The Lonely Wild, Yellow Red Sparks and Metropolis America @ Milkboy.
Text and images by Luong Huynh.
On a warm spring night, the blast of a distant trumpet could be heard from the second floor of MilkBoy.
With the signature sounds of a spaghetti western, The Lonely Wild (above) rambled into town and played their brand of music that masterfully balances between melancholy and spirited.
Opening the show was Philadelphia based Metropolis America (right), who describe themselves as the city’s “guilt-free guilty pleasure.” They played a set of catchy ‘80s inspired cold pop including stand out numbers “Personal Policy” and “Love You, Love.”
Second up were California based Yellow Red Sparks. The trio’s harmonies blended together perfectly as each song told a small vignette of daily life, love, loss and hope. On the track “A Play to End All Plays,” frontman Joshua Hanson asked the audience to participate in a call and response by repeating the line, “The tickets were free.”
When someone in the audience responded with “The tickets were $12,” (the price of the show) Joshua told the audience to go with it and “angrily” yell the revised lyrics.
As The Lonely Wild took the stage, the audience moved a little closer to hear what could be best described as music Quentin Tarantino could love. Like a lonesome traveler braving the American West, songs off their album The Sun As It Comes, brave their own mountains and valleys.
Stand out tracks include “Everything You Need,” for the fantastic trumpet playing of Jessi Willaims and Ryan Ross, “Keep Us Whole,” for the ever-present guitar twang of Andrew Schneider and the soaring vocals of frontman Andrew Carroll, and “Banks and Ballrooms, which interweaves the marching drumbeat of Dave Farina with the mellow harmonies of the entire band.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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