[ATTENDED: February 8, 2018] Tall Friend
Tall Friend is a Philadelphia band which seems to be the creation of Charlie Pfaff, who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar. She has a quiet, almost deadpan delivery and her guitar playing is nicely spare. The band is rounded out by Cale Cuellar on bass and Jesse Paller on drums. For this show they had just added a fourth member, whose name I forget. All I remember is that he was barefoot (!) and his guitar wasn’t loud enough!!.
They were supposed to go on at 9. But they didn’t go until like 9:25. Of course, they played nine songs in 20 minutes, so it’s not like they were running late. Turns out they have an album out but it, too, is only about 18 minutes (and an EP that’s about 11 minutes).
I was right up against the stage, but I gather the guitar was not in the main speakers, because it was much louder than the vocals. I moved back a bit and that helped, but I probably should have moved to a different spot to fully appreciate the band
Charlie’s guitar was really loud (which is probably why I couldn’t hear the other guitar–I don’t remember his name, but I did get a picture, unlike poor Cale and even Charlie–it was very dark during their set). It’s funny that the guitar was so loud since their music is so chill.
I really enjoyed her simple but crisp guitar melodies.
Charlie was a fun front woman. She joked about the Eagles parade that day–seeing a plane leaving the message Phily Philly Dilly Dilly–whatever that means.
I also enjoyed the joy that Jesse brought to the drums.
When their set was nearly done she said she knew that everyone wished the opening act would just keep playing and playing, but really we should stick around because the other two bands were good too. After that song she said she felt bad about saying that because Palehound and Weaves are both really good.
They were a delightful band and I’m happy that the crowd was respectful through their quiet songs.
I took a picture of the setlist (on a third of a paper plate), but I don’t know what the all of the song titles are supposed to be).
Grape- Honey
- Rock
- Waltz
- Yellow
- Apoptosis
- KB
- Natural Things
- Heart
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