Nashville’s biggest celebration of local music is returning to music venues for its fourth incarnation next week, and Belmont bands have never been better represented. Next Big Nashville is a four-day music festival spread across more than 10 music venues in town, including Exit/In, Mercy Lounge, The...

Brooke Waggoner (9:30 p.m., Cannery Ballroom) In last month’s issues of Paste Magazine, an article declared that, along with fellow Nashville singer/songwriter Katie Herzig, Brooke Waggoner was one of 25 artists to watch. Waggoner, a classically trained pianist, has the incredible ability to pull apart...

The Kindergarten Circus (8:45 p.m., The End) It’s been a year since I first saw the youthful dynamo that is Kindergarten Circus at last year’s Next Big Nashville and, if anything, the band has only gotten louder and more impressive. Kindergarten Circus funnels a clear influence from blues rock bands...

It wasn’t too long ago that The Non-Commissioned Officers were opening for The Protomen at The End and explaining the concept behind their band to a bewildered audience—every song they played would eventually comprise the soundtrack for an ambitious film about a zombie and the boy who loves her....

In 1950, David Cobb first used the phrase “Music City USA” to describe Nashville during a broadcast on WSM-AM. The radio station was established in 1925 and quickly made a name for itself—and for Nashville—when it laid the foundations for Grand Ole Opry in the very same year. Since then, the...

Nashville’s music scene is often unfairly pigeonholed as simply a haven for aspiring country musicians, all hoping to get discovered playing in a bright neon honkytonk on Broadway or at the Bluebird’s open mic night. The city’s reputation as being a music town isn’t because of the country music...