🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃
If you are able to pull yourself away from panicking over the election, here are a couple of worthwhile shows. More to come next week.
Trick or treat,
Maria T
At Milkboy
7:30 PM | 21+
Let's get this out of the way because it stumped me forever too: It's pronounced "Oozh" ( like “rouge”) "Smeh Dough-Ma" which roughly translates to “Now I Get It” in English. OK great, moving on.
These Czech legends have been at their high-octane folk-inflected punk since before the fall of their country's communist regime, influenced by smuggled tapes and Western radio frequencies weaving their way across space, combined with prog and avant-garde approaches. It's wild, woolly, and weird—which makes WKDU the perfect fit for presenting this show.
Locals Countdown from Ten open the show, hailing from "the southern city limits of Philadelphia," but to my ears they sound like a regulation West Philly basement prog-punk trio. That just might be your bag.
At the First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
7:30 PM | All-Ages
R&B visionary, the incredible Dawn Richards returns to Philadelphia for a special seated show in the Sanctuary of the Church. Her new release (and second with multi-instrumentalist Spencer Zahn), Quiet in a World Full of Noise (Merge), is a stunner of atmospheric piano arrangements. If you're wondering how exactly the Danity Kane singer wound up on a megaindie, this piece from the newly-launched Hearing Things might clear things up for you.
Michael Cormier-O’Leary of Friendship (who are labelmates with Richards) opens up the show with Hour, his instrumental indie rock project.
At World Cafe Live
7:00 PM | 21+
One of the most devastating music-related moments I have ever experienced was seeing Margo Price the day after the 2016 election at World Cafe, locking eyes with her mid-song, and proceeding to bawl. I pray history does not repeat itself and the same does not happen to the talented Mickey Guyton, one of Nashville's brightest stars. Guyton broke through the whiteness of country music's ranks in 2021 with the single "Black Like Me," and returns to the conversation in 2024 with the pop-inflected House on Fire. We may need to dance—or cry into our drinks—to get through whatever is about to come our way, and country music might be the best way to handle it.
Sound Advice is a weekly newsletter highlighting upcoming concerts in the greater Philadelphia metro area. Expect 1-5 shows of note, written by yours truly and perhaps an occasional guest contributor or two, published on Thursdays.
Local concert listings can be found at the following websites because I am not a concert calendar:
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