Nightly: Oh, What A Night!

By Mocha Charlie on October 23, 2023@254mochacharlie

Nightly at Neumos (Photo by Mocha Charlie)

Nashville’s Nightly played their first headline show in Seattle on Wednesday night, and they packed out Neumos, which means next time they hit a stage here, you can bet it will be a bigger venue so even more fans can see the show.

Having toured previously with big big hitters like All American Rejects, K Flay and Ke$ha, Nightly embarked on a month-plus long tour this fall promoting their sophomore album, Wear Your Heart Out. The songs are a cohesive block that they wrote together over a short period of time, ones that they knew they would want to perform on a tour. This is different from their debut album, Night, Love You (released during covid) in which songs were written kind of “by accident” because the band wanted to be able to release music throughout the pandemic, but weren’t as intentional with their purpose.

Their set began with a snippet of the opening of “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood“, and the stage included a mailbox, phone booth, and park bench, (which lead singer Jonathan Capeci sits upon to read letters he pulls from the mailbox, and to sing a few songs from). Capeci also plays at the piano, rocks out with his guitar, and sings sans instruments so he can freely dance around the stage and interact with fans in the crowd, (Spoiler alert: Drummer, Nicholas Sainato even comes out from behind his kit to play an acoustic guitar rendition of Whisky Part 2, to fans delight. Shhhh.) Their music makes you want to dance, which shows their intention when choosing the album artwork that reflects a disco ball. Some fans wore store bought and hand made “disco ball” attire, (a trend at numerous shows), which helped the lights shine brighter and bounce around the room, adding even more ambiance than that of Neumos‘ disco ball attached to the ceiling in the center of the room. Fans shared their love for the band by belting out word after word to hit after hit. In kind, the band did say a few different times throughout their set that Seattle was their BEST tour stop yet, saying they’ve always loved our city, and were glad they were finally headlining a show here. (Drummer, Nicholas Sainato even repped our beloved lost Sonics on the shirt he wore on stage.)

Having a few different touring bands opening up for the band, Seattle’s show included Tampa’s Nightbreakers and Ohio’s Knox. Both of which had never played shows here and were welcomed by many fans. (Knox mentioned that his Seattle Spotify numbers are actually his largest among all other regions.)

Mocha Charlie is an amazing photographer who has a real passion for music. She covers and shoots several shows per month in and around the region. She a brilliant photo journalist but most importantly, she is also a mother who does her best to balance out her life and live it to the fullest. Mocha Charlie uses her passion and talent to support the community, her friends and family any way that she can.