Tuesday night at 12th & Porter turned out to be one of the more peculiar, yet solidly entertaining lineups I’ve witnessed in Nashville. We arrived for the last two songs of female-fronted pop/rock band, Baby Daggers. What was heard could best be described as an industrial-tinged reminder of that 90’s pop hit done by All Saints, “Never Ever,” but after doing some online investigating a few minutes ago, I’ve decided I need to watch them play again before I say anything else. And that’s a good thing. Next up was blues/folk acoustic-guitar-playing singer/songwriter boy that we’ve all seen a thousand times, Marc Scibilia. The main difference was that instead of only singing about girls and being broken-hearted, he seemed strangely wise beyond his years. His lyrics were genuinely clever, relatively thought-provoking, and pretty profound for a boy in his early twenties. Hearing him was like hearing Bill Withers deliver a Bob Dylan song, which made for an interesting sound.

I’d have to say the same for the following act—Sarah Silva—a piano-playing singer/songstress with a powerful belt and some over-the-top pop tunes. Her performances have been witnessed a number of times in the past several months, each time proving to be worthwhile, because she consistently dishes out new material, with some inevitably catchy and snarky lyrics about all of her skeezy ex-boyfriends. It’s almost worth going to hear her play just to listen to her testimonials. Girl has pizzazz. She also recently released her first full-length album, which I would recommend spending some time with. (Check out the song, “Boys.” It only seems fitting).

Finallyyyyyyy…came the artist that everyone had been waiting to see what all the fuss was about….Ferras. Oh, Ferras. Granted he was the only non-local artist playing that night, he held his own in a crowd with obviously high expectations, given that (previously) Nashville-based artist/EMI songwriter, Brett McLaughlin, organized the show and brought out the audience for the evening. It was rather surreal witnessing a supporting ensemble of only local artists and musicians as Ferras’ backing band, but it made the show seem much more intimate, and almost kind of like just watching another one of your musician friends shake his/her ass on stage and make you dance while you’re slammin’ down vodka tonics as 12th and Porter.

Ferras performed all of the crowd favorites—i.e. the acoustic encore of “Hollywood’s Not America,” in addition to some extra sassy numbers, such as “Neon Butterflies,” and, “Love Shot.” This was particularly enjoyable because it featured local electro-pop diva, B.ET.A., as Ferras’ duet partner, which was quite a sight. Really the whole thing was quite a sight. Nashville doesn’t have the pleasure of witnessing talent of Ferras’ genre and equal caliber on a regular basis, so I’d have to say the show was certainly a memorable one.–Erin Manning