Show Pics: Blackbird Blackbird @ Johnny Brenda’s (7/1)
Another business trip meant finding another foreign place to catch a show. After Denver had zero on the schedule, Philly delivered with a nice little offering at a venue called Johnny Brenda’s. We had locals called The Interest Group opening for Beat Culture who was touring with Blackbird Blackbird. I ventured out after the crushing defeat of the fighting Tim Howards to the Fishtown Hood and got my shwerve on with some samples and beats.
Read for notes and pics…
First the venue, I dig this space. The first floor at Johnny Brenda’s is a neighborhood bar and restaurant that happens a cool space above. The food is outstanding with a great sections of locals beverages and a small plates menu that has a heavily soul food roots executed at a high level. I had a spare ribs plate, two tender meat/bone sticks with phenomenal collard greens, pickled cabbage, cole slaw and these fantastic gherkins. Dinner and a show, people. The upstairs is the music venue with wrap around balcony on the third level if you want to stalk from above. I have a feeling I will be back to JB’s every time I visit Philly.
The locals, The Interest Group, were up first. Bordering on shoegaze at times, surf others, the heavily friend and family-filled early crowd was pleased, as was I. Spoke with band member Yohsuke for a bit, genuinely nice people from what I could tell. Philly people, show up early if they are on the bill.
I knew nothing of Beat Culture prior to spotting the show on the intarwebs. Solo guy, knob turner, a few songs with vocals, you get a sense that it isn’t just the Mac Book doing all the work. But it is doing quite a bit of the work. The concept of building a song in studio and recreating at a venue can be a tough pill for many live music fans. Slippery slope…
Blackbird Blackbird takes this reproduction of the studio elements and throws in a guitar that gets looped or played live to add to a song’s original flavor. I can’t help but want a live drum track and a little extra help with song-craft. But when in the flow, it sounded great. In fact, there were times that the jarring texture of a live guitar being inserted detracted from the songs I have been listening to lately. You can stream the latest album, Tangerine Sky, on Bandcamp; give it a shot the next time you need some background for your busy bee time. Older songs “New Leaf” and my personal favorite “All” won the night.
