Philly Music this week with Father John Misty, Rufus Wainwright, Adrian Younge, Ike Reilly, and two nights of classic metal
Pop music happening in Philly, the suburbs, and Down the Shore.
This week in Philly music features Father John Misty in Fishtown, Rufus Wainwright in Bucks County, sumptuous soul music at Johnny Brenda’s, a rare appearance by a Polish rebel rock band at Silk City, a double bill of 1980s British synth-pop in Glenside, and a veteran jam band at Brooklyn Bowl.
The live music action begins Thursday with New Orleans singer and guitarist Benjamin Booker returning eight years after his last album. His dreamy and hypnotic new album Lower brings him to play Kung Fu Necktie, with Kenny Segal opening.
Also on Thursday, Thievery Corporation, the D.C. electronic music duo that blends hip-hop, jazz, and Middle Eastern and Brazilian bossa nova into a dance floor mix, plays Franklin Music Hall. And ‘60s inspired Jersey quartet the Modbeats tops a four-band bill at Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City, with Regency Club, the Spots, and the Tisburys.
Father John Misty’s most notorious Philly-area show will always be the 2016 date at the XPoNential Music Festival in Camden, when he jettisoned his set list and went on a lengthy rant about President Donald Trump gaining the Republican presidential nomination, predicting dark times ahead and asking the audience: “Do you suspect that you don’t have a right to be entertained?”
What will Misty say this time on Friday? In recent Philly appearances, the funny, acerbic songwriter born Josh Tillman has stuck to the script, and has an excellent album in 2024′s Mahashmashana, which is filled with sharp, darkly comic, and wholly impressive songs like the eight-and-a-half minute, worldly wise, and Dylanesque tour de force “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All.” With Dan Bejar’s Canadian band Destroyer opening at the Fillmore, this definitely is the show of the week.
Polish post-punk band Trupa Trupa, fronted by anti-authoritarian activist and poet Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, who’s currently an artist in residence at Yale University, plays Silk City on Friday in support of its new EP Mourners, which is produced by Nick Launay, who’s helmed records for Nick Cave and Amyl and the Sniffers. The band will record a World Cafe session at WXPN-FM that day, before rocking out with Philly quartet the No Good Crowd opening.
Moe, the Buffalo-born jam band whose new album is Circle of Giants, is playing Friday and Saturday at Brooklyn Bowl. The Paul Green Rock Academy — led by the original School of Rock founder — turns 11 this weekend at PhilaMOCA, with star students shredding on classic metal by Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest on Friday and Saturday.
And there’s an ‘80 Brit-pop double bill at the Keswick Theatre with “What Is Love?” singer Howard Jones and ABC, the synth-pop band led by Martin Fry. The tour is playing the Keswick on Friday and Sunday.
The Illinois-based veteran songwriter Ike Reilly has been making scrappy, rebellious rock and roll with a touch of Woody Guthrie good troublemaking, that has inspired a cult fan base for a quarter of a century now. He’s touring with his band the Ike Reilly Assassination in support of 2021′s Because the Angels, playing MilkBoy Philly on Sunday on “The American Steal” tour.
Adrian Younge, the Los Angeles producer who has specialized in sumptuous 1970s-style R&B and worked with the Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, Philadelphia soul vocal group the Stylistics, and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, brings a 10-piece band to Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday to bring his There’s Something About April trilogy to life.
Friko — the Chicago indie rock duo of Niko Kapetan and Bailey Minzenberger — released its debut album, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here, in 2024. It’s an overlooked (at least by me) gem that mixes sophisticated orchestrations and gnarly rock and roll. The band plays the Foundry at the Fillmore on Tuesday.
Pianist, singer, and composer Rufus Wainwright premiered his first musical, Opening Night, based on the John Cassavetes 1977 movie of the same name, last year in London. His most recent album is 2020′s Unfollow the Rules. He brings his career-spanning “Going to a Town” solo tour to the Sellersville Theater on Tuesday.