Bobby Bare, Jr.

Bobby Bare Jr. is a happy fellow these days. He recently became a dad, and in the past few months he’s worked with the likes of Frank Black and some members of Pavement on a new Silver Jews album. Plus, he’s coming off a barnstorming East Coast trek with a three-piece version of his Young Criminals’ Starvation League, and tonight he was coming home to Nashville to show it off.

When the Young Criminals took the stage in a basement bar called—you guessed it—The Basement, in front of a room full of old friends and familiar faces, they didn’t relax or take the audience’s adoration for granted. They just ripped through a powerful set, equally heavy on tunes from both the band’s Bloodshot Records-released albums. They stomped through “Monk At The Disco,” played a near-perfect “Terrible Sunrise” and, of course, the crowd-pleasing “Meet Me In Music City” was an appropriate treat.

The trio was incredible to watch. Brian Kotzur kept monster beats and played bass lines on the keyboard next to him—like some multi-limbed Hindu Deity plunked down behind the drum kit. Most of the set, all you see behind the kit is arms, hair and teeth in constant movement.