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Break out your finest pair of shoes with orthopedic support, we're going concert hopping. A lot of good shows this week, all of them happening on the same night or throughout the course of a day. Make sure to stretch, drink some water, and get food in ya.
Please don’t call it Rocktober,
Maria T
Thursday, October 3
at PhilaMOCA
8:00 PM | $20 | Tickets
It's the fuckin' Softies with a Slumberland band from New Jersey. How are there even still tickets for this?
Get there early for locals 22 Degree Halo. Sometimes they kind of remind me of that band on Teenbeat, Aden. Sometimes they remind me of Lilys. Whatever it is, it’s nice. Seems like they've been building up a following for a while now—they've got an upcoming show with Snail Mail and so on—and I am literally the last person on earth to find out about them.
Thursday, October 3
at Khyber Pass Pub
7:00 PM | 21+ | $12 | Tickets
Maybe the Softies are too twee for you? Ugh, fine. Here’s something else that’s maybe your speed.
I originally wrote down "jazzy 90's emo sadcore" in my notes and yes, that could be accurate, but ugh, that undersells what's happening here. Maneka's mastermind Devin McKnight sounds like Idaho or Medicine in one moment on 2022's Dark Matters, and totally something else (free jazz, ambient flute???, hip hop) in the next. It's utterly captivating in the way DC artpunks Smart Went Crazy were, so it came as no surprise when I looked at the credits to see Chad Clark (Beauty Pill, SMWC) was involved with this effort.
Sidebar: How jarring is it for the Scene Elders reading this newsletter to see a show hosted in the upstairs of the Khyber in the Year of Our Lord 2024? Also, how many times did you fall down those stairs and do you have the scars to prove it?
Saturday, October 5
At Underground Arts
1:00 PM | All Ages | $35 | Tickets
Did you miss Goner Fest this year? Sims Hardin is gonna make it up to you with this big ol’ bunch of bands. Live music with a vague schedule, vegan food, local vendors, you know the drill.
Saturday, October 5
at Ukie Club
6:00 PM | All Ages | $30.93 | Tickets
Chris Gethard is a comedian but he’s probably more punk than most bands. Definitely more punk than me. You’re gonna need some Laffs to round out your day between U3 fest and Sachiko Kanenobu. Bonus points for being a seated event.
Saturday, October 5
at Johnny Brenda’s
8:00 PM | 21+ | $27 | Tickets
If you caught Wim Wenders’ gloriously transcendent 2023 film, Perfect Days, you have caught a snippet of Sachiko Kanenobu’s 1972 song “Aoi Sakana.” And if you didn’t, please, go watch this film because I fucking love it.
Kanenobu forged a path as one of Japan’s first folk-rock singer-songwriters of the late 1960s and 1970s, deeply influenced by artists like Pentangle. A self-taught musician, Kanenobu’s Misora (1972) is considered a classic of Japanese rock, recorded mostly in single takes.
Yet by the time of its release, Kanenobu decamped to California with Paul Williams, founder of the legendary Crawdaddy! magazine (which got its start during his years as a student at Swarthmore College on the Main Line).
Every generation of cool kids seem to rediscover the album and this time around, it’s no different. With a somewhat recent reissue on the Light in the Attic label, Misora continues to captivate. So will this show.
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:
Please support the artists who make this possible by buying their stuff and seeing their shows.
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