Spencer Sutherland takes his tour to Nashville for an unforgettable night

The Nashville stop of Spencer Sutherland’s In His Mania Tour was an evening packed with high kicks and screams.

The night began with big, bouncing bleach blonde curls sported by the first opener, Michael Minelli. Minelli took the stage solo and commanded the attention of the room as a one-man show. The Los Angeles-based artist’s grooving and smiling was contagious; he got nearly the whole crowd to dance in unison within the first few minutes of his set, and he even covered Bruno Mars’ hit “24K Magic”. Minelli’s energetic set kicked the evening off to a fun start.

The second opener, JORDY, had extra reason to be excited during his performance as his second album dropped merely an hour or two following his set. He shared meaningful anecdotes in between multiple songs, many of which were from the new album titled BOY. 

JORDY told the crowd that he reached out to a Nashville local to sing a verse on a song of his, he then brought out none other than singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun. The two sang JORDY’s “i get high” while surrounded by fog and green stage lights—fitting for a concert falling on 4/20. Following this soothing and gentle performance, JORDY continued his opening set on a high with much of the crowd singing along.

The anticipation for headliner Spencer Sutherland came to a breaking point when a large light-up star was revealed center stage. Sutherland’s bandmates offered the crowd a brief jam session prior to the grand entrance, and once the instruments crescendoed in unison, Sutherland appeared inside the star wearing a seafoam blue suit with a deep V-neck and beads dangling from his lapel. “Honey what a shame!” were the first words from Sutherland, and the crowd immediately joined in to sing along to the opening song “Everybody” from his debut album In His Mania. 

Sutherland made sure to let the crowd at Nashville’s The Basement East know just how much he loved their city. He even teased about moving to Nashville and living in the hip neighborhood of 12 South; whether or not he was joking is up for debate, but the crowd ate it up. During the slower performance of “Strange Feeling”, Sutherland’s keyboardist transitioned into the piano riff of 2002 hit “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton. The room erupted into screams and filled with nostalgia. 

Nearly halfway through his set, after lots of high kicks and hip rolls, Sutherland asked the audience if he could take a quick break off-stage. Less than a minute after exiting stage left, Sutherland was heard on his mic letting the crowd know they should turn around.

All of the sudden, the spotlight hit Sutherland as he stood on top of the venue’s bar.

He went on to perform his 2020 single, “Wonder” to an awestruck crowd. This was the only moment during his set that the room was quiet.

Once Sutherland made his way back to the stage, he continued the show with more songs from his debut album, along with an unreleased song “Chicken Little” and a cover of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets”. The front row was adorned with colorful sparkling cowgirl hats, it was inevitable that one lucky fan’s hat would wind up on the star of the show’s head. Sure enough, he plucked a hat bedazzled with the words “SUTHER DAMN” across the front from a concert goer and wore the hat for the duration of a song.

The encore involved a costume change into a custom sleeveless sweater that read “In His Mania”, an ode to the title of both his debut album and his tour, which he eventually ripped off during the end of his final song. Sutherland made sure to swiftly touch hands with much of the front row as he made his way across the stage before waving a final bid farewell to the loving fans.

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