summer school & bellaonbass [9pm] nov 9 caitlyn smith [7pm] nov 9 goose night zero: the band memo [9pm] nov 10 free show! sj mcdonald [6pm] nov 10 goose after party! w/ squeaky feet [11:30pm] nov 11 goose after party! w/ squeaky feet [11:30pm]

Brothers, Lucas Ball, & Penny Lame [5:30pm] Don't miss new faces Night every tuesday at 7pm!

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

SCREAM & HALLOWEEN

Horror comes home to Hermitage this Halloween weekend. Full Moon Cineplex has had the festivities in full swing all season with its haunted house and movie lineup, but Friday and Saturday will bring two of the most iconic slashers in history to the theater for a blast of a weekend double feature. Friday will see Wes Craven’s iconic meta-slasher Scream grace the screen for its 30th anniversary. One day later, Michael Myers and that haunting, timeless score from director John Carpenter will be hitting Full Moon as Halloween screens on the holiday that gave it its title. It’s a chilling back-to-back worthy of the spookiest weekend of the year.

Stop by Lowbar located underneath the basement east for drinks, pool, darts, karaoke and more! Open 5pm-late

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 | thebasementnashville.com thebasementnash thebasementnash thebasementnash

[HALLOWEEN DREAM TEAM]

[PIKMIN SAFARI]

NASHVILLE PIKMIN GATHERING

Pikmin — tiny, leafy Nintendo mascots — are arriving in Nashville. The Nashville Pikmin Gathering, presented in partnership with the Broadway Entertainment Association, will take place this weekend, bringing fans of the Pikmin Bloom mobile app together for a trek downtown. Pikmin Bloom is a free-to-play fitness-based app, similar to Pokémon Go, where users travel to real locations to take on challenges, collect decorative Pikmin and plant in-app flowers. The cute, unique Pikmin designs can serve as the perfect motivator to get outside for a walk — and in Nashville’s case this month, to bring a sense of community with fellow users. Starting at a pop-up tent at the Walk of Fame Park, users will travel through seven “Special Spots” to collect in-game rewards related to the downtown area. Whether an attendee has freshly downloaded the app or has been an avid user for years, the Nashville Pikmin Gathering will bring in-app surprises alongside real-life experiences. JESSE JONES OCT. 31-NOV. 1 AT WALK OF FAME PARK 121 FOURTH AVE. S.

MUSIC

deer tick

11/8

[LONESOME TEARS]

BECK

We are so lucky Beck keeps getting his heart broken. Every time it happens, he churns out a masterpiece album. Beck’s latest, Ride Lonesome, caps his “heartbreak trilogy,” which started with 2002’s Sea Change — famously written in a single week — and its spiritual successor Morning Phase from 2014. His current tour is the best show I’ve seen all year. But you better like Ride Lonesome if you plan on attending, because he’s made it clear this is not for fans who just want to hear his hits. The true Beck-heads will be richly rewarded with a night in the presence of an artistic genius. (Yeah, I said it.) He has meticulously designed every detail, including different set pieces and lighting for each song, highlighting his range as a songwriter and a downright stylish dude. He even includes a few songs he hasn’t played live in 20 years and some reworked versions of his hits. After all, he doesn’t want to break our hearts. TOBY ROSE 8 P.M. AT THE TRUTH 440 CHESTNUT ST.

THEATER

11/7

FILM

11/5 8/25

ART COURTESY OF CAMMIE YORK

917 Woodland Street Nashville, TN 37206 | thebasementnashville.com basementeast thebasementeast thebasementeast

[KILLER JOKES]

CHERRY BOMB: FINAL GIRL: THE IMPROVISED HORROR MUSICAL

Why spend your Halloween stuck on the couch, eating leftover candy and watching cheesy horror flicks, when you can hang with musical improv favorite Cherry Bomb? That crafty crew is back at the City Winery this Saturday, and ready to celebrate the spooky season with Final Girl: The Improvised Horror Musical. Inspired by a single audience suggestion, Cherry Bomb promises to serve up a frighteningly funny show honoring all those classic horror movie tropes — from “creepy cabins and cursed dolls to masked killers, suspicious basements and, of course, the iconic Final Girl.” As with the group’s long-running hit show East Nashville Facebook Page: The Musical, audiences can look forward to crazy characters, endless plot twists and the occasional power ballad, with killer musical accompaniment provided by the always fabulous Alex Dolezal. The cast features plenty of familiar faces, including Caroline

MUSIC

SUNDAY / 11.1 [GUITAR TOWNS]

BRUCE COCKBURN

Bruce Cockburn’s new full-length The Blood of Others takes the veteran singer, songwriter and guitarist back to his days as a post-blues folk musician with a formidable guitar style. Cockburn grew up in suburban Ottawa, Canada, and released his first album in 1970. His virtuoso acoustic guitar on 1971’s High Winds, White Sky and 1972’s Sunwheel Dance might put you in mind of the work of English counterparts like Nic Jones and Richard Thompson. Cockburn broke through in the United States with 1979’s excellent Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws, which yielded a hit, “Wondering Where the Lions Are.” Like, say, Joan Armatrading during the same era, Cockburn began playing New Wave-influenced rock in the ’80s. The political edge of his 1984 song “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” carried it into Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, and Cockburn turned out to be a folkie who could rock. I also recommend his 1991 T Bone Burnett-produced album Nothing but a Burning Light, which gives Cockburn props as an Americana pioneer. Produced by longtime associate Colin Linden in Nashville, The Blood of Others shows off Cockburn’s feel for the blues. He covers Lonnie Johnson, Arthur Crudup and W.C. Handy with style — and a lot of great guitar playing. Livingston Taylor opens. EDD HURT 7:30 P.M. AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER 224 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.

FILM

MONDAY / 11.2 [HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY]

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS & KEN RUSSELL X4: LISZTOMANIA

Ken Russell was truly in zero-fucks mode when he followed up his 1975 smash adaptation of

The Who’s rock opera Tommy the same year with Lisztomania, which is basically Tommy’s bizarro-world counterpart. Russell reunites with Who frontman/Tommy star Roger Daltrey, who plays 19th-century composer (as Romantic-era rock star) Franz Liszt in this anarchic/anachronistic musical biopic. Russell uses the pianist’s years as a classical superstar to spin a balls-to-the-wall, horny-as-hell satire about what happens when the rock ’n’ roll life turns a celebrated artist into a desperate hack. Keep in mind, this comes from the same man who helmed the recently revitalized The Devils, so you know you’re gonna get some wild stuff. We’re talking naked ladies, a giant phallus, child Nazis (in Superman outfits!), a vampiric Richard Wagner, Ringo Starr as the freakin’ Pope! Like most films in Russell’s filmography, Lisztomania is a highand-lowbrow provocation/spectacle that’ll have you either digging the outrageousness or wondering what kind of shit he was on back then. Either way, it’ll be shown in glorious 35 mm! CRAIG D. LINDSEY 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER

NOVEMBER 1

BRUCE COCKBURN

WITH SPECIAL GUEST LIVINGSTON TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 13

THE JAYHAWKS

SANCTUARY PARK TOUR: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE JAYHAWKS NOVEMBER 14

SHAUN CASSIDY

UNWRAPPED: SONGS & STORIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS

NOVEMBER 21

TUESDAY / 11.3 FILM

Conner, Gabe Cyrus, Seth Nathan Green, Amelia Rossettie and Cammie York, plus Emma Supica and Briley Barnett. It’s sure to be a bloody good time for all. AMY STUMPFL 7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY 609 LAFAYETTE ST.

AJ GHENT

AJ GHENT & HIS SINGING GUITAR

[BEWARE THE DOG KILLER]

STAFF PICKS: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE

Unceremoniously dumped by A24, misunderstood by critics, and ignored by general audiences upon its initial release, David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake is a true modern cult classic. DRM’s breakthrough, the inventive horror hit It Follows, is a flashy, stylistic exercise with a killer premise that shoots you out of a cannon into the opening scene and never stops moving (literally). Under the Silver Lake, meanwhile, is a slow-burn mystery with a downright inscrutable plot. I understand why executives struggled to market it, but I wish they had tried a little harder. Watching Andrew Garfield’s hapless charisma vacuum/amateur detective/ future manosphere podcaster Sam shuffle through a Byzantine conspiracy is exactly what it feels like to be online in 2026. Like Chinatown

DECEMBER 6

DAN TYMINSKI BAND

DECEMBER 11

ERIC BENÉT YOU DO TOUR

APRIL 17

BRIAN CULBERTSON THE MIDNIGHT TAPES TOUR

TICKETS ON SALE NOW Museum members receive exclusive pre-sale opportunities for CMA Theater concerts. Learn more at CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership.

LISZTOMANIA

BOOKED BY @NATIONALSHOWS2 • NATIONALSHOWS2.COM

The CMA Theater is a property of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

MKTG_Scene_1:2Page_PrintAd_Rolling_10.29.26.indd 1

224 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S • NASHVILLE, TN CMATHEATER.COM • @CMATHEATER

10/20/26 12:07 PM

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | BAR RESTAURANT | PRIVATE EVENTS

10.31

11.01

CHERRY BOMB

11.02

GUNHILD CARLING

RESENTS FINAL GIRL: THE IMPROVISED HORROR MUSICAL

FUNKY DINEVA LIVE FEATURING

QUENTIN LATHAM

GLORILLA

CRACKING THE SERIAL KILLER CODE A CHILLING EVENING WITH

JOSHUA RADIN WITH RAYE ZARAGOZA

THE MUSIC OF HEY ARNOLD! LIVE! FEAT. JIM LANGE & THE PS 118 ALLSTARS

DR. KATHERINE RAMSLAND

W/ CRAIG BARTLETT (TWO SHOWS)

11.4 11.7 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.11

JON KONDELIK’S ADULT BINGO SPELLBINDER: MAGIC & HIP HOP BRUNCH ULTIMATE REWIND THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS KING’S X MC LYTE MARCUS VELTRI & ROB LANDES 11.12 REQUESTS ON THE ROAD GRAMMY AWARD 11.13 AVERY*SUNSHINEWINNER (TWO SHOWS) 11.15 TYRONE WELLS WITH TONY LUCCA 11.16 ABBY LEE MILLER SPILLS THE TEA AMI TAF RA & KAMASI WASHINGTON 11.17 PRESENTING THE PROPHET & THE MADMAN (TWO SHOWS) 11.18 BROTHER ALI 11.19 MICHELLE COLLINS 11.20 ERIC ROBERSON (TWO SHOWS) 11.21 BOY BAND BRUNCH

11.21 J.HOWELL 11.22 NASHVILLE BEATLES BRUNCH 11.22 PATTI AUSTIN (TWO SHOWS) 11.23 AUBREY O’DAY (OF DANITY KANE) 11.24 HIP HOP AND R&B BINGO WITH TOM SWOOPE 11.25 11.27 THE WALLS GROUP 11.28 MUSIQ SOULCHILD 11.29 (SIX SHOWS) 12.1

11.2

3RD ANNUAL GIVING GUITARS BENEFIT CONCERT GRAVEL ROAD SHOWCASE FEAT. DARCI CLAIRE, 11.7 SAWYER LEE, SOFIA LEE DAVIS, RYAN JACOBS, BUTTER & GRIT, MOSLEY & ROGER JAEGER 11.14 FENG E 11.15 ADA - ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

dec 2

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NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

WEDNESDAY / 11.4 [QUEEN OF MEMPHIS]

GLORILLA

After 40-plus years of producing influential national stars, and despite the internet flattening much of the uniqueness derived from regional pockets of pop culture, Memphis’ rap scene has maintained a distinct sense of localism. New headliners like GloRilla may not be full-on horrorcore in the vein of ’90s heavy hitters like Three 6 Mafia, but they still have that energetic, Southern-fried Bluff City sound on the mic. After breaking through with the Grammy-nominated viral hit “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” in 2022, GloRilla has pumped out a steady stream of athletic lyrical exercises like “Tomorrow,” “Yeah Glo!” and “TGIF.” Head out to our newest midsize music venue on Nov. 4 to further cement the Nashville-Memphis hip-hop alliance. LOGAN BUTTS 8 P.M. AT THE TRUTH 440 CHESTNUT ST. [TIME BETWEEN]

DWIGHT YOAKAM

If country music is as much about image as it is music, the career of Dwight Yoakam could be a study in the contrast between music and image. Yoakam always looks like a country star, and he’s somewhat mysterious — and unreadable — underneath his hat. On the other hand, Yoakam, who turned 70 on Oct. 23, is one of the avatars of modern country, which means his music is the real thing. He helped open up country in the 1980s, when it needed the help. Because he’s part of the same generation of musicians who created New Wave-influenced country and country-

influenced New Wave, Yoakam bridged the gap between the rock of The Blasters and the California country of Buck Owens. Along with producer and guitar master Pete Anderson, Yoakam released a series of albums that stand tall as some of country’s finest works. Among these are 1993’s This Time and 2003’s Population Me, which helped define progressive country. Yoakam sounds great on 2024’s Brighter Days, his first album of original material in nine years. Brighter Days is Yoakam at his most straightforward, and his cover of The Byrds’ “Time Between” connects him with a tradition worth preserving. Sunny Black will provide support for Yoakam’s two-night run at the Ryman, which concludes on Nov. 5. EDD HURT NOV. 4-5 AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

MUSIC

11.06

MUSIC

11.05

MUSIC

11.03

distilled through a Reddit thread, Under the Silver Lake takes you further and further down the L.A. rabbit hole. Eventually, the only person left to examine is yourself. LOGAN BUTTS 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

[NICETIES]

NICEST NIGHT IN NASHVILLE

Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE) is a nonprofit in South Nashville that helps refugees and immigrants with social services, workforce development, after-school and summer camp, English classes and more. They’ve been around since 2005, and given what’s happening in the U.S. regarding immigration, their services are needed now more than ever. Their annual benefit gala, dubbed the Nicest Night in Nashville, is a jam-packed musical event. This year, the gala will be held at 3rd and Lindsley and will feature West African drums, mariachi music, jazz and country music, including Tom Douglas (“House That Built Me”), Marcus Hummon (“Cowboy Take Me Away”) and Phil Madeira (of Emmylou Harris’ backing band). All proceeds support NICE’s work, which has been impacted by federal and state funding cuts for nonprofit work. Tickets are $109.26 (including fees) and can be purchased online. MARGARET LITTMAN

6:30-9:30 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY 818 THIRD AVE. S.

FOOD & DRINK

THE BROTHERS NICOLETTO Several major developments are making 2026 a growth year for the family-run Nicoletto’s Pasta Co.

NICOLETTO’S PASTA CO. has been a fixture in Nashville since 2014, when brothers Danny and Ryan Nicoletto started selling their handmade pasta at five farmers markets around town. They were a tiny startup, learning to handmake pasta as a tribute to their late father. Even as they expanded to open restaurants, they kept it small. (Ryan calls their Donelson shop “a glorified takeout window.”) They’ve grown slowly but deliberately, and now there are significant expansions taking place, making 2026 a banner year for the pasta and restaurant company. “It’s been a wild year of growth that is all hitting this month,” Danny says. Before the end of the year, Nicoletto’s will open a 3,000-square-foot restaurant Mt. Juliet, their first in Wilson County and their largest to date. In addition to offering more of their signature sandwiches, salads and pastas — and seating for up to 60 people, a novelty for their brand — the Mt. Juliet space will include an Italian market stocked with specialty Italian pantry items, oils and spices, and a full coffee and espresso bar, plus local beer and wine service. It will be their first restaurant (including the now-shuttered Hillsboro Village location) with a walk-in cooler, reducing the number of trips back and forth to their production facility. The Mt. Juliet expansion comes as the Nicoletto’s food truck rolled into Lost & Found, making it one of five food trucks serving the East Side hang. Lost & Found is just a quarter-mile from the flagship East Nashville Nicoletto’s location, so the truck will have a different “secret” menu, Ryan says, with two to three pastas not available elsewhere and soup once the weather turns colder. The truck will be on site for at least six months. And the brand’s dried pasta, which has been available in about 400 specialty markets for years, is getting a big-name expansion too. This month, bronze-cut campanelle, radiatori and creste di gallo, along with jarred marinara sauce, arrived on the shelves of about 70 Kroger locations in Middle Tennessee. “It’s so exciting,” Danny says, to be able to go to the Inglewood and East Nashville Krogers and see Nicoletto’s on the shelves. The effort took more than 18 months of negotiating and years before that of building relationships and the right product. Last month they hired a culinary director from Italy. With that hire, Ryan says, they’ll be able to introduce some new dishes and bring in some new ideas and recipe tweaks. “We’re having more meetings than ever with our team,” says Danny. “It’s exciting to see people get excited about what we do.” Over the years, the brothers have worked together in many capacities, from playing in a band to selling pasta and opening restaurants.

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

DANNY (LEFT) AND RYAN NICOLETTO

LOST & FOUND IS JUST A QUARTER-MILE FROM THE FLAGSHIP EAST NASHVILLE NICOLETTO’S LOCATION, SO THE TRUCK WILL HAVE A DIFFERENT “SECRET” MENU, WITH TWO TO THREE PASTAS NOT AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE AND SOUP ONCE THE WEATHER TURNS COLDER. NICOLETTO’S PASTA AND SAUCES

They have a division of labor, each with their own specialties. But like most entrepreneurs, sometimes they have to do it all, from making pasta to changing a tire on the delivery van. They source vintage pasta-making equipment and repair it themselves. The opening of the Mt. Juliet location will create 15 to 20 full- and part-time jobs in the area, and while staffing is always a challenge for small

businesses, the brothers rely on their music industry experience to take a different approach. “It comes from our background touring and playing music,” Danny says. “We love working alongside people. We’re in it with them. We work the line with them. We work making pasta with them. We’re not the type of owners or bosses who just kind of sit on the sidelines, so we’re learning together.” After their joint

interview with the Scene on a recent afternoon, the brothers had plans to work at a Friends of Shelby Park event, making Italian beef sandwiches from the trailer alongside their staff. These new moves aren’t their first expansion efforts. They opened a restaurant in Hillsboro Village in a former home right before the COVID-19 pandemic; that location closed in 2023. That same year, they opened a tiny space in Donelson, convenient to their production facility on Elm Hill Pike, and it showed them that western suburbs like Mt. Juliet would be a good fit. Their Donelson landlord, Mark Lineberry, developed the Mt. Juliet property in mind. “This is drawing on 10 years of operating and hospitality experience to make the best Nicoletto’s we possibly can,” Ryan says. The Mt. Juliet location is designed specifically for them, letting them build around their flow and avoid some of the challenges of working in the small spaces they’ve had in East Nashville and Donelson. They’ll be able to display pastas on shelves. “Instead of looking at this opportunity and asking, ‘What can we do with the space?’ it was an opportunity for us to say, ‘What do we need and what do we need to be able to do for customers, and to create a place that actually has a welcoming nature?’” Ryan says. “Hopefully, a community follows suit where it’s not crammed into a shoebox. It’s kind of a 10-year dream that’s finally coming to fruition, where we’re able to say, ‘Yes, we can,’ instead of, ‘Where are we going to put a coffee machine?’” While many things will change, the Nicolettos are committed to consistency and to the recipes Nashvillians love, such as the lemon basil salad dressing, which has never been tweaked, and the Italian beef sandwiches, which have been through several iterations. (The latter started as a late-night-only menu item.) Danny’s daughter is a fan of ziti with pink sauce, while Ryan’s kids love the buffalo chicken mac — the spicier, the better. Switching to Bear Creek Farm beef earlier this year has made Ryan’s go-to dish spaghetti and meatballs. Danny leans toward an Italian beef sandwich or a meatball sub. When thinking about the long-term future, the brothers like the idea of their now-young kids taking over the business one day, but it will be a no-pressure situation. The freedom their mom gave them to pursue music careers shaped how they developed the business, and that slow-andsteady approach is part of their secret sauce. ▼

nicolettos.com

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

D AN

NEW ME

For a

SHOP THE SCENE nashvillesceneshop.com

The

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The

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10/29 NIC ROULETTE’S 10/29 PUP ROCKABILLY ROUNDUP 10/30 A VERY SPECIAL 10/30 ALL GET OUT HALLOWEEN TRIBUTE TO PANIC! AT THE DISCO 10/31 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT BAND’S NIGHT OF THE 10/31 SYSTEM OF A LIVING DEAD CLOWN: HALLOWEEN SYSTEM OF A DOWN 11/2 UNPUBLISHED TRIBUTE 11/3 STEEL GUITAR SOCIAL 11/2 HONEY REVENGE & CLUB DEAD POET SOCIETY 11/4 THE FUNKY JOULES 11/3 HONKY TONK TUESDAY 11/5 ALIS VIBE NIGHT 11/7 A PEARL JAM 11/6 DANGEROUS TOYS CELEBRATION: 11/7 BERTHA: GRATEFUL AVOCADO 20 DRAG 11/9 METAL MONDAY WITH 11/8 TOTALLY RAD OPHIUCHUS COLLECTORS MARKET 11/10 GREASY CHICKEN 11/10 HONKY TONK REVIEW TUESDAY NIGHT 11/11 BREAKING SOUND 11/12 PAIN OF TRUTH & 11/12 THE STEEPWATER BAND MADBALL The 11/14 GEORGE PORTER JR.: Lounge NOLA TO NASHVILLE 10/29 FREEDY JOHNSTON 11/15 MISS MAY I & BORN AT 7 PM OF OSIRIS THE PRICKLY PAIR AT 9 PM 11/17 HONKY TONK 10/30 91.1 ROCK WRVU TUESDAY NIGHT AT 7 PM 11/19 AKEEM ALI 11/21 CLAUDIO SIMONETTI’S 10/31 UH! UH! PUPPET SHOW AT 3 PM GOBLIN: DARIO ASHLEIGH CALDWELL AT ARGENTO’S TENEBRE 11/22 NASHVILLE INDUSTRY 4:30 PM MARY RODGERS FEST WITH HIPPIES & MENAGIRE AT 6 PM COWBOYS 11/3 JON BYRD AT 6 PM 11/24 HONKY TONK 11/4 DISCO SUCKS AT 7 PM TUESDAY NIGHT

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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CULTURE: IN THE CLUB

HEAVENLY AND HELLACIOUS Nashville Steel Guitar Social Club celebrates three years of jamming BY HANNAH HERNER PLAYERS AT THE STEEL GUITAR SOCIAL CLUB

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

Nashville Steel Guitar Social Club The next NSGSC meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Eastside Bowl nsgsc.org

In the Club is a recurring series in which the Scene explores local social clubs.

PLAYING A SPECIALIZED instrument like the steel guitar typically affords a musician the distinction of being the only steel guitarist in the room. But that’s not often the case in the steel guitar hotbed of Nashville, particularly at quarterly meetings of the Nashville Steel Guitar Social Club. The steel guitar is both rare and on the rise, as evidenced by the more than 30 players who showed up for August’s meeting, including one who had just that week moved to Nashville to study the instrument. Steel Guitar Social Club started in co-founder Neil Jones’ carport with five members. The group will celebrate its third anniversary on Nov. 3 from 4 until 7:30 p.m. at Eastside Bowl. “The steel guitar is back,” says club co-founder Mike Drassler. “It never went anywhere, but it’s also back.” After all the players find a safe outlet to plug into, the jam begins. The system borrows from bluegrass culture: A house band will play an extended song, and each player in the circle gets a chance to strut their stuff. To kick off and wrap up the event, they’re invited to play in unison. The combined sound is “heavenly,” Drassler says. “And hellacious at the same time,” Jones adds. At the August jam, people came from states away, including Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and

North Carolina. Musicians who have been playing for a couple months sit next to others who have played for decades, and play professionally with touring artists, like Jones and Drassler do. A common saying in the steel guitar world is that it takes two years of practice to suck at playing. It requires a lot of dexterity — players use both hands, both feet and both knees to create the sounds. Newcomers may come in nervous, but Drassler and Jones hope they quickly realize it’s all for fun. To further enforce the point, a wheel covered with potential handicaps makes its way around the circle, and players are challenged to play while wearing a blindfold or a horse mask,

NEIL JONES (LEFT) AND MIKE DRASSLER, CO-FOUNDERS

among other challenges. “In a town that’s super competitive like Nashville, where everyone’s trying to get their good gig and just be as good as they can — at our jam, it’s the opposite vibe,” Drassler says. “Everyone’s doing the silly stuff they usually wouldn’t do onstage.” “Everybody just lifts each other up,” Jones adds. “Nobody’s judging.” When both of the founders started out 10 years ago at around age 25, they were among the youngest in their field. In the club, they’re actually in the older crowd — most participants in the social club jams are under 30.

Nick Reed, who founded peer organization the Nashville Tennessee Steel Guitar Association in 2000, has 40 years under his belt now, having started at 31. During the social club jam, the selftaught player says he tries to watch and learn from those who have had more lessons than him, especially those with access to online lessons. “A lot of these guys up here can put me to shame, but I still have a good time when I come out here,” Reed says. “It’s an exciting instrument, and even if you don’t play well, they’re always accepting of people when their skill level’s not as high. It’s just a lot of fun.” The heyday for the steel guitar was country music released from the late ’50s to the early ’70s, Jones explains, and it saw another resurgence in the ’90s. Today it’s expanding to other genres, and is featured on hits by Ella Langley, Zach Top and even Sabrina Carpenter. The steel guitar is versatile, a quality that’s earned it the nickname of the “hillbilly synthesizer.” “People are pushing the instrument and seeing what else they can do with it, which is super cool to see,” Jones says. “We love country, we love jazz, but there’s so many things the instrument can do.” “To me, it’s like the ultimate instrument,” Drassler continues. “It just is so expressive, and you can do so many things that no other instrument can do. I think that’s why I’m so drawn to it. It can do what a banjo does. It can do what an electric guitar does. It can do what a fiddle does. It can do what a keyboard does. To me, it is the super guitar.” If you come to the jam, you’re in the club, but if you purchase a sticker or a hat, it’s even more official. The club has also earned the approval (and sponsorship) of steel guitar makers Emmons Custom Shop and Sho-Bud, local instrument cover makers Bo Jacket, and steel guitar instructor (and Luke Bryan’s steel guitarist) Travis Toy. Steel Guitar Social Club’s founders say they do it because they’re steel guitar nerds. That’s a requirement, they argue. “It’s such a hard instrument.,” Jones says. “To learn it, you have to be crazy about it.” ▼

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ART

SUPERNATURAL SURREALISM Ruth Chase summons the spirit of the season with Unbreakable Light at Galerie Tangerine BY JOE NOLAN emblematic of Unbreakable Light’s supernatural surrealism, which is as stylized as it is strange. Neoplatonists conceived of the augoeides, or “body of light,” which is still thought to be the corpus of consciousness in the most woo-woo circles today. It’s the part of us that’s said to go astral-traveling while our physical bodies are at rest. It’s also the part of us that separates from our earthly flesh when we die. Chase represents light-bodies with simplified anthropomorphic forms that haunt her paintings like the spirits of long-lost ancestors, or even disembodied visitors from another realm. These works are uncanny and intense any time of year, but Unbreakable Light

WE’RE USED TO painters drawing attention to light in their works. The brightness and shadows of Edward Hopper’s scenes spotlit the urban isolation of midcentury America, and J.M.W. Turner pictured light as a manifestation of the divine above the windswept waves of his seascapes. In her exhibition Unbreakable Light at Galerie Tangerine, Nashville-based artist Ruth Chase deploys painting and sculpture to cast light on the notion of the soul as a luminous form. The multimedia work is colorful and graphic in its layered rendering. It’s also charged with spooky paranormal energy, which makes the show feel perfectly timed for its fall run at the gallery. Chase is primarily a painter, and the show is packed with paintings. Her canvases and panels are populated with portraits, many copied

really is a perfect pairing with scary season in autumn. Old European pagan traditions marked the end of October as a time when the veil between the living and the dead was thought to be thinnest, and that’s the feeling you get from Chase’s paintings — a barrier has been removed and something is coming in. One of the most unusual paintings on view is an interior of a bedroom at night. The bedcovers are turned down, but “MOMMY WE ALL there’s nobody sleeping. HAVE A CROWN, BUT It’s one of the few paintWE DON’T SEE IT” ings in the exhibition from vintage photographs. (Why are antique with no people in it, but the empty space clothes so terrifying?) Early photographic above the bed is bright with orbs of light images have a strange light all their own, and bouncing around the dark, quiet room. the artist’s painted takes double down with The light-body flickering on the television ghostly halos, eyeball lightning bolts and ecscreen completes a scene that has to be toplasmic tangles that seem to glow and flash described as Spielbergian, even if Chase’s across the gallery walls. little painting conveys way more wonder My favorite painting in the show has a title and mystery than Disclosure Day. like the English translation of a lost giallo film. Chase also presents her light-body “Mommy We All Have a Crown, but We Don’t forms as sculptures. The artist’s “Light See It” pictures an old-timey little girl in a Keeper” sculpture is essentially a wooden faded red dress with a lace collar. She’s emergshelf in the same shape as the light-bodies ing from a shadowy black background, and in her paintings. It’s decorated with paint Chase’s graphic-looking layered style makes along with dried flowers and seed husks, the whole scene read like a chiaroscuro comic feathers and stones. I love the idea of book. The girl has radiant white eyes and a representing something ineffable and luhalo above her head that looks vaguely like a minous with something that’s rough and sun bisected by a distant horizon. The work is solid and decorative and wild. It’s a formal

master stroke for a show about the immaterial communing with the material to spill out of the picture plane and into sculptural space. I also love how these little altars can be altered by the objects placed on them. They’re interactive in that sense, and this is another way Chase speaks to the communicative links that connect us to the invisible, like the so-called “silver cord” that’s said to connect our own physical forms to our light-bodies. Chase’s show is haunted and haunting, but there is also something familiar and reassuring about our personal lights, our light companions, and even the dark mysteries light leaves in its absence. There’s an old joke that Norm Macdonald used to tell about a moth who goes to a podiatrist. When the doctor asks what’s ailing him, the moth looses a litany of troubles that seem straight out of Dostoyevsky: his crushing job, his loveless marriage, the loss of a child. The podiatrist empathizes, but suggests that the moth needs to see a psychiatrist, and he asks the moth why he came to a foot doctor’s office. “Because the light was on.” ▼

Ruth Chase: Unbreakable Light Through Friday, Oct. 30, at Galerie Tangerine

“LIGHT KEEPER”

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

MUSIC

HAVE A SEAT

Lords of Acid breathe life into the art of transgression BY JASON SHAWHAN

WORKING TOGETHER

Allison Russell and Neko Case seek the power of collaboration ahead of their Ryman quadruple header BY SEAN L. MALONEY AFTER A LITTLE while of seeing live music, you start to notice that the ratio of bands you actually enjoy at any show hits a slippery slope if more than two or three artists are on the bill. With that in mind, it feels decidedly retro to be this excited about a four-band bill. Of course, when Mom was dropping us off at the all-ages spot, the lineup wasn’t Neko Case, Allison Russell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Destroyer’s Dan Bejar playing solo, which is what we’re getting Friday night at the Ryman. Back

then, there were a lot of middling hardcore covers and bad cologne, not to mention a curfew. Though it’s true people’s smells can surprise you, none of that should apply here, which is all the more reason why Friday’s gig is one hell of a bargain for your concert-ticket dollar (plus taxes and fees). We caught up with Case and Russell in separate interviews to learn more about why we should show up early to the Mother Church and stay late. “The Ryman is such a special place,” Case tells the Scene on a video call. “I play there very rarely. And so when I do, I want to make it a special occasion.” She’s just returned stateside after two months in London working on the Thelma & Louise musical, for which she wrote the music. “I thought it would be really fun to not just have it be our show, but Allison’s show and Jimmie Dale’s show,” she says, “and maybe do some songs together and maybe have some special guests come. Because that’s kind of a Nashville tradition.”

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

pumping: You can clearly make out Plastic Bertrand’s “Plastiiic” and Brandon Cooke featuring Roxanne Shanté’s “Sharp as a Knife.” In less than 30 seconds, all the years fell away, and this little slice of life planted the seed for this interview. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find a longer version at nashvillescene.com. I love all the news footage of that era that’s available, and documentaries like The Sound of Belgium. But that little video made the music of my youthful rebellion feel defiantly alive. You’ve made so many amazing records with so many different collaborators and under so many different names. Did you ever have any indication that you’d be touring the world with music like “I Sit on Acid” almost 40 years later? No, not at all. I also ran the label Antler-Subway at the time, and “I Sit on Acid” was released at the peak of New Beat. It was just one of the projects we were working on at the time. We were all so creative and energetic, and it felt like we were starting something new every week. But when I finished that record, it felt like at that time there were two big record shops in Belgium [whose staff] knew what was going to work and what was not going to work. And I went with the cassette tape to talk to the owners of Music Man [now Music Mania] in Ghent and to USA Import in Antwerp, and they said “It’s too heavy; it’s never going to work.” And I remember driving home and I was so depressed because I loved that song, and all the tension in the music. But eventually it did become a hit in Europe, [though] the New Beat sound died out. All the New Beat records stopped selling … except for “I Sit on Acid.” Because of the label, I was also seeing the orders for how many records needed to be pressed. Every month it was a few hundred more copies, and they were all going to America. Lords of Acid has a fascinating legacy in America, especially with the second album, 1994’s Voodoo-U. As a distributor you had Rick

PHOTO: EBRU YILDIZ

IT’S RARE THAT the first four seconds of a record can not only articulate a thesis but also come to define an era. The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” does it. Aretha’s “Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business)” does it as well. “Dre Day” by Dr. Dre, and Radiohead’s “The National Anthem” accomplish this too. But in the long, long ago of 1988 — as if to find the unexpressed common ground between “Venus in Furs” and “I Feel Love” — one of these moments came to define an era, a sound, a philosophy, a whole bunch of cyberfetish/click-and-drag club nights, and a vibe that still persists. It’s three words in five syllables and the naughtiest, most throbbing synths you’ve ever heard — “Dar-ling come heeeeee-re,” and then it’s all over for these hoes. And yet, it had just begun. When Psychic TV was talking about Thee Infinite Beat, when Prince talked about grinding on “Darling Nikki,” what they foresaw (and foreheard) was the sound of Lords of Acid’s “I Sit on Acid.” Jump forward to today, and to put it bluntly, we have the architects of the modern apocalypse

trying to figure out if the LLMs they’ve created have developed consciousness — though they never stop to think whether we know if machines fuck. “I Sit on Acid” is our proof that they do. The Lords started as one of many projects for the great Maurice Engelen (also known as Praga Khan and Somora, among many other noms de disco), along with Jos “Chris Inger” Borremans, the late Koert “Harry Van Oekel” Hendrickx, Nikkie “Jade 4U” Van Lierop, and eventually Olivier Adams. The sound of Belgium’s New Beat was created in bedroom studios with lots of friends, with new concepts and identities proliferating all over the place. How do you talk to Maurice Engelen and keep your cool? Thankfully, I never had any cool to begin with. So I approached my recent Zoom interview with the dance-music legend — ahead of the group’s Oct. 29 Nashville show at Hit Parader, on Part 2 of the Cheeky Freaky Tour with the Bad Babysitter herself, Princess Superstar, as well as Tony & The Kiki and Mz Neon — from a place of dance-floor respect. Earlier this year another New Beat musician, Annick “Miss Nicky Trax” Vermeulen, passed away, and Engelen posted a brief excerpt of behind-the-scenes footage in tribute. In the clip, Vermeulen and a friend — the frontperson of a short-lived group called Boy Toy, possibly Van Lierop but not confirmable to any journalistic standard — are dancing and getting their look together backstage before a live performance (a “live PA” if you’re old-school) at the well-known Destelbergen club Boccaccio Life. The music is

NEKO CASE

Rubin’s rave imprint WHTE LBLS, and then there was all the controversy over the key art and some of the lyrics. There were earlier controversies with porn samples in some of the bigger New Beat tracks, but had you ever experienced anything like what happened when America started freaking out about Voodoo-U? We’re European, and we didn’t think it would be that big a deal. We’d had some sexy lyrics and samples, some of Karen Finley’s “Tales of Taboo.” People were dancing in the clubs, and not overly concerned with any overly horny lyrics. But with Lust and Voodoo-U in America, we would have some complaints, but also a lot of reviews that would say, “Spare us this filth.” This was the time of the Explicit Lyrics stickers — which were like big promo for us, because when you forbid something, it just works as extra promotion. To this day on Discogs, they still hide the covers for the Belgian 12-inch of “I Sit on Acid” and the Coop cover for Voodoo-U until you sign in and prove you’re over 18. It’s kind of amazing that these records still hold that kind of power — just in their imagery, before you even get to the music. In light of this background, what sort of mindset do you have to adopt to make a new Lords of Acid record? Mundo Bizarro (out now on Metropolis) is your first since 2018, and “Dopamine War” and “You’re Obscene” are my favorites on it. I see it as the soundtrack to the very strange world that we’re living in now. Everything has become very surreal, it’s hard to know what’s real, or deepfake, or just social media. And I wanted to make an album about it, but I didn’t want to make it depressing. So I made it colorful and funny and dirty — and sometimes completely over the top. But that’s how it feels at this moment. ▼

Playing 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at Hit Parader, 174 Third Ave. N.

PHOTO: MARC BAPTISTE

ALLISON RUSSELL

PHOTO: GRAHAM TOLBERT

Case, who jokingly admits that she’s “in 20 million bands,” is touring her latest solo record — 2025’s Neon Grey Midnight Green, her sixth solo record and a stunning collection of sonically adventurous, structurally ambitious songs from one of the masters of the craft. Neon Grey is a self-produced portrait of an artist at the top of her game, leading a team whose mind-blowing musicianship makes her expansive genre-absorbing aesthetic feel as intimate as it is brave. This set of songs feels tailor-made to fill the Ryman. “We like rooms that give something back to you, because it’s a pleasure to move the air in a room — because it’s an organic thing,” says Case. The venerable Mother Church of Country Music is a perfect example of a room that just breathes with you. “It’s a great privilege.

Playing 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, at The Truth

It adds to your own physicality. … I was just talking about how it’s a great privilege to move up to rooms where they are known for their resonance. Because it’s a cyclical thing — we don’t play the same if there’s no audience. With an audience, we’re different, and so it’s like alternating current.” Considering that Neon Grey is great music about how great music is, it’s no surprise that Case invited Russell to join her. Russell is an artist’s artist — her name comes up in about half of the interviews I conduct, unprompted by anything other than pure listener excitement. Her latest album In the Hour of Chaos is a duets record, which gives it the potential to lose focus or dilute Russell’s sonic identity. Yet even with powerful and distinctive voices like those of Norah Jones, Ruby Amanfu, Joy Oladokun and Kyshona joining Russell on almost all of the 11 tracks, it somehow sounds more like Russell than ever. “I think that’s all I’ve ever really done as a musician, is collaboration,” Russell says. “And to be honest, I think if people are truthful with themselves — that is what music is. Even if you are a so-called solo artist, even if you record everything by yourself in your bedroom, you are still in collaboration and conversation with everything you’ve ever listened to. “You’re not creating music in a vacuum. Nobody is. We are drawing from all that has come before us, some of which we may be aware of and some of which is subconscious.” Russell in particular is creating music jam-packed with Scene-favorite artists — let’s go ahead and name a

WEDNESDAY

few more on Chaos, including locals like Brittney Spencer, Denitia and multi-instrumental wizard Megan McCormick, along with legends like Wendy Melvoin. Their collective defiance of genre conventions and commitment to letting the songs guide the performance make for thrillingly contemporary music that never loses sight of joys and conflicts that have created it. “I think we don’t know what will feed and seed and blossom,” says Russell. “There’s this mystery and this alchemy of what happens when we collaborate and come together. The whole is always greater than the sum of the parts, and it’s always a journey worth taking.” That the journey can take us all from the metaphorical (or literal) pizza parlor basement to the Ryman’s pews can be a bit overwhelming at times — things can be intimidating once Mom drives away. But it’s not a journey we have to make alone. Case and Russell are shining examples of how humanity does its best work in collaboration. “I’m doubling down on that belief,” says Russell, “and I’m even more in awe of what happens when we do things together.” ▼

Playing 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at the Ryman

DOLL PARTS

Ahead of a co-headlining show with Mannequin Pussy, Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman discusses roadside attractions, her porcelain doll collection and why more bands should tour the South

Because Nashville is so much more than honky-tonks and bachelorettes...

BY ANNIE PARNELL BITCH CABAL, the co-headlining tour featuring Wednesday and Mannequin Pussy that hits Nashville with a Nov. 2 appearance at The Truth, made it out of the group chat. “We started a group chat with both bands, and I said, ‘What should we call this tour?’ and our drummer Alan said ‘Bitch Cabal,’” Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman tells the Scene. “We were like: ‘You know what? It’s got a nice ring to it. Fuck it.’” Wednesday’s year is winding down after an extensive tour run for Bleeds, the 2025 album and sixth studio release from the wicked Asheville noise-rock band. They’ve been taking some much-needed rest — Hartzman caught up with the Scene by phone, during what she described as “the first little more than two weeks I’ve been off this whole year.” But after Philly punks Mannequin Pussy told her and her band they’d never had a truly successful Southern tour, the North Carolina natives decided to come back out and show them how it was done. “We always do well here,” Hartzman says. “The songs are about the South.” She thinks bands tend to avoid the region for

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a lot of reasons. “I think punk bands are afraid to come down here. ... People that live in the North, commenting on these show announcements, were like, ‘Oh, I’d love to go there, but I don’t feel safe traveling there.’” But much of it, she says, boils down to assumptions. “The people that are leftists here — which there are many, because the South is the most racially diverse place in our country — are extra left because they have to fight so fucking hard to oppose the conservatives here,” she says. “The people that are punks here are, like, mega punks, because they stay and fight. ... [Touring bands] consider everywhere to be a C or D market, when really there’s so many schools and young people.” She describes this tour as a kind of “passing the torch” moment as Wednesday wraps up the Bleeds album cycle. The two bands have long traded said torch back and forth. Hartzman’s favorite song on I Got Heaven, Mannequin Pussy’s 2024 album and most recent release, is “Aching.” As she’s told their frontwoman Marisa Dabice, it helped her find a breakthrough for “Wasp” — a pummeling one-minute wall of noise that appears on Bleeds. Wednesday drawing inspiration from Mannequin Pussy dates back years. “The first tour I ever went on was right after Romantic came out,” Hartzman recalls, referring to Mannequin Pussy’s second album. “I remember walking through some snow in a Michigan town and being like, ‘My life is changed.’” At The Truth, Truth Club — Raleigh indie rockers who Hartzman says should be recognized as “the most famous band of all time” — will (fittingly) be opening, but Nashville’s own Snooper is set to join for most of the tour. Hartzman is holding out for Snooper’s legendary live show to check out their music, but she’s “stoked” to see them play. Also along for the ride should be a few porcelain dolls — a set prop theme that has accompanied Wednesday throughout their Bleeds tour dates, including their June appearance at Bonnaroo. The dolls were originally sourced from Hartzman’s childhood collection (“I had, like, a hundred”). But the band is due for a restock, because she’s been throwing them into the crowd at the end of each set.

NASHVILLE SCENE • OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

MANNEQUIN PUSSY

“I need to get my ass in gear and go to some thrift stores and get more,” she says. “I keep on throwing away our props.” The way Wednesday performs Bleeds has changed over time. Originally, the opening riff for “Phish Pepsi” was inspired by Dolly Parton’s “Gettin’ Happy.” As Hartzman explains, “We were like, ‘How fucked-up would it be if we did something like that?’” On tour, it transformed from a quick intro to a one-minute teaser with a keyboard change after a flash of inspiration from bassist and keyboardist Ethan Baechtold. Hartzman calls moments like this “band telepathy,” and has loved watching them strike. With the sunsetting of the Bleeds cycle, though, comes room for something new. Hartzman has also announced a solo tour of the Southeast starting in December, where she’s promised to try out new songs at intimate venues like Chattanooga’s Songbirds and Athens, Ga.’s 40 Watt Club. “I get the itch almost every year around December to do a solo tour and try to just make it a road trip,” she says. “It’s just a really creative, free time.” Her go-to album for long drives is The Glands’ self-titled 2000 release — “It’s the best to listen to in the car” — and she’s excited to stop between shows for “weird roadside shit” along the way. “I love any kind of folk art,” Hartzman says. “There’s so [many] people who have made little museums or collections or statue gardens in the South. ... We found one called Hillbilly Gardens by accident once.” There’s also no shortage of quirky stops on the road to Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, where Wednesday will head for a set in April. It’s a drive Hartzman knows well — and another she’s excited for. “East Tennessee is probably the most beautiful part of our country. Western North Carolina, East Tennessee. It’s my favorite.” ▼

Visit nashvillescene.com for a review of the Nashville Jazz Festival, a preview of Thundercat's Halloween show at Marathon Music Works and more.

FILM

INSIDE-OUT

Nashville-shot The Other People is a mysterious, timely horror-thriller BY LOGAN BUTTS HORROR FILMS ARE having a moment in Nashville. This year has seen the successful release of locally made movies like Hellcat and Dolly, while Where the Hell Is Anna? won Best Tennessee Feature at this year’s Nashville Film Festival. The latest film to join the party is The Other People, the feature-length directorial debut from Gallatin native Chad McClarnon. He’s rocking a shirt from local merch company Music Valley Archive featuring Grizzly River Rampage — a ride at beloved, defunct Nashville theme park Opryland — when we speak. Chad wrote the horror-thriller with his brother Trey, and both have been involved in the local film scene for 20-plus years. The Other People, released in September and shot in Nashville with a mostly local cast and crew, is a mysterious, timely and downright brutal dissection of the home-invasion genre. It’s something like Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs, if Craven had played things straight. Strange things are happening at the home of the Marsh family. But when William (Terrifier 3’s Bryce Johnson) leaves behind his wife Rachel (Sleepy Hollow’s Lyndie Greenwood) and his daughter Abby (Valentina Lucido) for an out-oftown business trip, the weirdness escalates. The Other People impressed festival audiences, and won the Audience Award at the 2025 Nashville Film Festival. Now, with the film available to rent or purchase digitally, the Scene checked in with Chad and Trey about their careers and the horror genre. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Can you walk us through what it’s like to finance an independent film? Trey: The big thing I would say, as far as trying to raise money for an independent film, is that a lot of people don’t recognize that there are a lot

MISTY GREEN

BEST OF THE FEST A dispatch from the 2026 New York Film Festival BY JASON SHAWHAN

of different ways to do it. And I think if people try to find one way to do it and then do that way, if it doesn’t work, they’re like, “Well, it didn’t work.” Most of the time, you need to use a lot of different methods all at once. You might get some money this way, and then some other money a different way, and then some money from something else. Even for [our film], we had friends and family, we had private equity investment, and we also had fiscal sponsorship through the Arts and Business Council in Nashville. We needed all of those different things in order to make it work. That is a long road, and it’s a lot of different pieces. What was it like shooting locally? Trey: If you’re dealing with the Tennessee Entertainment Commission for tax incentive purposes, then there’s a whole bunch of paperwork that goes along with that. But this was not part of that, because they do not incentivize horror movies by rule. … I also want to be clear that that’s not the only content restriction in their rules. They also restrict incentivizing things with sex. They

also restrict documentaries. Chad: [Horror is] statistically the most profitable genre. Cinema would not exist without horror movies. The theaters would be gone years ago. Most platforms would be gone. Horror is the structure that holds cinema together. What is it like writing a script together? Chad: We commonly say that if some idea can survive the fight between us, then it deserves to be in the movie, but we go really, really hard with trying to defend whatever it is. I’ve done somewhat similar collaborations with other people that are just friends, and there’s always the fear that, “Oh, I should think about how I say this so they don’t get too upset, because I want to preserve the relationship.” But we don’t have to worry about that with each other. Like, where is he going to go? We’re brothers. Historically, horror films have been a way to bring big, real-world ideas into a genre package. How do you balance those things?

OCTOBER IS IN the air, with confused leaves and porch plants demonstrating the uncertain climate times we’re living in. But in addition to the prevalence of candy and horror cinema as cultural baselines, it’s also the ramp-up for awards season, when films start giving us more than just big-ticket escape. Ever since Cannes back in May, the preeminent film festivals around the world have been unfolding, serving up slices of the world to bring that fall/winter excitement and awareness to theaters all over the planet. I’ve been attending the New York Film Festival since 2002, and NewFest and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival since 2022, and my goal is always to keep eyes on what’s interesting, transformative, shocking or worthy of attention. And this was a good year. Hope is not in great supply, I have to tell you, as smoking (not vapes, but full-on cigarettes) is back and just a mode of expression. (So if you’re a fan of international cinema and you’re trying to quit, strength to you.) But we’ve got a lot to ponder even as seemingly every aspect of society is being disassembled by sloppy, hateful

forces, and I’m here to make sure you find your way to the good stuff; specifically, the good stuff that’s coming up soon. (The focus here is mostly on the 64th New York Film Festival and NewFest, but we’ll have another festival round-up next month, for what’s coming in 2027 and is still wrangling U.S. distribution.) Chris Rock’s messy but vibrant Misty Green, with its superb lead performance from Rosalind Eleazar, the unmissable and earthshaking documentary Naza (which shredded my soul, and which Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to ban), and the 35 mm restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils have all already had a Nashville engagement. The presence of two films as politically fearless as Naza and The Devils unfolding here in the same week is deeply inspiring. It’s the kind of experience that leaves you having to take several moments and figure out exactly who you are, and it speaks well to our film options. If you haven’t seen Los Javis’ dazzling HBO Max series Veneno, you might be taken aback by their heartfelt and gorgeously baroque La Bola Negra (also at NewFest; at

Trey: Whether it’s horror, whether it’s sci-fi, whether it’s whatever, when you package it in those things, you get a little bit more freedom to talk about real things, I think, because people can distance themselves if they want to. And then the people that want to wrestle with those ideas in a real way can. Looking at things like Battlestar Galactica in the early 2000s, it was doing some of the best discourse on government-sponsored torture, more than the real military shows. … Genre can fly under the radar sometimes. And the history also reflects that. What are some of your biggest filmmaking influences? Chad: I would say that our biggest single influence from a career standpoint, but then also this movie, is Rosemary’s Baby. I think that my favorite filmmaker is Michael Haneke. … There are other films that certainly contributed to this movie. There’s an old George C. Scott movie called The Changeling, which was very influential. … There’s also an old Jessica Harper movie called The Evictors, [and] nobody’s seen it. Trey: One we watched a lot as a kid was When a Stranger Calls. The way that that film emphasizes your home as safety, and then makes that unsafe. And then for another specific thing, The Innocents. … The idea that the ghosts in that movie are omnipresent in the background of things. ▼

The Other People NR, 113 Minutes Available to rent or purchase

the Belcourt Nov. 6). A chronoskimming look at the tangle of queer lives in and around the Spanish Civil War (as well as its present-day ramifications), this is a heartfelt

THE DEVILS

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potboiler in conversation with all the stories that always seem to get erased by history. I want a prequel and sequel involving Penélope Cruz’s showgirl character, and to get real for just a moment: Usually when a film makes a point of restating its thesis so the audience knows exactly what to take out into the world, that annoys me. But not here. There’s a lot for society to learn, some incredible performances and a tonal balancing act that will leave you deeply impressed. Though my dream of someone in a Godzilla suit and tuxedo on the red carpet did not come to pass, there was a very special kind of thrill warding a nor’easter for an early Saturday morning press screening of Godzilla Minus Zero (wide release Nov. 6). For a festival built around the idea that film is a collective and global art form, it is both right and awesome to give Godzilla a place of honor. This reptilian mutate has done so much through the years to get people watching Japanese film, both as cultural icon and brand ambassador for The Cinema of Empathy and Also Stomping. This one delivers everything you could want after 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, somehow finding a path that is both more brutal (emotionally and destructively) as well as a tad sillier. But it works, with moments both adorably cute and shockingly impactful. (There’s one destructive sequence that had the entire theater held in a shocked, silent gasp.) The most staggering aspect of Once Upon a Time in Harlem (at the Belcourt Nov. 13) is that the gathering of incredible thinkers, artists and shapers of what we know as the Harlem Renaissance happened in 1972, and society has just now caught up to it. Designed and filmed by the legendary William Greaves and ultimately finished by his son David, this is a gathering where you just feel honored to sit back, sip your drink and soak up the discourse and vibe with the knowledge. Also, Greaves understood the intrinsic value of making sure some high-quality haters were represented and able to have their say as well. I can think of several classes stretching across the years that would have been enriched and enlivened by this incredible work. If you know Jordan Firstman only from his internet videos or his expert supporting turns on I Love LA or English Teacher, you need to gear up for Club Kid (also NewFest; at the Belcourt Nov. 19). It is a staggering achievement for a first feature, and the polyhyphenate Firstman impresses as writer-director and star, taking a trope we’ve all seen before (Peter Pan having to grow

up when responsibility comes calling) and making it feel real and relatable. But you’ve never seen a film about a party gay who has to reconcile with a kid they fathered a decade prior that is this interested in all the involved parties. Scabrously funny, deeply decadent, heartfelt and in no way averse to delving into what being a complicated queer means when having to navigate traditional social structure, this is kind of a marvel. Maybe there will one day be all manner of films about a 10-year-old who just wants to be a DJ for their dad’s cool, queer friends. But you give me a film that gets this swept up in the propulsive joy of Boytronic’s “Bryllyant,” and I will follow anywhere. Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas (Thanksgiving), while barely a Christmas film, is a slow-burn autocritique that indicates with fire and flair that the writer-director still has surprises within him. A vivisection of the tendencies writers have to embroider their stories with pilfered details from the lives of others as well as a remarkable tonal balancing act, this is elegant and merciless, with an incredible Grace Jones-scored striptease and finely braided skeins of love and regret. Unexpectedly, Radu Jude’s The Diary of a Chambermaid embraces the Christmas holidays and becomes its own kind of new holiday classic, playing games with Octave Mirbeau’s novel of the same name and the expectations of arthouse audiences with a kind and profane heart that puts you through the wringer but leaves you all the better for it. If you dig on human emotions, and I hope you do, be ready for Dec. 18, when the Belcourt is bringing the one-two punch of Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, which are both exceptional character studies about different kinds of caregivers — specifically pairs of women putting their all into tending to those who society at best shunts aside. Leigh’s film, purportedly his last, is a wine-addled procedural of what it takes to keep kindness and care alive and nurtured at this moment in history. And Hamaguchi’s film, which won the Best Actress award at Cannes for its leads Virginie Efira and Okamoto Tao, is an overwhelming achievement about new philosophies in dementia care, experimental theater, forgiveness and what it means to be alive. When it was over, I just stumbled through the streets and ended up crying on the subway, and the last film to do that to me was Synecdoche, New York. ▼

BACK OF THE BOOK EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 1

Across 1 Slang for an Italian dish … or along with QI, the highestvalue two-letter word in Scrabble 3 Make an impression 7 Hanger-on 12 Blunder 14 Recital pieces 16 “Same here,” more stiffly 17 Canapé topping 18 Traction enhancer 19 Ships, say 20 Cheerios grain 21 American architect who invented Scrabble while unemployed during the Great Depression 23 Hold tightly 25 Like most manuscript submissions 26 Many a Scottish native 28 Circuit in which Martina Navratilova holds the most singles titles, in brief 33 Dish featured in Broadway’s “Sweeney Todd” 36 Decline 37 Scrabble’s name prior to its acquisition by James Brunot in 1948

41 Ford or Lincoln 42 Full of vivid detail, as memory 43 Supposed sign of a healthy pooch 45 Onesie fastener 47 Actress Rene of “Thor” 50 Watchdog’s warning 53 Bonus score for a bingo (using all seven of one’s tiles) in Scrabble 58 Actress Sandra or Ruby 59 Dr. Seuss’ environmentalist 60 Open, as a toothpaste tube 61 Like Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 62 Cognizant 63 Home to Oral Roberts University 64 Verizon competitor, informally 65 Power measures 66 Witnessed 67 The two most valuable Scrabble tiles

M A C S M A S K A B C S E P E E R E A P A L O E S P A Y T A R O K I L T A S S T L I N D T E V O S E I S R E N A M E N A S T A L T A R S A B R A MOO B O A T I N F I N I T E S C R O L L I P A D E K E D A I R S A I D S T O C K S L OO P C R OWD S H O C K H OW O L S O N H O P E P I N E D O E S O N E S O T O E D OM E T E N S P E R T S K I D Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

NO. 0924

22 25 27

28 34

47 53

33 38

6 15

24 26

46 50

6 Old and trite 7 Wavelength symbol Down 1 Weightless state, for 8 Genesis twin short 9 Doctor 2 Cheering wildly 10 Belmont entry 3 Ones who have 11 Sound during a cat trouble finishing fight sentences? 13 Put on sale, 4 Ring perhaps 5 Chin feature

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

OPENS FRI, OCTOBER 30 www.belcourt.org

2102 Belcourt Avenue Nashville, TN 37212

Puzzle by Jeff Stillman 15 From one tone to the next adjacent tone, in music 22 Finds repugnant 24 Biblical figure with a notoriously bad hair day? 27 Gets ready to hit the ice 29 Like some garages 30 Crew need

31 Hamburger connection? 32 Some scale members 34 Vies for a roster spot 35 Group of seals 37 Crow’s cry 38 Wish undone 39 Addams Family cousin

40 Record held by the Spruce Goose for over 70 years, at 320 feet 44 Straight-horned antelopes 46 Spots for addresses 48 Kind of cavity 49 Frère de la mère 51 Forgot what you intended to say

52 Didn’t fill in, as a field on an application 53 Design problem 54 Part of the Corn Belt 55 Row house? 56 Patisserie pastry 57 Stun, in a way

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