Butterflies In the Mosh Pit: Daire Plays the Hit Parader with Presley Faulkner, Skylar Love, and a Special Guest
- Louise Geri
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Despite all the people who are open about having stage fright, I still don’t think the majority of people understand how hard it is to let loose on stage. For Presley Faulkner, Skylar Love, and Daire, it just looks so natural.
I was immediately greeted by Presley Faulkner’s belting upon entering Nashville’s Hit Parader venue on Monday night. She layered a black lace tank and a purple corset. Her platinum blonde hair with curtain bangs screamed “Reneé Rapp goes punk”. I was in shock when Faulkner hit some particularly high notes. My favorite part of the set was her song “Bleeding Color”. It felt very 2000s-inspired, which is my kryptonite when it comes to pop-rock. As she finished with “Hey, Romeo”, she displayed wonderful onstage chemistry with rhythm guitarist Annalaura Lyon and lead guitarist Benji Koeplin.
Skylar Love felt like the child of Billie Eilish and Sofia Isella, donning bright pink hair and a baggy tee reading “coroner” on the back. She performed with her whole body, sticking her hands down her pants for “Pervert” and lifting her shirt teasingly and doing thrusting arm motions while covering Tate McRae’s 2025 hit “Sports Car”. These moments of embracing sexuality were a good follow-up after “Sour Treat”, in which she sang about kissing both men and women. She built the energy splendidly for Daire’s set.
As the crowd waited for Daire to take the stage, people on her team passed around finger lights that lit butterfly shapes on the ground, as well as “Daire” cards with dares for audience members.
Lights flashed as Daire took the stage, wearing a pink punk-inspired dress with a black lace bra peeking out from under, complete with bedazzled butterfly wing boots, and face gems in the shapes of stars around the outer corners of her eyes.
As I watched Daire perform, I felt solidified that my spidey-sense that she’d be incredible onstage had always been more fact than feeling. I knew Daire prior to the show, and I’ve met very few people with such charisma. She wielded a bright blue electric guitar, did the classic rockstar move of getting on her knees and lying backward (have you ever tried this? It’s more difficult than you’d think) and stood on speakers. Lights made it look like her hair was on fire, adding flair to her already vibrant hair tinsel. She emoted with her eyes throughout her first few songs, including “Choking Hazard”, “Normal” and a cover of Hole’s “Celebrity Skin”.
Daire segued into “Lethal Weapon” by asking some girls for a “badass woman story”. One answered, “I think every woman story is badass”. Another told of a time she got photo proof of a guy cheating on his girlfriend, leading to him being kicked out of a bar.
She taught the crowd the “Dogpile” lyric, “Dog with a bone, come on, let it go” and made light of tech issues by telling a story of how, during band rehearsals, her band referred to equipment breaking down as “misery business from hell”. She transitioned this into a cover of Paramore’s “Misery Business”.
In a speech between segments, Daire was gracious and sincere, “This is my first headliner in Nashville!” She expressed the relative newness of riotgrrrl pop, giving fans permission to say, when the subgenre gets big, that they were there from the start.
Partway through Daire’s set, a boy and a girl ran in and changed the energy of the show as they danced. On one of Daire’s speaking breaks, she crouched on the edge of the stage and had the girl introduce herself. The girl, who identified herself as Tori (take note of her throughout this article), donned a finger light and began collecting “Daire” cards as Daire performed. As this occurred, the crowd was quickly filling in.
Daire reached a segment in the show called DTV, revolving around lifting up other rising female artists. She brought out Kikko Mai, a recent Belmont University graduate. She and Daire played guitar and duetted on Mai’s 2025 single “tell my boyfriend (i want a girlfriend)”. The crowd screamed their lungs out. Daire and Mai then duetted a cover of the iconic Alanis Morisette song “You Oughta Know”. This prompted Tori, who had now followed through on being dared to go to the front row, to pursue the “daire” to start a dance circle. The crowd moshed to the cover.
After Mai left the stage, Daire played “Only Daughter Syndrome”, smoke bursting upward as she sang that she was “born selfish”. This was followed by teaching the crowd to sing the “Little B!tch” lyrics, “Woah, yeah, you’re such a little bitch”.
Still, none of those moments were the best part. As Daire sang “Cherry Bomb”, she followed through on a “daire” displayed on Tori’s phone screen, which was to let attendees onstage. Many fans had a blast dancing for the crowd, and Tori was given a free merch item.
The mood did a 180, turning solemn for “Closure” when Daire asked the crowd if they’d ever been ghosted. Everyone held up their finger lights for the song. “Envy” was a strong closer to the pre-encore section, with instruments amped up. Daire jumped into the crowd before running backstage.
She returned for the encore, dancing with her whole body and holding hands with audience members as she closed with “Heartbreaker” and “Rhinestone Heart”, preluding the latter with her slogan, “Daire to be different”. She implored audience members never to change themselves for others. I felt like I was on a cloud as she and her band left the stage.
After the show, I talked to Tori, who further revealed herself as Tori Ball, a Belmont sophomore songwriting major. Ball told me, “I came to this show completely off a whim, just for fun, and I think from my freshman year to now at Belmont, this is the best show I’ve been to. This is the best representation of, like, what it means to be a female in music, like modern-day girl-pop. This is exactly what we want to see. As a female artist, we need more people like Daire on the stage”. Ball is a solo artist, as well as a singer for bands Half Baked and Tripp Todd, and a co-founder of the venue the Warehouse in Chattanooga. What a cool way to discover a new artist.
You can keep up with Daire, Presley Faulkner, and Skylar Love on Instagram at @daire_mcleod, @presleyfaulkner.music, and @officialskylarlove, respectively. Keep your eyes peeled for more upcoming Daire shows!
Comments