When I first walked into the TLA on South Street, I was surprised at the lack of people that were inside for the Mind Sweep Tour. The small amount of under 21s waited by the barrier, while an equal amount of over 21s hung out in the bar area drinking to pass the thirty minutes until the opening band went on.

Luckily, by the time South Jersey based hardcore band, Chasing Safety, went on, more people had filled into the venue. The hardcore band played songs from their first full album, Season Of The Dead, while Johnny, the lead singer, promoted the new album, NOMAD, with a DIY sleeveless shirt as he moved around the stage intensely. After throwing their banners into the crowd during their last song, the band quickly exited.

White Noises, a fairly new band out of LA, walked onto stage as a few crowd goers screamed their love for the band. The enthusiastic lead singer, Shawn, ran onto stage to join his bandmates who had begun the set already. The band quickly moved around to their songs from their first EP, Aren’t You Glad, which was just released this past February. Due to a cable malfunction, bassist David quickly ran to fix the problem. Shawn easily took control of  the stage and called crowd surfers up, handing them the microphone as they were carried over the barrier. The band finished after their 25 minute set and dramatically threw their instruments onto the stage in front of them in the heat of the moment.

Now that the crowd, who packed the lower level of the TLA, was pumped up, Hands Like Houses was welcomed on stage with cheer. The Australian band started off their short set with “I Am”, which allowed the crowd to relax somewhat with their indie rock/hardcore sound with Matt “Coops” Cooper on lead guitar, Alex Pearson on rhythm guitar, Joey Tyrrell on bass guitar, Matt Parkitny’s powerful drumming, and  Trenton Woodley’s clean vocals. It was clear before they even went on, you could tell that this band would be different than the two hardcore bands before them because they were burning incense before they went on.

After three short sets for the opener, I didn’t really know what to expect from British band, Enter Shikari. Having listened to them in high school, I was familiar with some of their music, but haven’t heard anything newer from them. Ten minutes prior to their start time, a recording of a ’50s entertainment announcer came on to countdown the minutes until the performance between the ’80s music they had playing.

When the recording came down to one minute, the crowd was anxiously waiting until they began to chant “And still we will be here, standing like statues”, which is a line in a handful of the band’s songs. The chanting gave me chills as I watched the anticipating faces of the crowd behind me. Finally, the members of Enter Shikari came onto stage waving hello as the stepped into the spots on stage. Lead singer, Rou Reynolds, stood by his microphone until the first song “Enter Shikari Reprise Solidarity” began, a song that uses the line the crowd was chanting. As the song went on, Rou and bassist, Chris Batten, moved around each other with ease as the ran around the stage. Crowd surfers were coming up left and right, one even jumping out of the security guards arms in order to high five Rou.

Once the songs “Sorry You’re Not A Winner” and “One True Color”, I left the photo pit and quick hurried to the upstairs balcony to get a good view of the band and the rest of the crowd I couldn’t really see before. After the band played an old one that I recognized called “Destabilise”, they told the crowd that it was now time for the “crazy” part of the set. That they wanted to see the crowd dancing the best the could. Before the song “Paddington Frisk”, Rou gave a quick definition of the meaning behind the name, which is the “dance” one does as they suffocate. While this was happening, guitarist , Rory Clewlow, climbed on top of the crowd to play the song. In order to take a break from the crazy part of the set, they played one of their calmer songs “Constellations”. But the break didn’t last long as the band continued on with songs like “Gandhi” and “Torn Apart”, which created a circle pit and some moshers in the crowd. When “Torn Apart” was finished, Rory told the crowd that the next song was the last song, but paused and smiled at the crowd before adding “Or is it?” implying an encore to their set. The band “ended” with another old song, but a crowd favorite “Mothership”.

They exited the stage as all bands do and once gone the crowd began to chant again, but some how they were louder than before. Chris was the first to reenter the stage, followed by Rory, then drummer, Rob Rolfe, who instead of walking to his drum set, when to the front of the stage and put his arms up to pump up the crowd even more, though I didn’t think it was possible. Once he sat at his drums, Rou came back on stage to introduce the next song they were playing, which was “Redshift”. They quickly went through that song into the next one, “Anaesthetist”, and they all ran around stage like orderly madmen. As they ended their performance with “The Appeal ll”, Rou told the crowd that they only had two more minutes to go crazy. Rory climbed back onto the crowd, who helped him stand and play. Chris ran into the crowd to the circle pit and played as many ran around him. Rou climbed on top of speakers as he also played guitar, before meeting with Chris back on stage and running around in circles with him. Rob threw his drumsticks into the crowd and Rou jumped on the speakers next to the drum set, grabbing one of the stage lights and shining it everywhere as the song finished up. When the song was finally done, Rory climbed back on stage and Chris threw his guitar into the crowd while a dozen of hands grabbed onto it trying to claim it.

When Enter Shikari walked off the stage for good, everyone began to leave as well. Sweat poured off of most of the fans so going outside was a nice treat for them. Many hung out outside, talking to some of the bands that played early and recalled their memories from the show they just saw as others made their way home with no voice and huge smiles on the faces.

Well, that was interesting!

We attend many events down on South Street at the TLA.  This was different.

This time it wasn’t a normal concert, although there was live music on the stage. There were also old school burlesque dancers, a dancer with a hula hoop, face/body painting, artisans displaying their wares, food merchants, lots of mixed drinks to sample and about six or seven big name local tattoo artists hard at work. And the place was jammed, as were the tattoo chairs.

Lots of wincing and brave faces as the ink went in. It was a very fun carnival atmosphere filled with a huge array of interesting looking people.

Something for everyone in Philly!

Photos by Matthew Valcourt

It was a bustling Friday night on South Street when The Black Moon’s hit the stage at Legendary Dobbs after following a successful show at World Café Live the previous week. With many of the members having grown up in Philadelphia this was some sort of homecoming for the band. The group formed at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and it was now time to show their Philly audience what they had up their sleeve.

Heavy Harold opened the stage with their energetic feel, setting the mood for the rest of the night. The band’s upbeat drumming and steady bass lines filled the tiny room with a hard rock vibe.

Second up was Sam Haiman Band who also hail from the Berklee College of Music. The quartet describes themselves as an equal mix of Asbury rock, Texas blues, and Laurel Canyon folk. Front man Sam Haiman showed his New Jersey roots up on stage as he played an sang along to the bands original songs as well as energetic cover to Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times” which responded well with the crowd.

The Black Moon’s graced the stage shortly after as the crowed began to chant their name over and over again. They began with “Only Got The Night” and “The Eastern Skyline” off their current album Half-Heart & Climbing. Six musicians scattered the stage which included front man and guitarist Jake Ohlbaum, Liz Duska on backing vocals, Chris Wilder on the keyboard, Scott McIntyre with the bass, Harry Price on guitar, and Will Butera on the drums.

After an energetic start to the show the band went on to debut a new song, “Hungry Like The Wild”, from their upcoming album Less Talk…More Beard (set to release this September). The group kept the fire going throughout their whole performance and the audience responded with constant cheering. Everyone in the venue was enjoying what these guys were doing up on stage. The combination of Ohlbaum’s lead vocals with Duska’s backing harmonies were perfect when it came to tracks like “Careful With My Heart” and “Waiting by the Phone”. Duska even went on to sing solo of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”.

With new music on the way, the future of The Black Moons seems very promising. Their constant energy isn’t fading anytime soon.

Photo by Hank Randall

Everything is connected for Anna Spackman. Words are inseparable from poems, poems are inseparable from music, and music is inseparable from life. This past April’s album House on the Sea is the culmination of a few years that have taken her from the urban west coast to farms in the South before landing back in her native Pennsylvania. Her songs are mostly rooted in folk, but pieces of all those places are in there somewhere.

“I grew up in PA on my grandparents’ farm and spent most of my childhood/teenage years exploring the woods and playing guitar outside, so that will always be an essential part of me and my concept of home,” she says. Adult life in Portland, Oregon subsequently included exploring live poetry, playing music for the seriously ill, studying psychology and simply soaking in everything such a vibrant artistic community has to offer.

“Portland was the first place I got to start over somewhere new,” she continues. “I definitely came into my own as a performer there and brought that confidence and joy with me back to PA – usually at the Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, one of my favorite places on earth.”

For an interesting contrast, working with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms then brought her to North Carolina and Tennessee this past autumn. “It was challenging and dirty and absolutely therapeutic,” Spackman says about the experience. “I wrote a lot of poetry about watching life grow, die and become something else. I was sometimes painfully aware of the parts of me I had shed by leaving Portland, and the album was emerging. Most of the songs had been written by that point, but it conceptually fell into place when I could step back and piece together the story.”

Around this time she discovered Sukie Colgrave’s book Uniting Heaven and Earth, which explores ideas of counterparts like yin and yang. As a result, “it’s a very introspective and concept-heavy album… My hope is that I can help people to recognize themselves as inherently plural and make peace between the parts of them in conflict.”

House on the Sea embodies those ideas in more ways than one. She explains, “My dad suggested doing a double album, and when I started playing with that idea, the songs naturally grouped themselves into those two different energies. The masculine consciousness – the ego – felt very strong in the songs on the first disc (the ‘house’), which moves towards self-differentiation and action. The ‘sea’ disc is its opposite, a pull towards the dissolving of boundaries and the mysteries of the subconscious. A lot of the ‘sea’ songs were ones that I wrote without really being aware of writing them – they just kind of floated out as they are.”

It seems appropriate enough that she credits her own counterpart for helping making the album what it is: “My brother Donnie is a yang to my yin, if you will. He is my drummer, bassist, keyboardist, producer and best friend. He doesn’t just play where I tell him to play, but brings his own thoughts and perspectives to each song. His instincts and energy have been invaluable.”

With further help from a couple other good friends and relatives, the process has shaped a rich set of songs with a lot of depth to discover – much like the subconscious beneath the things we’re aware of, or the sea under its surface.

You can catch Anna Spackman at Powers Park on June 21st as part of the Make Music Philly Festival. Or if you’d prefer something a bit different, there’s an event called Speak It! Sing It!, which is (what else?) a performance combining music and poetry, at South Street’s Evil Eye Cafe on the 25th.

In the mood for some hot dogs in the summer sun? This Saturday, July 19th, the South Street Headhouse District is hosting the 3rd Annual Dog Days of Summer Cook-Off, and it looks like it’s going to be great. Not only will the hot dogs be juicy, plentiful and utterly irresistible, but it also supports a good cause: the maintenance of the oldest Colonial-era marketplace still in existence in the country, The Shambles at Headhouse Square.

Featuring a killer lineup of hot dogs direct from some of Philadelphia’s top culinary spots, the Dog Days of Summer Cook-Off will draw in Brauhaus Schmitz (recently represented in HopChef Philly), Sancho Pistola’s, Cavanaugh’s Headhouse, Tap Room, The Twisted Tail, Bistro Romano and more. All of these restaurants will be competing to be the fan favorite, along with the top prize of $1,000, which will be decided by a team of food and culture legends such as Marc Summers (of Double Dare and Philly Beer Week’s own Dunkel Dare), local food writer Julia West, Zagat Philly’s Danya Henninger, and more.

As South Street Headhouse District Executive Director told That Music Mag, “we are excited to have 20 of Philadelphia’s best restaurants and chefs competing to showcase their most inventive hot dog creations. The tastes and talents are truly amazing. Come spend the afternoon enjoying delicious hot dogs, Victory Brewing Company, and music under the Headhouse Shambles at this great summer event.”

The 3rd Annual Dog Days of Summer Cook-Off will be held from 1 PM until 4 PM at Headhouse Square at 2nd and Pine St. For food and drink tickets, including a VIP option which will get you in an hour early with 20 food and beer tickets, head here.

This year, on Saturday, July 5th, Hawthornes Cafe on South Street will celebrate the 5th anniversary of its IPA Block Party, and it’s looking to be better than ever. The block party will boast a huge selection of beers. It will primarily focus on IPAs such as Yards, Harpoon, AleSmith, Dock St Rye, Shawnee, Kelso and more, but it will also include cider and wheat beers as well, such as Crispin Original Cider and Wolavers Wildflower Wheat. There will be five draft trailers: Jockeys, Firkin, and Origlio, along with several backup kegs and beer at the food tent. In addition to all of the great beers, the block party will also feature delicious food cooked by Hawthornes’ very own house chef. The mouthwatering food selection will include Mexican street corn, sausage and pepper sandwiches, soft pretzels, pulled pork, pressed veggie sandwiches and queso burgers.

The Hawthornes IPA Block Party will also feature live music throughout the afternoon and evening, featuring exclusively local artists, including Jason Jeffries and the Talltrees, a freewheeling jam band, and the steel drum ensemble Trinadelphia, along with DJ Dewey Decibal (a Hawthornes Cafe employee). The block party is also sponsored by PAWS (the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society), a wonderful organization and clinic dedicated to fostering and adopting pets who are placed in shelters. PAWS aims to reduce the number of abandoned pets who are put down and turn Philadelphia into a no-kill city.

Hawthornes Cafe is located at 738 S 11th St. The block party will run from noon until 8 PM, the day after Independence Day. There is no entry cost, but all beer tickets are $5 each, in cash only. Saturday is forecasted to be bright and sunny, with not a rain cloud in sight, so come to Hawthornes and celebrate with the best beer, food and music that the city has to offer.

On any given night, a crowd of 50 people can make the Legendary Dobbs feel like it is packed from wall to wall. However, on Friday night, with a massive gathering of well over 100 eager music lovers, it was impossible to traverse the small, wood-paneled venue without awkwardly squeezing through the tight clusters of head-bobbing bodies. The crowd poured out onto the sidewalk of South Street, where everyone was enthusiastically chattering about Ashley Leone, Philly’s native pop queen, who had just finished her set. Leone was only the second of seven acts featured that night by the local independent record label, Flexitone Records and Grammy-nominated musical visionary David Ivory.

Ivory, a legend among producers within the city, who has worked with local names such as Halestorm, Silvertide, and The Roots, runs his label with true compassion for the working musician, and strives to push them to their fullest potential. “I want to see these bands be the best they can truly be, and to exceed their own expectations,” explained Ivory. “If I feel that a band shows that they have the potential and the work ethic, then we can help them bring out their best work.”

Later in the night, alt-rockers BlackRue took the stage and demonstrated their stylistic diversity, including everything from punk to country, while still proving their ability to write catchy tunes. After their set, the audience buzzed about their female drummer, who served as the band’s sturdy backbone. The Sunset Villians shifted gears for the evening and brought their pop influences to the table. The high energy quintet (who had just recently returned from playing on a festival with Avril Lavigne) owned the crowd, and frequently expressed their gratitude for  Flexitone in between songs. The evening wrapped up with Supreme and the New Experience, the seven-piece funk band who had Dobbs dancing from start to finish. Clearly influenced by funk pioneers Parliament-Funkedelic, both physically and audibly, the group demonstrated their confidence on stage, as they promoted their latest Flexitone release, Pimpalicious. They concluded the night with an encore of “We Got the Funk” that would have brought a smile to the face of George Clinton himself.

The entire evening seemed to have a consistent theme, which revolved around everyone’s praise and gratitude for David Ivory. “He genuinely cares about the success of the artist that he works with,” said Doug Green from Flexitone. “It’s all about giving these bands a chance, and he’d do whatever it takes to see his bands find success.”

It is clear that Flexitone Records has set a new standard for independent record labels. The suburb-based label’s showcase of their various acts proved that they are capable of giving the perfect amount of guidance to ambitious musicians who strive to make a name for themselves. After such a successful launch party, Philadelphia can anxiously wait to see what Flexitone has in store for 2014.

The South Street Head House District, which primarily runs between Front and 10th Street, has big plans for 2014 including launching a new music and performing arts series in the New Year. They are kicking things off with loads of food, music, theater and a silent auction this Thursday, Oct 24, from 6 p.m to 9 p.m to help aid in the development of the series.

The Head House District was fortunate enough to be awarded the John S. and John L. Knight Foundation-Knight Art Challenge Grant which will help fund the new series in 2014. But, the required “challenge” is to match the grant amount. That is why the fundraiser and silent auction on Thursday will greatly help to close the gap.

As vibrant as South Street already is, it will be even more fantastic with a music and performing arts series!

For information about tickets and to place a order, visit South Street’s Website

Australian band Atlas Genius returned to Philadelphia with friends Family of the Year and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. for a night of feel-good pop music on South Street. Atlas Genius continued their good relationship with Radio 104.5, who presented Saturday’s show and also hosted two of the bands at a summer block party earlier in 2013.

The band’s radio success, spearheaded by hit single “Trojans,” no doubt led to the full house at the TLA, as well as to the crowd’s genteel make-up. Polite parents sat in the balcony and fresh-faced students dominated the floor, with only a few frat-boy wannabes shouting lame requests and insults in the quiet spaces between songs.

It’s not surprising that Atlas Genius has reached the mainstream. Their music is accessible, catchy, and well-executed. Led by brothers Keith (guitar/vocals) and Michael Jeffery (drums), and rounded out by Darren Sell on keyboards and a touring bass player, Atlas Genius writes modern pop songs with an electronic element that makes them danceable. Take that winning formula and put it on stage with charm and professionalism, and success is bound to follow.

Keith Jeffery (photo credit Adam McGrath)

Though Atlas Genius has been touring since 2011, their debut album When It Was Now (Warner Bros.) was not released until February of 2013. The band seems hesitant to preview any new material, as Saturday’s set was comprised of every track from the album. Opening with “On A Day” and “If So” and working through “All These Girls” and “Symptoms,” Keith Jeffery engaged the crowd and kept the energy up by climbing down to the railing and allowing some fans a closer look at his guitar work. After slowing things down for a solo performance of “Don’t Make a Scene,” the band finished strong with “Through the Glass” and “Electric,” and then brought the house down with an encore of “Trojans” and “Centred on You”.

Atlas Genius has found success in the increasingly crowded pop-rock genre, and by gaining radio support and selling out shows, there’s every reason to believe they’ll be coming back to the States for a long time to come.