By Evan Weidl, Rock At Night Nashville
Live Review: Hattan, The Ben Rogers Band, and Snorkeler at The East Room in Nashville – June 4th, 2025
On Wednesday, June 4th, a feeling of excitement permeated the air at Nashville music venue The End. As the air of summer and the anticipation that comes with it began to sweep its way through the city, solo artist Hattan, blues-rock band The Ben Rogers Band, and local act Snorkeler prepared to take the stage for a electrifying weeknight show.
Hattan’s entrance to the stage was one without theatrics, and one that defined the attitude the rest of her set would deliver; no spoken introduction, no noise from the band. She launched into the first song, and suddenly, the traffic light on the night had turned green.
Original songs occupied all but one spot on her setlist, and it was clear that she was here to speak her mind and that she had little patience for filters. Her songs touched on frustration with lies and betrayal, and the power and tightness of her backing band helped to send that message crashing through the ears of the audience.
Her song “Billy” fueled the night’s first mosh pit, and she closed the set with a catchy tune that was inspired by one of her favorite movies, “My Own Private Idaho”.
Hattan has played in two bands before, but this show marked her first as a solo artist. “I have stage fright pretty bad. It was pretty bad in my last band, honestly, but once I got up after a couple songs, I was feeling amazing,” said Hattan. “I think it’s the new material, because all the songs except for one we’ve never played live before. So I think that kind of added challenge, really, took up some brain capacity, and I didn’t think about it [stage fright] as much.”
The show marched on with a performance from The Ben Rogers Band out of St. Petersburg, Florida. With a rich, soulful voice, a band that couldn’t miss a beat if they tried, and songs that beautifully married blues and rock and roll, The Ben Rogers band proved that they belong in Music City as much as anyone else.
The band’s set contained some chilling ballads, such as the original “All I Wanted,” but found ways to pick up the pace, all the while enchanting the audience with maze-like chord progressions and melodies.
This performance was the first for the band in Nashville, a city in which frontman Ben Rogers has personal connections to. “I’ve got a personal connection to this city. I lived here for three months last year, and it was going great, and I loved it,” he said. “[Our] Spotify really took off and it just prompted a bunch of questions in my mind about what I should be doing at the moment. There was a big buildup to me leaving as well. I had to say my goodbyes and everything. I had just gotten with [the band] really and I decided that [music] is what I thought we should be doing. Even though they’re going to college we’re still making it work, and we’re still really passionate about it.”
Rogers’ sound and songs were intricate and strategically drawn out in their composition, something that Rogers said he did for the sake of not only keeping the audience entertained, but for keeping himself entertained. Said Rogers: “I just sit down with my guitar, and I strum out some chords, and hopefully something interesting happens. That’s my criteria; I have to be entertained by it. I have to make faces at it and give it a second listen. It’s not so much that I’m afraid of being boring; I’m trying not to be, but that’s really where it comes from. It’s that I want to be entertained by what I’m playing.”
Finally, Snorkeler took the stage to close out the night. Their personality as a group shined bright from the very first note to the very last. Their indie rock sound, with the addition of a balanced and powerful dual vocal attack from Curtis Heimburger and Kelsey Blackstone, was full and engaging, and served as a perfect backing to let their persona take center stage.
Many of their lyrics addressed some of life’s more undesirable emotions and situations, such as relationships gone sour, life feeling stale and increasingly obsolete. Nevertheless, the band approached it with a spunky, tongue-in-cheek perspective. “I definitely don’t like to look at any negative experiences in my life with 100% negativity,” said frontman Curtis Heimburger. “At the end of the day, sh*t happens in your life, and you can’t just look at it as this horrible experience and nothing else. Like, if it was kind of ridiculous or it was kind of funny. Life just isn’t serious and there’s no time to be serious all the time. It’s just a waste of energy.”
Their quick and drastic section changes kept the audience on their toes, and the way they carried themselves as musicians and performers was nothing short of remarkable and incredibly memorable.
Despite this show being only the second for the band, they felt confident in their ability to stay together and maintain chemistry in any situation. Said the band:
“Even though we’re f*cking it up, we’re still together.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah! We’re f*cking up together. That’s so true.”
“You know what? We f*cked it up together. And that’s important.”
“That’s important.”
While there are many shows that happen all over Nashville on any given night, this one was as full of passion, creativity, and talent as any of them, and music lovers everywhere could leave this show satisfied.
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