By Hannah Zaic

As fans, judges, and musicians, anxiously await the start of the show in the Hard Rock Cafe’s dimly lit dining room, the mood is excited, perhaps even optimistic. Patrons, expecting just dinner with a side of rock & roll relic, are pleasantly surprised by a bonus concert by some of Philly’s best country and folk artists.

Tonight’s leg of the city-wide battle of  PHL LIVE Center Stage will be judged by three of the most influential figures in the Philadelphia music scene: That Mag publisher, Brian Cronin; Executive Director of the Philadelphia Folksong Society, Justin Nordell; and WXTU Music Director and Radio Personality, Mark Razz.

Before shifting their full attention on the PHL LIVE country and folk finalists, the judges could be found socializing at the marble slab bar, catching up with fans, friends, and other individuals, sipping drinks, and trading war stories from the grueling music industry. The finalists performing this night were Man About a Horse, Ami Yares, Alex Mery & the Townsmen, Jessica Graae and Black Horse Motel.

You can log onto iRadioPhilly to see the highlights and to listen to the performances.

Our master of ceremonies is the illustrious Jennifer Logue of Rock On Philly. Logue is the first talent to take the stage before our finalists join her one-by-one for a discreet and organized mic check.  

It was a great night to be in Center City and regardless of the competitive nature of the event, everyone in the room was eager to show why our arts community is unlike any other in the world. Simply put, fans, judges, and musicians came for a friendly competition, but also stuck around to cheer each other on.

This display of mutual respect between artists, to and from the fans, is right in line with what PHL LIVE’s creator, Philadelphia Councilman-at-Large, David Oh, first imagined for the contest. During its second run, the multi-venue, genre-crossing event series is bigger and better than ever and shows no sign of slowing down.  

That Mag was lucky enough to sit down and talk with the councilman between acts. Otherwise, for most of the evening, he could be found at one of the tables near the stage, enjoying great music, as well as a few jokes told by our finalists and MC.

You wouldn’t think that a Republican Councilman would be inspired to create a music events series as successful as PHL LIVE. However, after attending a film festival, Councilman Oh was inspired and wondered if his music series should be structured similarly to the film festival.

Unlike most inaugural music festivals, adding a competitive spin would attract a fair amount of local, independent artists who are actually paid for their work. Since 2011, Councilman Oh has been bringing his notoriety (and cash) to local artists, while also serving as our city’s first Asian-American elected official! How cool is that?!

The culmination of 2017’s contest is going to be the PHL LIVE Awards Show held at the Trocadero, tonight, December 15th. For those of you looking to get involved next year, there are ten genres you could compete in for the grand prizes, which are as follows:

ANNOUNCING PHL LIVE CENTER STAGE

Coor’s Light Presents PHL LIVE Center Stage: 2017 Prizes

Grand Prizes for each of the 10 music category winners and the People’s Choice winner:

1. $1,000.00 for each of th 11 winners (total of $11,000.00 in prize money)
2. City Council Citation awarded to each of the 11 winners at the Awards Show in December at the Trocadero Theater
3. Resolution presented to the group of 11 winners in City Council

(You can find more information about PHL LIVE’s 2017 finalists, terms, conditions and prizes at www.phllive.org.)

Since the finalists are beating out so many other acts to play for a judge’s panel of industry heavyweights, the concerts held around the city at stellar venues like Milkboy #1 & #2, The World Cafe Live and The Hard Rock Cafe are guaranteed to be Philly local talent at its best. Better get out there and see them play before they aren’t so local anymore!

Here is to another epic year with PHL LIVE and to many, many more to come. Onwards, to the Trocadero!

Piazza at Schmidt’s in Northern Liberties!

On Saturday, September 8th is Radio 104.5’s last Summer Block Party of the year! AWOLNATION will be headlining this final show, with support from the new sensation Imagine Dragons and Texan hip hop artist, Zeale. This year has been extremely eventful for each of the performers and they’re sure to put on a great show to bring the summer to an end.

AWOLNATION began as Aaron Bruno of Under the Influence of Giants and Hometown Hero playing around in a studio in 2009. Their first full length album was released in 2011 and it’s first single, “Sail,” reached platinum in the US. Since then their most recent single, “Kill Your Heroes,” has been gaining momentum on the charts. They’re currently touring the US and will then continue on to tour internationally.
(Read Hannah Zaic’s interview with AWOLNATION for That Mag here)

Imagine Dragons are coming to Philly from Las Vegas, bringing tons of energy and talent with them. Their most recent EP, Continued Silence, was released in early 2012. Their single, “Time to Pretend,” not only topped the charts but was featured in a trailer for The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They have since gained lots of attention and have their first full length album, Night Visions, coming out on September 4th- just four days before playing at the last block party. Make sure not to miss them performing new material this Saturday!
(Read Emily’s interview with Imagine Dragons for That Mag here)

Zeale describes himself as a “neon-colored negro with more swag than a fish in a scaled jacket. Oh yeah….and I rap too!” He experiments with combining hip hop, EDM, and rock music. He is currently giving out a free EP on his website featuring his remix of AWOLNATION’s “Sail.” He is currently touring with Imagine Dragons and AWOLNATION, so make sure to catch all three of them on September 8th for the last block party of the summer!

Written by: Emily Meenan

Photo by: Autumn de Wilde

The open air media tent on the last day of the Firefly Festival, held in Dover, DE, was located on the far end of a large field. The area’s entrance was manned by several very serious (and seriously miserable) looking security personnel. A visibly exhausted Bruno appeared beyond the guarded gate and walked with his tour manager slowly across the grass towards his first interview of the day. Having had to travel from L.A. just for this one performance and the fact that the band was due on stage in less than three hours, his fatigue was understandable.

Eventually we settle into a couple of creaky folding chairs within the already crowded tent, he removes his sunglasses while answering my first question only to reconsider the decision moments later. This was not the first one-off of Bruno’s week, but in fact, the fourth. In this case, a one-off is a show where the band travels by plane to a venue, plays a single set, maybe does a few interviews and then goes home.
Bruno takes it all in stride saying, “It’s the best job in the world and every once in a while you have to do stuff that’s uncomfortable, like wake up at four in the morning after playing a show at ten at night, but it’s all worth it.”

Given the short time between his interviews and the band’s performance, the subject of pre-show rituals comes up. His response turns into a somewhat revealing account of how Bruno views his most recent success with AWOLNATION.
“Nothing too exciting. I try and bond with my buddies that I’m about the hit the stage with. I have a little vocal thing that I like to do, to stretch out my… instrument I guess you could say. Reminisce about the journey that it’s taken to get to this point. You know, no matter what the show is, some shows are bigger than others of course. I always try to give thanks to the powers that be that put me in this position. That’s normally my ritual, I guess.”

And what a journey it has been. After playing in bands on the west coast since the age of twelve and having negative experiences while attached to major labels, he was certain that in moving forward, things would be different.
“I was never going to be part of a major label situation again, because I had that already and failed.”
He goes on to say that AWOLNATION’s album was nearly finished by the time they teamed up with their current label, Red Bull Records. A relationship he describes as a partnership.

“I never wanna be told what to do, especially when it’s (me) that’s on stage or (me) that’s singing these songs…This comes from the heart so there’s no room for anyone else’s input at all.”

As for Red Bull Records and the immersion of an all too rare label and artist partnership, Bruno had this to say about how it all went down:
“When they heard the songs and saw a couple of our shows really early on, Greg Hammer, the president of the label sort of came to me and said that we should partner up and move forward with what I was already doing, as opposed to coming in and controlling it… they agreed to let me continue to do what I was doing, it’s just they were going to back it.”

The idea of an artist calling the shots in the studio after being backed by a label used to be somewhat of an urban legend. Bruno credits self reliance and artistic integrity for the group’s success with Red Bull.

“What I think is happening is (that) bands are getting smarter and learning how to record themselves. So the day and age of having to meet the producer with the cool studio to make a record is slowly dying. I think it’s really important if you’re a new band that you understand how to record- learn how to record yourself so you don’t have to rely on anyone else. Because when I was broke and in debt and fairly homeless, I was still able to record myself no matter where I was. I just needed my computer, an acoustic guitar for writing, a midi keyboard and my samples I had collected over the years. I was able to make 70% of my record no matter where I was. I could be right here as long as it was a little quieter, and compose a whole song.”

AWOLNATION’s most current album, Megalithic Symphony (2011), was conceptualized, written and (for the most part) performed by Bruno alone. As the record is discussed further, he proudly talks about the joys of touring and recording with his band mates.
“They’re my best friends. Our drummer (Hayden Scott) is the only guy that I didn’t know before the band started, but he’s become a good friend now as well. But ah, everybody else was either in some sort of band that I was in.”
Most notably, Drew Stewart who was also in two other bands with Bruno, Hometown Hero and On The Shoulders of Giants. Bruno claims to be only “average” with most of the instruments that he plays on the Megalithic Symphony, but when asking for help in the studio, he was most excited about being able to pay his friends after struggling so long as a musician himself .

“If there is a part that isn’t natural for me I would have one of my friends come in and play that are much better than me at that instrument. Like, for example, live bass. I didn’t play any live bass, I can’t even try ya know? It’s the weirdest thing, it seems so easy but that is one of the most delicate instruments that you could possibly play and I happen to know two of my favorite bass players in the world, which is, our bass player Dave Amezcua and our good friend Billy Muller and they both played on the record. It was a dream come true that I was able to pay them actual money. Instead of, when you’re broke and everything, you know, you have to ask people for favors. So it was cool that I was able to pay them.”

When the time finally comes for AWOLNATION to take the stage at the Firefly Festival, throngs of scantily clad fans have already gathered at the foot of the stage and had been there for nearly an hour. At numerous points during their set, Bruno refers to how grateful he is to be performing for the crowd, disclosing how surreal it feels for him to be surrounded by gear owned by the iconic band, The Flaming Lips, scheduled to play the same stage only hours later. During the course of what could only be described as a phenomenal show, they play tracks from both their EP Back to Earth (2010) as well as their most recent record, Megalithic Symphony (2011).

On this occasion, the California surfer/ front man was sporting a button down with shorts and a pair of laced sneakers which he has only ever tied once. But in the past, Bruno would have been found wearing a pair of red TOM’s shoes on stage. He was spotted wearing them so often that his fans began to wear them too. Since the TOM’s company is also based out of Southern California, the possibility of some sort of alliance seemed plausible. Thus the topic of comfortable shoes was now on the folding table.
“So the TOM’s were like, a really a good thing to put on after I would go surfing and they became comfortable, like ninja slippers, but they (also) became a little too popular I suppose, for me to continue to wear and I think that TOM’s got bought out by The Man anyway. So now I have these shoes called ‘The People’s Movement’ that I wear all of the time. It’s all recycled material, they use plastic bottles to make the shoe. The whole goal is to try to prevent pollution in the ocean. So anyone who’s reading this interview, I’d definitely check them out ‘The People’s Movement’ shoes, (made by) a good friend of mine and I wear those a lot.”

Back in Philadelphia, local fans are gearing up for AWOLNATION’s September 8th return to the tri-state area. They’re playing the 104.5 block party with Imagine Dragons at the Piazza in Northern Liberties. But in Delaware, on a hot July afternoon, the interview is over, punctuated with hand shaking and a seemingly endless stream of “thank you”, “No, thank you!’.

A tired Aaron Bruno prepares to give his next three interviews while a gaggle of onlookers wait for a chance to take a picture with him. Eventually he walks slowly across the grass for a second time, passing the same guards on his way to AWOLNATION’s artist trailer. The band will depart for the long trip back to L.A. by 5pm, but not before leaving their fans with memories of a killer rock show, a little advice about footwear and some catchy tunes to hum on the way home.

Written by: Hannah Zaic

It’s pretty subdued at Milkboy Coffee the night Rachel Platten comes to town.

The crowd is doing what coffee shop crowds do best: chat, listen, chat, sip, listen. Chat. Her opener, a very capable young man with an acoustic guitar, finishes the opening set. His departure from the stage is met with ample applause which dies down when the house radio comes back on. Platten is in the back of the room consorting with her drummer and soon heads to the stage. As the striking blond steps up the patrons are already paying just a bit more attention. She grins while arranging the appropriate wires, adjusts her piano stool and cracks inaudible jokes to her fellow musician. Finally settled, she looks into the audience like you would expect she would an old dear friend that has been missed. A wide, warm and genuine smile across her face, she introduces herself along with her percussionist and the show begins.

When her clear-as-a-bell voice hits the air the onlookers seem almost dumbfounded, as if whatever it was they were expecting, this wasn’t it. The music fills out the room from the floor to the high ceilings and we are at it’s mercy, surrounded, with no escape from this positively infectious piano pop. The elements of her influences permeate the tools of our capture. Like the bright joyful energy of so many Beatles songs, the strong, quirky feminine vocals of Regina Spektor, undeniable hooks of Madonna and a refreshing dash of soul, courtesy of Sam Cooke. At the end of the first song the room erupts as the crowd shows their appreciation through enthusiastic claps, hoots and hollers. Platten just keeps smiling, humbly thanks them and proceeds to perpetuate the same ‘wow’ factor for the remainder of her set.

Her songs have a continuous theme of joy and positivity. It’s hard not smiling when hearing them (check out “Nothing Ever Happens” and “Honey Bee” ). “I believe that pop music can be intelligent, and well written, but also upbeat and full of joy and love,” Rachel tells Mara Siegler of HuffingtonPost.com. “I just want to bring love. I want everyone to feel like they just got a giant boost of adrenaline and oxygen and Prozac after a show, and just feel good.”
The Boston born, classically trained pianist fell in love with the stage when she was 19 during a semester abroad at University of the West Indies. It was there that she joined a Soca band that thought enough of her skills to invite her on tour with them. “The plan was to intern at a record label, study international relations, and work on my thesis of globalization’s effect on the music industry. I ended up staying through the beginning of the summer after meeting a band that invited me to tour with them….my first real show was in front of 10,000 people.” But that was just the beginning for Rachel, she would go on to share the stage with such highly respectable acts as The Strokes, Rusted Root, and Living Colour.

The perfect image of a self starter, she cites the 2009 independent planning of her first extensive U.S. solo tour as the accomplishment that she is most proud of in her career so far: “I sat in a coffee shop for two weeks straight, all day, every day, and contacted clubs and just got to work.” Having developed a substantial following in New York City, where she lives, conquering the rest of country seemed like the next logical step. Fast forward two years and Rachel is still touring much to the delight of fans all across the U.S. and beyond. This month it is being announced that Rachel has signed on with Rock Ridge Music/Warner Music Group and a full length album is due out this Spring.

At the end of her show at Milkboy, Rachel steps down from the stage still smiling wide, exuding gratitude, as if the room had given her a gift. Meanwhile the assorted inhabitants of the space go back to their chat, sip, chat routine, released from her spell. The songs will linger in my head for days and I wonder what the world would be like with a few more Rachel Plattens in it.