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Archive for the ‘Philly Music Fest’ Category

[ATTENDED: October 16, 2026] Wax Jaw

When this show was announced as part of Philly Music Week, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  Three of the four bands were bands I had either seen or wanted to see.  The only band I didn’t know was Midfield.

I have seen Wax Jaw twice, although I laugh at the number of times I haven’t seen them but could have (14 times).  I’m curious that each time I’ve seen them, they’ve played ten songs.  Huh.

So they were the headliners of the side stage and they exploded onto the stage with Lace Up.  Within moments, guitarist George Fenton was on the floor getting a mosh pit going!

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about the Wax Jaw printed setlist is that between songs, they write things which they (sometimes) say to the audience.  Like after the first song, Shane Morgan said, as was printed “I like to see the pit going crazy, just don’t be a creep” (as an intro to Creepshow).

So they played three songs from their 2025 album, which I actually didn’t know that well, even though I was obsessed with their debut EP.  The new album is also really good–punkier and more diverse–I just missed it entirely somehow–along with half a dozen shows.

The setlist notes that Bite the Apple was a new song and then says that they just got back from Europe, so buy some merch. They had new merch, but I didn’t love any of it. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 16, 2026] Remember Sports

When this show was announced as part of Philly Music Week, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  Three of the four bands were bands I had either seen or wanted to see.  The only band I didn’t know was Midfield.

I had seen Remember Sports just a few months ago when they headlined Kung Fu Necktie.  I feel like they should be a bigger band since WXPN was playing one of their songs a lot–and they were asked to do a Free at Noon today (I didn’t go since I was seeing them tonight).   I was surprised that they were going on when they were (2nd of 4).  But I never know if opening on the main stage is better than headlining the side stage.  I actually thought they might be bigger than Sweet Pill, but I was massively mistaken about that.

Nevertheless, they are such a dynamite live band.

It was much more crowded here than at KFN.  Like last time, I was in front of guitarist Jack Washburn who is really fun to watch–he played great solos and switched easily from noisy to quiet.   I could barely see bassist Catherine Dwyer who was in shadow for much of the set.  But like last time, she sang excellent backing vocals and in true bass player fashion, was chill and low key–she did make a joke about some basketball podcast being taped in Underground Arts, so she was geeking out about that.

Last time I couldn’t see drummer Connor Perry, but this time he was right up front too, and I was really impressive by his intensity–the songs aren’t super heavy or anything (well, a couple are) but he was a maniac behind the kit.

But really all attention is on singer/guitarist Carmen Perry.  She played an acoustic guitar for the first couple of songs and then switched to an electric for the rest.  Her voice is great with a lot of variety, including some really powerful screams.  But I’m amused every time she speaks between songs because she is so quiet and almost nervous–after belting out a song like Bug, she asks how everyone is doing and if they like living in Philly.   This isn’t as weird as it seems, it related to her saying that they had just come back from Europe and she asked what people think of when they think of Philly and the overwhelming answer is Cream Cheese!

Although their set didn’t differ radically from when I saw them, they did mix things up and only played 7 songs from the new album “We have a new album out.  We like it.”

They played five songs from the new album–a great mix of tempos and intensities.  Then they dipped into some older songs, one from their previous EP and one from their debut album.  But they also played three older songs that they didn’t play last time.

Pinky Ring from their last full length and then two from an album they didn’t touch when I saw them last time, 2015’s All of Something.  Reality TV, a fast punky song and Washing Machine, a sweet gently rocking song.  They ended with Cut Fruit, a track with a noisy intro (again, Washburn does great things with noise and feedback) that turns into a simple, catchy song.  It was a perfect, compact set.

They set was short, and it was great, except for the trio of (presumably drunk), really obnoxious guys who were shouting to each other through most of the songs.  What the heck?  And no one said anything to them (they were pretty intimidating looking, I will admit) and I made sure to avoid them going forward.

 

October 2026 (Underground Arts) Feb 2026 (Kung Fu Necktie)
Ghost ® Across The Line ®
Across The Line ® Bug ®
Yowie ® Thumb ®
Bug ® Tiny Planets Π
Thumb ® You’re So Sorry Π
Leap Day £ Cut Fruit ®
Tiny Planets Π Selfish ®
Pinky Ring ♣ Ghost ®
Nevermind ® Fridge ®
Reality TV ⊗ Yowie ®
The Washing Machine ⊗ Calling Out §
Cut Fruit ® Easy ♣
Zucchini ®
Soothe/Seethe ®
Nevermind ®
Leap Day £
Out Loud ♣

 

® The Refrigerator (2026)
£ Leap Day EP (2022)
♣  Like a Stone (2021)
§ Slow Buzz (2018)
⊗ All of Something (2015)
Π SPORTS (2013)

 

 

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[ATTENDED: October 15, 2026] Midfield

When this show was announced as part of Philly Music Week, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  Three of the four bands were bands I had either seen or wanted to see.  The only band I didn’t know was Midfield.

Turns out they are a pop punk band from Philly.  Their songs are catchy and a lot of fun.  The band was great and their singer Matt Kelly has a strong deeper voice but he occasionally adds a falsetto.

I wasn’t clear how many people knew them, although there were two guys standing next to me who knew all of their songs really well.  There was also a mosh pit but only a few solo dudes were dancing in it.

They played seven songs in 30 minutes and if the guys next to me were an indication, the last song is their biggest.  I really enjoyed them, as pop punk is my latest jam and I’d happily see them again.

  1. Southpaw ∇
  2. Battle Scars §
  3. Nothing Changes §
  4. Fishtown and Down ∇
  5. Some Way Some How §
  6. Tidal Wave ∇
  7. Out of Time ∇

§ single (2026)
∇ Midfield (2024)

 

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[ATTENDED: October 15, 2026] The Dillinger Escape Plan

When this show was announced as part of Philly Music Week, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  I had seen The Dillinger Escape Plan ten years ago when the opened for Mastodon and it was one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen–even if I was very far away and it was so loud I had to leave my spot to buy earplugs.

They have only played Philly twice since that show.  Once a couple months later at Union Transfer and once two years ago at FMH again.  shouted out Philly venues they played when they were first starting out, especially Stalag 13 (which I’ve never heard of but was a legendary DIY punk location 1996-1999 apparently).

Speaking of Philly Music Fest, a festival that is nominally about Philly music, The Dillinger Escape Plan are (proudly one might say) from New Jersey.  But that’s okay and lead singer Dimitri Minakakis shouted all of the people in Philly who have seen them at so many clubs along the way (he listed a whole bunch).

They opened with the noisy sounds of *#.. and then splashed right into the incoherent screams of Destro’s Secret.  And the place exploded.  I didn’t realize (and coudln’t really tell since I don’t know the album very well) but they played three songs in a row from Calculating Infinity (just not from the start of the album).  For all of the speed and chaos, DEP is tight as anything.  They way they shifted from chaos to quiet in The Running Board was really impressive.

I didn’t realize that this show was going to be basically a Calculating Infinity tour.  They played the entire album as well as the EP they released before the album, Under the Running Board.

The midsection with wild drumming and wild guitar of The Mullet Burden was incredible to hear live.  And then it was back to the album sequence with Clip the Apex, including the static and samples, and Calculating Infinity, a song that slowed things down for a couple of minutes and gave S a rest.  But wow, so much noise and chaos in about 15 minutes.

Minakakis took a break from time to time to address the crowd, thanking everyone for coming and for being with them all this time.

And it certainly didn’t stop there.  They jumped to the opening of the album, Sugar Coated Sour, and then back to Under the Running Board for Sandbox Magician. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] Waxahatchee

My wife and I saw Waxahatchee open for Courtney Barnett six years ago.  I hadn’t remembered that I had seen her a few months earlier with her full band.

I’ve considered seeing her again since then, but I didn’t go back in 2022.  I was looking forward to seeing her a few months ago at the Fillmore, but the show turned out to be between two Pearl Jam shows and we couldn’t possibly do it all.

This show proved to be exactly the same as the two Fillmore shows just without the backdrops and stage props.

I was looking forward to this show because I thought I knew so much of her new album (and she played the whole thing).  I was surprised by how few songs I knew during this show.  In part because she didn’t really play any deep cuts (okay one or two, but none of her hits).

But I was delighted to hear “Can’t Do Much” (the only song of the night that I had seen her play before) and “Problem With It” which I forgot wasn’t actually a Waxahatchee song (it’s a song by Plains, which is Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson.

After playing a couple of songs from the previous album Saint Cloud, she told us about the new album and how she’d be playing the whole thing tonight.  This group of songs started with the wonderful “Right Back to It” and the even better “Bored.” (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] @

Every since going to Philly Music Fest a few years ago, I’ve been keeping track about it each year to see who is in it the next year.  This year was pretty unexciting for me until they announced a late entry of Waxahatchee as a headliner.  Since we had missed both of their shows at the Fillmore, I decided to grab us a ticket.

Opening was @ a pretty much unfindable band online.

They have a bandcamp site in which they have two releases.  They are kind of interesting and experimental, with lots of sounds layered on to straightforward lyrics.

But live, they were the least dynamic duo I’ve ever seen. (more…)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 10, 2023] Kurt Vile and the Violators / Schoolly D / Emily Robb

I really respect Philly Music Fest.  If I lived closer to the venues and didn’t have other things (like a family), I’d love to go to every night.  But I don’t.  Lat year I didn’t go to any.  This year I’m going to one show.

But it’s not this one either.  Although of the nights I did not go to, this is certainly a good one.  If I’d had more time,  would have happily seen Kurt and Purling Hiss together.

I saw Purling Hiss six years ago.  I assumed they would be a really loud heavy metal band.  But they’re not.  They’re more of  loud indie rock band with lots and lots of guitars.

Here’s a few out of context sentences from reviews of their newest album Drag on Girard (it’s shame this show wasn’t at Johnny Brenda’s).

  • The fuzzed-out lead guitar, the languid vocals, and the unbridled backbeat that keeps it all together
  • Drag on Girard settles on the scuzzy, faded sound of a nicotine-stained dollar bin find from the ‘70s.
  • Their latest release, Drag On Girard, can be fuzzy, abrasive and at times chaotic, but the album still brings a melodic and catchy ambiance.
  • Drag On Girard is a raging amalgamation of late-’70s, pop-rock guitar solos and the rambunctious reemergence of the off-bent alternative punk scene of the 2010s

It’s pretty great stuff and makes for a fun live show.  I may have to check them out again soon.

What I did not realize was that

Purling Hiss is led by Mike Polizze, a fixture of the Philadelphia music scene. He’s connected to the world of Kurt Vile, the War on Drugs, and their shared affection for 1970s classic rock and its favoring of lengthy jam sessions and guitar histrionics. Vile and Jeff Zeigler of the War on Drugs assisted with Polizze’s well-received solo album, 2020’s Long Lost Solace Find.  

Polizze is also the main guy behind Birds of Maya, another garage/psychedelic band that makes noise.  I wonder if he brings out the noisy side of Kurt Vile.

Florry are a kind of sloppy “bar country” band.

Singer-songwriter Francie Medosch started out as a teenager recording tense, depressive lo-fi indie rock, but during the pandemic, she had a realization: She wasn’t depressed anymore. “I think it’s cool to have art that reflects where you are in the moment,” she said then. She’d also been revisiting old favorites like Gram Parsons and Neil Young, planting seeds for the folksy new sound that would take hold on 2021’s Big Fall. Florry’s second proper album, The Holey Bible, posits an alternative to nihilistic indifference: What if instead of dispassionately accepting disaster as inevitable, we use the bitter end as a motivator to make the best of what time is left?

Though Florry’s sound has always had a homespun quality, on The Holey Bible, Medosch and her backing band—complete with 12-string guitar, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, and plenty of pedal steel—push further toward old-school country.

Not my scene, but it could be fun.

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 9, 2023] Kurt Vile and the Violators / Schoolly D / Emily Robb

I really respect Philly Music Fest.  If I lived closer to the venues and didn’t have other things (like a family), I’d love to go to every night.  But I don’t.  Lat year I didn’t go to any.  This year I’m going to one show.

But it’s not this one.

I’ve seen Kurt Vile a few times and he always plays a good show.  But my wife and I had seen him fairly recently, so there was n need to see him again so soon.

Schoolly D is an old-school rapper who i kind of thought I knew, but I guess I mostly know him from Primus.

We hopped into my dart and headed for the nightbreak to see a man they called Schooly D. [–Harold of the Rocks]

I don’t know what he’s like these days, but I imagine him on stage with a Casio drum machine freestyling.  His latest album came out in 2010 and it was more mixing and sampling than lyrics.

Emily Robb plays an electric guitar (and is referred to as a guitar abuser).  She has a solo album out that is an incredible amount of fuzzy guitar noise.

No vocals, no artifice, barely even a drum. It’s a totally fried, mutant offering that’ll entice the twisted seekers– a sustained, distilled meditation on the unabashed revved up freedom of rock.

This night actually sounds kind of unpleasant.

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 10-15, 2022] Philly Music Fest 2022

Every year since 2019 I have participated in Philly Music Fest in some way.  But this year I wound up giving the whole thing a miss.

Philly Music Fest is a non-profit endeavor focused exclusively on local bands, with all proceeds donated to local music education charities. Philly Music Fest features both established and up and coming artists, showcasing the diversity of the Philadelphia music scene.

It wasn’t because of a bad lineup or anything, it was that I had tickets to other shows every night.  I wound up not going to all of those shows anyway, but basically I was already booked for the whole Fest.

This year’s line up was even bigger than last year’s

October 10, 2022 at Ardmore Music Hall 

  • Marielle Kraft is a poignant indie pop singer-songwriter
  • Electric Candlelight is a heavy psychedelic band that I was supposed to see open for Fuzz
  • Mt. Joy is a band I’ve heard on the radio a bunch who I don’t particularly like, so not so great in the headliner here.

October 11, 2022 at Ardmore Music Hall 

  • Stereo League is apparently impossible to describe using concrete words as I can’t figure out what their music sounds like from the blurbs I’ve read.
  • Salika is an R&B singer
  • Mt. Joy of the two nights I wouldn’t have picked this one anyhow.

October 12, 2022 at World Cafe Live

  • Perpetual Motion is described as dynamic acoustic jazz who play blues, rock, jazz, and world music
  • Kayleigh Goldsworthy is a folk singer who I saw open for Frank Turner.  She was great.
  • Ron Gallo is not Vincent Gallo, which is what I think every time I see his name.  Ron is an indie guy who I’ve never heard but who must be pretty popular or interesting if he keeps popping up.
  • Lady HD is a kind of psychedelic pop band whose name reminds me too much of that Lady A fracas that bubbled up a few years ago.
  • Low Cut Connie is one of the bigger bands at the festival.  I’d never want to see them, but I like some of their songs.

October 13, 2022 at Johnny Brenda’s

  • This was the night I would have gone to
  • The Ire is a four-piece goth-tinged post-punk band.  I like their overall sound.
  • Ghosh is a band I’ve wanted to see: they’re pissed off, informed, and ready to party.
  • Screaming Females are terrific and even better live.  I thought this would sell out in a second.

October 14, 2022 at REC Philly

  • This was a free show.  A night of hip hop and beat curated by Working on Dying who I’ve never heard of of

October 14, 2022 at The Dolphin

  • The Dolphin is a new-ish venue that I’ve yet to check out.
  • Max Swan is saxophonist, vocalist, and producer influenced y likes of Stevie Wonder, James Blake.
  • Echo Kid is two guys from RFA.  This is a hazier, no-holds-barred, psychedelic reimagining of the way they’d approach their songwriting process with a languorous sense of ease, effortless genre-blending, and an amalgam of intentional recorded conversation
  • Shamir is an artist I’d like to see live.  They keep popping up as an opening act and then something happens and I don’t see them.  Here’s another miss.

October 15, 2022 at Underground Arts

  • This would have been my pick for show of the Fest, if I hadn’t already been overbooked.
  • Justmadnice is blues-dipped psychedelic jazz.
  • Riverby are a fun indie rock band with a loose sound (and a cover of “Walk Through the Fire” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Empath is a band I was supposed to see open for Fucked Up but the couldn’t make the rescheduled date.  They are kind of noisy and poppy and punky and are probably very fun live.
  • Mannequin Pussy is one of my favorite new(ish) bands.  They are amazing live and are always worth seeing.

The 2023 Fest is bound to be great too.

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[ATTENDED: October 9, 2021] The Menzingers

I saw The Menzingers open for Weezer back in 2016 and really enjoyed them.  I’d been wanting to see them again mostly because I was really far from the band when I saw them and couldn’t really get into it the way I might have liked.

So when they were listed as headlining two nights of Philly Music Fest I knew I had to see them.  Especially in a small place like Ardmore Music Hall.

I have only been to Ardmore a couple of times.  My favorite show there was Marco Benevento where the sound was outstanding.  Even right up against the stage.  Well, for this show I was right up against the stage (although as more and more people crowded into the place, I moved away from the band’s more devoted (and a little crazy) fans.  But apparently I never got far back enough because literally all I could hear the whole show was Tom May’s guitar.  And May tends to play lead licks and solos, so I never really got the backing chords of Greg Barnett unless May wasn’t playing anything (which happened from time to time).

Obviously it was more fun being able to see bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino (who I couldn’t see at all last time), but it was weird having the sound so disjointed.  Throughout the set I tries moving further and further away from the stage, but I was never able to get further to the middle. (more…)

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