The Sewing Club Rocks The Blue Room for First Official Nashville Headline Show

Nashville, Tennessee - July 11, 2026

Hannah McElroy of The Sewing Club (Photo by Lauren Daugherty)

The rock scene in Nashville is alive and well — just ask anyone who’s been to a Sewing Club show. The grunge-rock four-piece headlined their first official set in Music City on Saturday night at The Blue Room, with support from Billy! and Ella Molsee. Playing in front of an intimate crowd of fans and friends of the band, The Sewing Club’s performance served as an unofficial trial run for their upcoming debut album set to release later this year.

While this was their first headline show in Nashville, The Sewing Club is no stranger to the live music scene in the city, with previous sets at venues like The East Room (with Trophy Wife and Baby Wave), DRKMTTR Collective (supporting MX LONELY), and Cannery Hall (supporting Frog).

On a stormy Saturday in July, The Sewing Club, Billy!, and Ella Molsee were an entertaining trifecta who each brought their individual brands of indie rock to Jack White’s eclectic venue. Just a few blocks from Nashville’s downtown thoroughfare — which is saturated with pedal taverns, cowboy boots, and tipsy bachelorette parties — The Blue Room is a haven for rock lovers in the heart of country music’s capital. Come for the slew of incredible indie, alt, and rock musicians on the calendar, and stay for the elephant head, electric-blue curved walls, and open-air bar perfect for recharging in between sets.

Saturday night’s show had the energy of a group of friends hanging out and having fun playing their music for each other, a fitting vibe for the headlining act test-driving unreleased songs. The friendly atmosphere could also be due to the fact that all three bands are Nashville-based and interconnected in the indie rock world in one form or another. Besides having quite a few Belmont University grads in their midst, The Sewing Club and Billy! have both played Bonnaroo, and Molsee is a friend of Billy Ayers of Billy!.

And this sense of organic community was at the core of The Sewing Club’s show in more ways than one. In lieu of peddling t-shirts and tote bags at the merch table, the band had free CDs of their unreleased album up for grabs. Also, a portion of the ticket sales from their show went to MusiCares “in honor of friends and family we’ve lost to addiction,” the band shared on Instagram. MusiCares is a nonprofit that provides preventive, emergency, and recovery programs to support the health and well-being of the music community.

A communal and spontaneous energy permeated the night, with all three bands putting on engaging performances despite a hitch or two along the way. A folk-rock singer-songwriter, Ella Molsee and her four-piece band were a last-minute substitution for the original opener, Melaina Kol, who had to cancel due to sickness, but Molsee’s sad-girl bedroom rock was a refreshing addition to the lineup. “The Dog” — a gentle romp of a song as much about dogs as worms, fences, and misplaced blame — was a standout track during her set, and she’ll be back on stage at Nashville’s East Room on Thursday.

Billy! upped the decibel level as the second opener, combining Midwest emo and shoegaze with a bit of country twang (plus a guy on the hand drum and tambourine). With six musicians on stage, they had the crowd rocking out with a few rollicking guitar solos, and Ayers (lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist) layered his equal parts charming and heart-wrenching vocals on top of distorted alt-rock instrumentation.

Then, The Sewing Club took the stage, with Hannah McElroy (vocals, keys, guitar) beginning the set memorably by singing through one end of a rotary phone. Immediately, McElroy showcased her vocal artistry, reminiscent of emo rockers like Soccer Mommy and Slow Pulp. After opening with three of their unreleased songs from their upcoming LP, The Sewing Club then transitioned to playing some of their most popular tracks, like “Wyatt,” “Sport Mode,” and “Pocket.” In the lead-up to the former, McElroy spoke about the song’s namesake, saying, to laughs from the audience, “He sucks… If your name is Wyatt, I apologize.”

The band’s distorted shoegaze rock was even catchier live, immersing the audience in moody guitar riffs and propulsive, anxious drumlines. McElroy was joined on stage by Justin Mckinney (guitar), Zach McCoy (drums, vocals), and Calvin Lauber, who filled in on guitar. Lauber, a producer who has worked with boygenius and Julien Baker, has been a frequent collaborator of The Sewing Club behind the scenes, producing their EP Care along with Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Briston Maroney) and Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp.

The Sewing Club closed out their set with a crowd-favorite, “Strange,” a particularly angsty track about feeling like a stand-in for someone else’s desires. As McElroy screamed-cried the lyrics “Take a picture, make it last / I feel like an acrobat,” the set reached a moment of emotional catharsis, leaving the audience clamoring for more as the band waved goodbye and made their way off stage.

The Nashville band has a busy few months coming up. Besides releasing their first LP later in the fall, they’re opening for Pond at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl on Aug. 6 and going on a headline tour in Europe. And this week, they’re releasing an Audiotree session, which drops on Wednesday.