[ATTENDED: October 10, 2018] Gruff Rhys
Super Furry Animals was one of my favorite bands of the 1990s. Their music was great and I loved that they were Welsh. It’s unfathomable that some of their singles weren’t huge here. Even their all-Welsh album Mwng is catchy as anything.
Since the mid 2000s they’ve been in a different musical space (and on hiatus). Lead singer Gruff (pronounced Griff) Rhys has released several solo albums and just recently released the album Babelsberg.
I hadn’t heard any of Babelsberg, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to see Gruff live for the first time. (I saw SFA back in the 90s, but this would be very different).
Gruff was supposed to come to Johnny Brenda’s a few years ago (he explained), but Visa issues caused him to miss the Philly date. That show was supposed to be solo, but for this show he had a four piece band: bassist Stephen “Sweet Baboo” Black and Osian Gwynedd on piano (who I could never see because he was behind Gruff, but whom I talked to after the show). And he had Kliph Scurlock from the Flaming Lips on drums (!). Kliph was selling the merch (while the other guys were talking Welsh backstage) and I chatted with him for a bit. He has moved to Wales! (more…)
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