The Gainesville music scene is getting a taste of Nashville.
Nashville bands Moon Taxi and The Lonely Biscuits are performing Friday at High Dive, located at 210 SW 2nd Ave.
“We’re trying to put on a show with a ton of energy and personality to give something for people to go crazy for,” said Grady Wenrich, a 22-year-old guitarist and the lead vocalist for The Lonely Biscuits.
Other band members include 22-year-old bassist Nick Byrd and 23-year-old drummer Sam Gidley.
The three-man band formed in 2011 at Belmont University.
“Sam and I were random roommates, and Nick lived across the hall,” Wenrich said.
The band originally wanted to be called The Gravy and the Biscuits.
However, when they realized it would be harder to trademark that name, they settled for The Lonely Biscuits, Byrd said.
In November 2015, The Lonely Biscuits headlined at High Dive during their first-ever Florida show.
Now, the band is coming back to open for Moon Taxi.
“We tour a lot with (Moon Taxi),” Gidley said. “We are not fully on tour with them, but we are doing five shows with them.”
Moon Taxi’s current lineup includes Spencer Thomson on guitar, Wes Bailey on keyboard, Tom Putnam on bass, Tyler Ritter on drums and Trevor Terndrup on guitar and lead vocals.
Before they were Moon Taxi, Terndrup and Putnam formed a band called Apex during their high-school years in Birmingham, Ritter said.
The current lineup kicked in when they decided to move to Nashville to attend Belmont University, where Tendrup and Putnam met Thomas in the dorms.
The three of them were originally the backing band for a hip-hop group called Blaze & Knowledge, but they eventually started doing their own shows in Nasville as Moon Taxi, Ritter said.
Another piece of the band was added after a party in Nashville.
There, the three original members met Ritter. They met Bailey six months later.
Ritter said the band’s most recent album, “Daybreaker,” which was released in October 2015, represents a current look at how the band has matured over the years.
There are elements of all walks of life based on real experiences they’ve faced.
Moon Taxi will play tunes from “Daybreaker” during Friday’s show, along with songs from its entire catalog, which spans across five albums in the last nine years.
The Lonely Biscuit released an EP in November and plans on playing the entire EP on Friday.
With a few EPs under their belt, The Lonely Biscuits are ready to release an album over the summer.
The band draws inspiration from personal occurrences — even the most unusual of them.
“There is one song about a deer that died in our backyard,” Wenrich said. “There was a deer that got scared, ran into our neighbor’s yard and fell into our yard.”
The bandmates, who live together in Nashville when they’re not touring, decided to bury it in their yard.
It later turned into inspiration for a song.
“It died with a purpose,” he joked.
If they’re not home writing songs, practicing sets and recording demos, the band is on the road searching for their usual prospects: coffee shops and record stores.
On tour, the band enjoys interacting with fans after shows.
They welcome anyone to a meet-and-greet with them.
“After our show we will go straight to the merch table,” Wenrich said. “If you want to meet us, you just come and we can sign something, or just shake hands, take a picture or give a high five!”
Show doors open at 9 p.m., and tickets are available for $14 at the door or $12 in advance on ticketfly.com.
