Donna Missal's Revel Tour

“This is our church, our community, in this room – how you live your life and what you do with your body is your choice here.” Donna Missal’s words hugged the starry-eyed crowd on a rainy night at Nashville’s Basement East.

“Revel” is the artist’s first headlining tour in five years and she’s back with a vengeance and an addicting new sound.
An album like “Revel” redefines an artist. Missal has toyed with plenty of musical identities but this album made space for pain, vulnerability, as well as danceability.

The initial lead-in of “Flicker” sent the audience into a nonstop fever of movement. Incorporating twitch like drum patterns and creating a strobesque sound, Flicker forges tension and fire telling the story of loss and conquering the circumstance.

Missal’s songwriting leaves no stone left unturned focusing on the nuance, shades of gray, and ambiguous side of every theme she touches from change to truth to sex.
Behind every song, there’s a movie playing behind her eyes. She whistfully sings
“I don’t want to be the reason you don’t bloom” and the crowd is left melting.
Missal creates complicated narratives expressed both striking and simple. Donna Missal grounds herself in roots of truth to best grow with her music.

She’s an expert at resonating with a room. The bisexual singer songwriter’s heavy queer fan base broke into a chorus of “Girl you got me all fucked up” with a timbre that made the venue shake.

Her unmatched vocal prowess ranges from the grit of Janis Joplin to the belting capability of Christina Aguilera. She fluidly transitions from the top of her range to the bottom with ferocity and full control. Her dynamics are just as impressive as her range, perfectly keying into the level of intensity in every word in every song needed to fuel the song to it’s full impact.

Ending the night with her viral success “Keep Lying” you could cut the artist’s intensity with a knife. Her performance was art turned science. Perfectly emphasizing every beat and emotion, Donna Missal pulled the audience in for a final demonstration of vocal acrobatics they’ll never forget.

The most humbling display came after the show, where Donna took the time to meet every single fan in the room, take photos, and sign memorabilia for every member “of her church.” Donna Missal is a lighthouse in queer music and continues to shine outside of Nashville’s Basement East. Photos: Isabella Ellis