Moves To Make: Dadi Freyr Reset My 2024
Freyr's show at Eastside Bowl reset the tone of my 2024.
It’s March 4th, 2024. I’m in search of a new life.
I’m parked outside of a bowling alley to…see a concert? The venue’s not open, so I’m just sitting in my car. It’s probably a terrible idea to sit here and think, so I’m gearing up to go figure out this concert situation.
I’m staying in Tennessee intermittently; I initially intended to stay one month, but it’s been 5 at this point. A few days earlier, my fellow show-going1 nerd, S, hit my inbox with a recommendation to see an artist I’d never heard of….Dadi Freyr. I listened for only about an hour before I bought a ticket….so, well, I’m at a place in Madison, Tennessee, to do that.
But I’m…a vulnerable mess. Exhibit A: Me, in said parking lot.
I’m feeling the weight of it all, but it’s lifting, and I have a lot of hopes for my future. I’m doing something I did the last time I was learning to do life alone—doing it with a deep appreciation for the kind of entertainment that is my absurdity. Resident Whackadoodle, at your service, but no one is as amused with my life as I am.
Nothing makes sense, and that’s fine. The sillier everything is, the better. And with that, fuck it, I’m heading inside, but….I’m still a little nervous about my future. This period of my life is about learning a valuable lesson in accepting that I can’t know. No amount of pattern recognition is going to tell me that.
I get out of my car and go inside because I’m just ready to see how things can change, maybe for the better.
The Venue: Eastside Bowl
If you’re here because you want to learn about the venue, let me save you time by saying: yeah, go check it out, but try a smaller event for your first visit. Vision Video is playing on 9/27/25, so….might be the best option.
My impression was that Eastside Bowl looks enough like any other bowling alley—you’re just here to see this guy who won 4th place in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. I honestly knew almost nothing about Freyr, as that moment in my life was about re-establishing my life through my passion for music.
This was the night when I concluded that Tennessee and Florida have some similarities in the way they surprise you—one will turn anything into a music venue, and the other will turn anything into a themed experience. But I love that shit. I do. Give me some awesome shit and make it feel like random whimsy. Somebody please get Orlando and Nashville to do a collab. I’ll organize.2
Everything felt a little weird, with the carpet, families bowling, dudes offering me nachos, and a line that felt like a movie theater entrance. I’d been mentioned on or as “Nashville Underground,” so when I stepped into the venue space, it made sense. Just walls, a floor, and some places to stand on rafters to the right.
One thing became evident fast: this room was going to feel overwhelming for me. But that’s something I noticed in several venues in Nashville—the room was chosen for its ability to close in and let very little sound out. You just have to adjust.
Dadi Freyr’s Set
This show set the tone for the rest of the year lyrically—from “Moves to Make” being my song every time I had to bust my ass on something to “I’m Not Bitter” becoming the antithesis of my memoir podcast to “Outside” being a song that made me think of a crappy relationship a friend was experiencing at the time.
The message was “get your shit done, nobody cares about your anger, don’t take any shit.”
He was so good. SO GOOD. Go see him. But oh boy, this show was exhausting for me. I went from the spot on the left to the spot on the right. Yeah, huge change. Don’t do that for the first show you go to, unless it’s an act with some high anticipation for you.
But from the moment Freyr took the stage, I knew this was going to be an amazing performance. Immediately, the quality of his live vocals and his overall charm added to his somewhat boyish (read: cute) presence. Serious talent, playful banter? I’ll take it.
But there was this moment in the show that furthers my lil joke about a Tennessee/Florida mashup— Freyr had gone to the Margaritaville in downtown Nashville and dragged the margaritas. As a Floridian with enough experience in Jimmy Buffett’s passion for Florida, I can confirm that the chain’s margaritas are…not very good if you aren’t already drunk. It was a cute moment, but I hope he knows we all know the difference.
I felt so much better within 30 minutes, I swear it was a great moment for me. I thought: I made the right choice to stick around and see what’s here. I made the right choice. Go me. I’m so happy right now, and I swear I’ll try to make 2024 the most transformative year of my life.
2025 me: Oh, DO SHUT UP. *eyeroll* It was a lot. It was all necessary.
But what I can say is that this show was so unexpectedly a great experience that it opened a door to how it could feel if I just made more weird choices3 for a while. Freyr’s voice has a richness to it, but low-key, it’s divided by its Bo Burnham-esque qualities. This is a great example of playfulness mixed with theatrical vocal qualities. I was like, Damn, S…thank you..this is what I needed.
I chose to stay in Tennessee a little longer, despite whatever was making me feel vulnerable that night—and I honestly can’t remember.
I’m Not Bitter, But My iCloud Was Hacked By Boys
Men at the local coffeeshop have been trying to get into my computer, but I was SO busy that I hadn’t noticed some things. In the journey over the last 2 weeks, I’ve lost a lot of photos and videos, including from this show. I’m quite serious. I may know who they are, but I have to do what I do best….wait and observe.
They are, however, on my Instagram.
So, what my new laptop has for options for this show is not the best of what I have, so the best option is to just take a look at what I put on my Instagram. I started that account long after the show, but it was an important show for me.
I should mention that my day today included hours on the line with Apple support because there are dudes at the local coffee shop who were a lil zealous about accessing my photos after the VERY brief stint of not realizing my VPN wasn’t connected and absent-mindedly joining the wi-fi.
So, this is why shit is messy right now and also why I’m too tired to fix this particular scenario. I have content from this show on both of my Instagram accounts and also on my Facebook Page. Go play here:
and extra-special cute friend
like hanging out in a state where I knew almost nobody (at that point) and driving 2 hours to a bowling alley on the other side of a city I know nothing about. The fuck, me?