The stages at the Curb Event Center and Marathon Music Works may be similar in size but during Thursday’s Red Bull SoundClash one thing was clear — Bren Joy and Jake Wesley Rogers aren’t at Belmont anymore. Rogers and Joy, who graduated in 2018 and 2019 respectively, haven’t shared the stage since 2019’s Best of the Best showcase at Belmont but reunited for the face-off style concert sponsored by Red Bull. Jake Wesley Rogers singing onstage at Red Bull SoundClash. Belmont Vis

There’s thunder in his lungs and lightning in his limbs. When he pinwheels to center stage, bell sleeves flying, to sit at his little white piano, his legs are too long to fold up underneath, so he falls to the stool in a graceful, split-legged lunge, or otherwise he stands to play. He pounds at the keys like he wants answers from them. At his sold-out show at The Basement East in Nashville, the largest he’s ever headlined, Jake Wesley Rogers is 6 feet, 4 inches of glitter an

Jules Paymer was driving to get a haircut when the phone call came. It was an unassuming number from New York. When Paymer picked up, the manager for international indie-pop sensation Jake Wesley Rogers answered to relay some major news. Paymer had won the contest to be Rogers’ opening act at his sold-out Nashville show. Soon after the news was delivered, Rogers got on the call to congratulate the artist himself. “It was like a dream,” Paymer, who uses they/she pronouns, said