The Band CAMINO Lights Up ‘The Dark’ With Secret Album Preview Show

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Last week, fans of The Band CAMINO eagerly lined the block outside Nashville’s Electric Jane for an exclusive album preview show. The Nashville-based pop band’s sophomore album The Dark released on Friday (Aug. 11). They invited fans and industry insiders to celebrate its release a few days early with a listening party. 

The Band CAMINO’s Jeffery Jordan, Spencer Stewart and Garrison Burgess took the small stage following an intimate happy hour to share seven tracks from The Dark.  “The Dark summarizes a lot of the experiences we’ve gone through,” notes Jordan. “There’s always going to be dark and light. Even though a lot of our songs are sad as f***, we get those feelings out through music—which is ultimately positive.”

Jordan welcomed fans and friends into the evening, saying, “We’ve been writing on this album for a long time but we haven’t really done many things like this where we, in the spur of the moment, book a little room and get to share a good night of music with our hometown.” 

“There’s a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, a lot of beautiful humans who have been at a lot of shows; and a lot of friends, collaborators and co-workers who have helped us make this album and make our dreams come true. So, obviously the three of us on stage work really hard and love what we do, but we’re kind of nothing without this city and this room full of people. So thank you for being here.”

“Afraid of the Dark,” co-written by Burgess, Stewart, Dan Smyers and Geoff Warburton, was the evening’s first song, hailed as the album’s title track. “It was the first song that we wrote that ended up being on the album. It gave life to the whole world—the album, the tour, and the rest of the songs that we wrote,” Jordan explained.

Fans fell instantly in love with the groovy recording playing over the speakers, singing and dancing along to the chorus previously teased on social media and quickly catching on to the rest. 

For the next track, Jordan recalls how they almost forgot “Save My Life” amongst the many songs written for the album over the past two years. Stewart penned the track with Warburton, Seth Ennis and longtime collaborator and producer of The Dark, Jordan Schmidt. Spencer admitted he accidentally forgot about it until The Band CAMINO was already in the studio cutting vocals. 

This song features a choral-esque arrangement, not unlike the pop stylings of One Direction, with lofty vocals fit for a cathedral. The fans matched the song’s high energy as they danced, before the evening took a more introspective turn.

“Three Month Hangover” is a song by The Band CAMINO’s three with Andrew Goldstein and Schmidt. The band’s Jordan pulled inspiration for the hazy pop punk track from his heartbreak-induced fog after a relationship.

“I had the idea for a while—a song about trying to get over someone—but I was living it. I couldn’t really write something about it for a while. It took like three months to write about it. This is what came out of it,” he said.

The Band CAMINO detoured from their usual self-deprecating approach with the next song, “It’s You.”

“We’re very introspective people. We talk a lot in our songs about the things that we do wrong, things that we should’ve changed and all that stuff, so this is a bit of a departure from that,” Spencer explained. “We, for once and for the first time, have decided that maybe it might not be our [fault].”

This one struck a chord with fans as The Band CAMINO moved to play their next track, “Let It Happen,” which they tout as self-explanatory.  They followed with “Same Page,” co-written with Ennis.

“Fun fact about Mr. Seth Ennis,” said Jordan by way of introduction, “ is he has written a f*** ton of Band CAMINO songs with us. We moved to Nashville in 2018 and we met Seth. Our first time ever co-writing was with Seth and we wrote ‘Daphne Blue.’”

The heavy-hitting guitar track quickly became a crowd favorite and still remains one of their highest streaming songs.

As they played the arena-ready “Same Page,” the whole crowd jammed out, already excited to hear the song live on the band’s upcoming “Screaming In The Dark Tour.” The last song of their first set, “Novocaine,” is a surefire favorite among the fans as it was requested several times throughout the night.

After a quick intermission, The Band CAMINO took the stage for a fan-driven acoustic set. With two guitars and a stripped-down drum kit, they kicked off with “Never A Good Time,” their collaboration NOTD from 2022 with the voices of fans offering full support on every word. They then rocked out with the second single from the album, “What Am I Missing,” co-written with Ennis and Alysa Vanderheym.

The audience was intensely focused as the band played hits from earlier albums and projects. Their track “Berenstein” from 2017 was met with some of the loudest cheers of the night. Discerning through the screams of fans to hear requests, they picked “Know It All” from their self-titled debut album to perform, adding playfully sung ad libs in place of the electric guitar solo. With “What I Want” next the band returned to their Tryhard EP in front of a fully bought-in crowd singing back every word.

The Band CAMINO took almost every request they could hear from the screaming fans, continuing with a recent single “See You Later.” Spencer hit the highest notes of the evening with floating falsettos and tight harmonies with Jordan. As another treat to the dedicated fans, the boys brought “Haunted” back to the setlist, claiming justice for the oft-overlooked favorite.

Their acoustic version of “Less Than I Do” put a syncopated spin on the usually synth-heavy track. As they sang “Farsighted,” the audience was in step with the band the whole way, not missing a beat when the boys mistakenly sang the wrong words.

To close the night out, The Band CAMINO and all their fans blew the roof off the hazy, Electric Jane with “See Through.” The undying energy was thrilling, leaving fans excited until the very last beat. 

The Dark dropped Friday (Aug. 11) via DBLBLK Records/Elektra Records. The band’s “Screaming In The Dark Tour” kicks off in September with support from Bad Suns, Charlotte Sands and TheWldlfe and concludes in Nashville on Oct. 21.

Caela Griffin
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