Morrissey @ The Academy of Music.
Text and images by Mina Lee.
This past Saturday, Morrissey filled the Academy of Music Ballroom with devoted fans from diverse backgrounds.
The former Smiths frontman entered to a cacophony of enthusiasm as fans rushed towards the stage and a concert once intended to be seated, informally became a general standing room show. Opening the set with his classic hit “Suedehead,” Morrissey showcased flawless vocals. Seemingly unfazed by previous health problems which forced the artist to cancel previous tours, his energy exuded during this performance.
In such an ornate and grandiose venue, the British vocalist was nothing short of majestic in singled-out, blinding spotlights.
The previous night, Morrissey’s performance at the Firefly Music Festival in Delaware was poorly received. The matter was properly addressed – after two songs, he asked the crowd in front of him to help them forget “the memory of Delaware.”
Creating a cathartic experience through deeply emotional and vivid lyrics, as the musician is known for, Morrissey tugged at each attendee’s heart strings with songs like “Now My Heart is Full,” “Everyday is Like Sunday” and “I’m Throwing my Arms Around Paris.”
“Do you feel better?” he asked.
Cheers and a unanimous “yes” filled the venue, but he interrupted.
“No, I’m not finished,” he continued. “Do you feel better when you get it off your chest?”
Never one to shy from heavy material, a graphic montage of animal slaughterhouse video footage played on large projection to his performance of “Meat is Murder” as the lights dimmed. By the end of the song, Morrissey was on his knees, seemingly overcome by grief with his back to the audience, as a probing question flashed on the screen in bolded white lettering: “What’s Your Excuse Now?”
As the artist wound down his set, fans tossed themselves on to the stage to get a taste of the myth in front of them.
He closed out with The Smiths hit “What She Said.”
One young man ran up and tackled the singer, seemingly in an aggressive embrace. Morrissey seemed unaffected – never missing a beat – as two security personnel pried the crazed fan’s limbs from the forced embrace. Several more fans attempted to get a hug, only to be shut down and shoved off by now alert security.
For his encore performance, Morrissey performed “First of the Gang to Die.” Voices already hoarse from singing along reached a fever pitch.
Making his final exit, Morrissey ripped off his white shirt in a feral manner and tossed it into the crowd.
The performance at the Academy of Music left Philadelphia begging for more, as a sea of fans camped out by the tour bus for a mere glimpse through relentless downpour of the man who had enchanted them yet again, with tales of unrequited love and heartbreak.
Text and images by Chad Sims.
Last Friday night Kung Fu Necktie was crammed with music and people. The place was rocking with a few incredible local acts and one band consisting of neighbors from the north.
Bubonic Bear (above) kicked things off with their particular brand of brutal noise. If you live in Philly and are into heavy music, you have probably caught these guys before. If you haven’t seen B.B., then it is too late because their last show was the following night at PhilMOCA. RIP Bubonic Bear.
Next was a band whose first record I have thoroughly enjoyed for the last few years and had yet to catch, Psychic Teens. I have only ever heard great things about their live show. Unfortunately, I will have to catch their next show because this one was seriously marred by poor sound.
Winnipeg’s KEN mode (above and below) took the stage around 11 o’clock and absolutely killed it. The band is touring in support of their latest album Success. KEN mode’s music bares a striking resemblance to fellow Canadians Nomeansno but with their own take on noisy hardcore.
These guys are not for everyone. At the same time, even if you aren’t typically into hardcore there might be something here for you. The music is angular and usually has something of a groove but lead singer Jesse Matthewson’s harsh vocal repetitions never let you forget the heavy grounding.
Hopefully, the next time KEN mode comes through town they will be headlining a bigger venue.
The always great Fight Amputation concluded the show. This was the record release party for their newest album, Constantly Off. Keep an eye out for these guys. They are not to be missed.
We’re giving away tickets to a pretty amazing show at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday.
The former Philly folks from Creepoid will celebrate the release of their new album, Cemetery Highrise Slum. The album technically drops today.
But it’s actually a double release party, as Ecstatic Vision will also celebrate the release of their upcoming album, Sonic Praise, which drops next week.
Like us on facebook and email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com to enter to win a pair of tickets (give us your name and put “Creepoid” in the subject line).
If you want to play it safe and get your own tickets, find details for the show here.
Rory Loveless is just 21 but he and his brother Eoin, 23, have recently released their second album as the hard rocking, angst-ridden garage band Drenge. The British duo are on the East Coast for a few shows before returning to the UK and the Continent for festival season. They’ll perform at Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday.
Our G.W. Miller III spoke with Rory by phone from his home in Sheffield, a former industrial hub that has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years.
You’re originally from Castleton?
Yeah, it’s about 15 miles from Sheffield. It’s in the country. Loads of hills and stuff. It’s kind of remote.
It looks very bucolic and pretty.
Yeah, yeah. It definitely is.
So where does the angst come from?
I guess it really started because we didn’t really have anywhere to go. We couldn’t really get out of there. It’s very isolated. There’s nothing to do. It’s a bit of a wasteland.
And just general teenage angst. Yeah. Life.
Why did you move to Sheffield rather than London?
We could make it work from here. It seems weird to me that all bands in the UK move to London when they want to get serious. I don’t know. Quite obviously, there’s loads of stuff happening there but I imagine it could be quite stifling as well. Sheffield is just the perfect size. It’s full of lots of cool people. Loads of cool stuff going on, obviously not as much as London though.
It’s nice to be near our parents. This is where we’ve been going to gigs since we were 14 or so.
Do your parents like your music?
They’ve kind of warmed up to it. When we first started, they were like, “OK. That’s entertaining.” I think they like the second album more than the first. When Eoin dropped out of university to do music, they were like, “You might be making a bit of a mistake.” But now, they’re really proud of us. My Dad is more of a jazz fan though. My Mom is more into Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, that sort of thing.
Your music almost has an old school American rock sound, like bluesy rock from the 60s. Where does that come from?
We got interested in a lot of American bands when we started this band. We got really interested in the punk bands like Black Flag, the Minutemen, Husker Du and the Minor Threat. Loads of that stuff. There’s a documentary made by Vice called “New Garage Explosion.” It’s got loads of garage bands like The Oh Sees, Jay Retard … it talks a little about The White Stripes, bands like that.
You guys are a lot more hard rock than punk-ish though.
I don’t know. We just kind of do what we do. There’s tons of great bands out there. I don’t really know what to say. I don’t really think about that sort of stuff.
Who do you listen to? Who do you admire?
That’s a tough question to answer. The people I admire don’t really have anything to do with the sound of the band or anything. One album we really like is Disintegration by The Cure. It’s just a really well made record. Loads of amazing songs on there. Really great production. It made an impact on our record.
In what way? The production? The sound?
The production. We wanted something more cinematic. We wanted it to be a record that you have to play at a really high volume. We wanted this album to be really different from the first album, which was a bit raw. Not a whole lot of production on there. Some of it was recorded live.
Did you guys start out making your own videos? Is that part of the creative process for you?
Yeah, it was loads of fun. It definitely used to be part of our process but we don’t have as much time to do it now. And we’ve started working with other people to do our videos now. That’s just one of those things that we’ve given up doing to carry on touring. It’d be cool to get back to it. Eoin went to university to study film and TV production.
How was your first tour through the States?
We first toured through the States in January 2014. I wasn’t 21 so it kinda sucked. I was being chaperoned. I felt like a criminal. The dressing room was like a prison cell because I was too young to drink. We went to SXSW as well which was even worse because it’s in Texas which is really hot. We kept getting into queues for shows and I had these big Xs on my hands. I felt like an idiot.
Are you looking forward to coming back?
I’ve been back since I turned 21, which is so obviously better. All the bars just seem to be way cooler in America than they are around here. Maybe because there are so many of them and they are so different.
America has almost infiltrated British culture so it’s interesting to walk around the actual thing and see where all your favorite movies were made and all your favorite songs were written.
Do you know much about Philadelphia?
I went to the Art Museum because I wanted to go see something there, an exhibit or something. I can’t remember. I totally forgot that it was also the Rocky Steps. But I didn’t have much time so I jumped out of the car and just ran up the steps. There were a lot of people doing it and looking at me, cheering and taking photographs. I was like, “My god. I must look like such an idiot. I’m going to have this really serious expression on my face.”
They’re going to think I’ve wanted to do this for years but really, I just wanted to get into the gallery and see loads of art and stuff.
What are you looking forward to on this tour?
I think we get to do a bit more driving this time. I’m actually really into driving. We have a big extended family around the UK so every weekend, we’d be driven off to see them. The American scenery – down the East Coast and down the West Coast – I’m really looking forward to seeing that.
Joe Montone: The Story Behind The Song.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Joe Montone, the frontman of Heat Thunder, reached out to us a few weeks ago. His band was dissolving but they had put out a wild new video that really culminated the entire musical project. He was exhausted but he had learned a lot about himself and music in general. He asked us to write a story about his experiences. We invited him to write about them himself. The following essay is Joe’s tale, straight from him.
I was in my candle lit room in South Philly and my shadow was bent into long sections spanning the wall in front of me and long over my head.
I was trying to conjure something in that solitude after hearing a tune days before, “Oh, these days I’ve been Wearin’ Black…”
It’s funny what fixation will do because once that tune is in your head, you just want to possess it. For the next two nights, I came to work on theme. I would stack all these past visions into my world, provoking a lost skateboarder without any direction. I tried to become him again. I wanted to rectify all the past wounds that I thought I had.
It was dizzying and tiresome. And so, amongst the shadows of the South Philly room, I blew out the candle without a song.
The next morning, I woke up and looked at what I had written. All these pathetically crafted lines about what a lonely, fucked up teenager I was were so infinitesimal to the real meaning. But this was my fascination. My obsession was conjuring these old images to make sense of past distortions.
Dizzy again, I yelled in surrender, “What do I really want to say?”
It was then I wrote the first line [“I will wear black linens in the ragin’ heat…”] and then the rest of the song. I became my own obsession and wrote whatever had to be said.
I took a break without a clear ending. The space had to be closed, to no longer walk around as a victim of my youth or the lurking demon that is only darkness. For in that space of becoming, I was able to peel down those hills again and carve recklessly. The turbulence of the refrain, “I’ve been wearin’ black…” hurt me but in celebration of sick, lustful downward victory.
But it needed an ending as similar as how this sheer burst of writing began.
And so I listened and it was, “black as the tarnished memories in darkness, when the cravin’ ceases… could we hear?”
The old fabrics, and world’s unfairness were dissolved in the light of listening, that which comes out of nowhere. No matter how far we go into that peaceful hell of our own distortion, the morning is going to find us again and ask us what we really want… and it’s that we just want to listen to what’s really going on here.
I’ve always known this would be an awesome, cinematic song to make a video for. My friend Evan Cohen and Eli Reeder were up to collaborating after Heat Thunder’s debut visual adaptation on YVYNYL (a visual adaptation of the Melody Love & Soul EP from February 2013). But the treatment wasn’t really coming. Just as the song, I had to listen and it was written in another stream. The video piece could be taken as a physical manifestation of my original intention with the song. The skateboarder became real again but now he can speak for himself.
My name is Joe Montone and I am a recovering from “Wearin’ Black,” a music video, song and personal journey that was brought to life by my band, Heat Thunder.
Each time I watch the video, it’s a reminder to listen. No more plunging down hills of old habits.
The old habits followed me around though. It’s hard to set something free. And after an incredible year with Heat Thunder in 2014, it seemed as though the once joyous enthusiasm was splitting away. I was losing steam as video producer, almost signing a $2000 contract with a PR firm to get the video out by November and follow it up with a song collection in December. All of this felt wrong because I didn’t think the video was done.
It’s hard because I knew to step away. But I didn’t get a chance to just look around. So, I gave myself time.
There was something missing. I wanted animation and elaboration.
What was missing was listening.
Through this release and the commodification of clever ways to make it as an indie artist, I’m left again… allowing you to listen instead.
I had to realize what had fallen into place around me the entire time.
But this, of course, was after my idea of a band disappeared at the same time.
I felt as if I had come to a place where Heat Thunder was a name that I was fueling. It no longer felt like a way for me to express something that I may not have been able to otherwise. And so, after an ambiguous winter (and freezing cold, too) wondering whether or not the video was done, it was time to rediscover, write new songs and, before distorting my reality any further, put Heat Thunder on hiatus.
I do feel free this morning. I can recall now the first time I ever brought Will, Matt and Luming to play music together. And when I met Aubrey, who starred in and helped costume the video.
I had to be reminded that this is more than a video, more than a band, more lasting than all of this. It is collaboration with darkness and lightness, joy and pain… freedom unconfined as a dog free from his leash or a skater down a hill… or me rockin’ out with a band.
Nothing is as free as the lasting message here.
For now, with no perceptions left to wonder about what could have been or what I could have done better, I’ve listened instead as well.
SBTRKT @ The TLA.
Text and images by Holli Stephens.
After an immense performance at Governor’s Ball on Saturday, SBTRKT took the stage Sunday at the TLA for an intimate show with supporting opening act, Post Malone.
The masked electronic artist has done an ample amount of DJ sets in the past nationally and internationally. Catching him alongside live vocals and a drummer is both visually and aurally entrancing.
The audience was sparsely populated for Post Malone. As he exited the stage, the crowd seemed to come together in anticipation. The lights dimmed and a blue light cast down on the stage. Amongst the shouts of joy, Aaron Jerome, outfitted and a tribal mask covering the top of his face came into view.
An entourage of controllers surrounded Jerome as he and vocalist Tev’n started off the night with songs from his first self-titled album.
SBTRKT is meant to be heard live. He blends his songs together, throwing in jazzy beats and looping sultry vocals on top to create stunning segues into new songs. The drums add a certain realness to the atmosphere and the live vocals create an air of soulfulness. Together, they help foster the unique sound that Jerome is known for.
When the crowd heard the familiar, upbeat synth intro of “Pharaohs,” they went nuts.
Jerome then announced that he wanted to play some tracks off of his newer album, Wonder Where We Land, and introduced “Wonder Where We Land” as well as “NEW DORP. NEW YORK,” complete with the visuals of the music video.
After another insanely erratic transition, the drum beat of “Wildfire” snuck in, which sent the audience into a dancing frenzy.
SBTRKT left the stage for a brief moment and was called back by the audience with shouts of “One more song!”
“This is one of my favorites,” Jerome said softly after returning to the stage and dropping the trance-like beats from “Lantern.”
The audience then got the first listen of SBTRKT’s down-tempo cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes.”
“We haven’t played this one out yet,” Jerome told the audience. “But I’m a big fan of Radiohead.”
SBTRKT ended the night with “Trials of the Past” and “Right Thing To Do” and then Jerome thanked the crowd for their enthusiasm.
Communion Philly @ Milkboy with Dan Mangan, Jessica Hernandez, Pine Barons and Foxtrot & The Get Down.
Text by Kyle Bagenstose. Images by Rachel Del Sordo.
Communion Philly, the local chapter of an international music organization that presents showcases of divergent bands in cities across the U.S. And U.K., lived up to its name at Milkboy last Wednesday night. There were bands from near and far, playing music fast and slow, to a crowd that was young and old. And almost all were drinking.
The night kicked off with a pair of local acts: First, Northeast Philly’s Foxtrot & The Get Down, followed by the cheekily-named South Jersey outfit Pine Barons. Intentional or not, it was a great way to set the schedule for the evening, as both bands brought a slew of enthusiastic fans that provided an atmosphere more suited for a Saturday night than mid-week rut.
A five-piece band that sports a pair of electric guitars, tambourine shaking, and alternating male and female vocals, Foxtrot kicked things off with a high-energy, bluesy rock set. The sound fell somewhere between the dirty blues of Little Hurricane and retro-rock of JD McPherson. Foxtrot hit their high note in the third song, “If I Had it My Way,” which featured pounding drums behind the slide-guitar work and growling vocals of frontman Colin Budny. The promising rockers also delivered a crowd-pleasing cover of the Gorillaz’ “Sunshine in a Bag,” with co-vocalist Erica Ruiz not missing a word on the rhymes.
Next up was the boys from South Jersey, Pine Barons. Sneaking in elements of psychedelia, particularly in the interludes, the four-piece band delivered a set that alternated pop-punk and jam sesh. At times, bits of surf rock even came through, which when combined with the four-part vocal harmonizing on a number of songs, actually did make it quite easy to imagine watching Pine Barons strum away by campfire down the shore.
Expanding the line-up’s geographic reach was Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas, a 6-piece rock & soul band from Detroit. Fronted by leadwoman Hernandez’ powerful vocals and backed by trombone and keys, in addition to the usual suspects, the high-energy outfit finally got the vanguard of the Milkboy dancing with a 10-song set. Inhibitions also seemed to give way during the set, with Hernandez ditching her pants’ suspenders (“I’m getting some crazy camel toe”) and receiving some booze (“Can somebody please get me a shot of Fireball?”).
True to the Communion spirit, members of all three bands became part of the audience during the closing set of Dan Mangan + Blackmsith. The Vancouver-based Mangan has been wowing our neighbors to the north as an indie-folk solo artist for more than a decade, but added three full-time band members (and the +Blacksmith) on his latest LP, Club Meds. Those gentleman backed Mangan’s throaty-vocals and acoustic strumming during their set Wednesday night, delivering a sound that will likely please fans of Bowerbirds and The Decemberists.
Upon completion of Mangan’s set, Milkboy-goers had been treated to more than three and half hours of high-energy music from across the continent, making June’s Communion showcase a steal of a night at $8 bucks.
WIN FREE TICKETS: The Very Best, Heems and Sugar Tongue Slim @ Underground Arts Tuesday!
We’re working with the folks at one of our favorite joints, Underground Arts, and we’ll be giving away a ton of tickets to their shows in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday, The Very Best will co-headline with Heems from Das Racist in Underground Arts’ Black Box room. Philly’s own Sugar Tongue Slim will open the intimate show.
Like us on facebook and email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com to enter to win a pair of tickets (give us your name and put “Best+Heems” in the subject line).
If you want to play it safe and get your own tickets, find details for the show here.
Text and images by Evan Kaucher.
A tidal wave hit Union Transfer last weekend as the California based band FIDLAR (Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk), slashed surf riffs into a sea of sweat-drenched fans.
Hitting nineteen cities on their Spring Break Tour, they cruised into Philly on the second to last stop with Metz, a noise rock band from Ontario.
Starting off the night was Philly locals Huth & McGuinness, which is Randy Huth & Sean McGuinness (members of Pissed Jeans) instrumental grunge side project. Combined with face melting guitar and grungy drums you could tell the duo were enjoying themselves as Sean ended the set flexing his muscles and taunting the crowd like a WWF wrestler.
Not knowing which band was next (they switched headliners on certain dates), it immediately became obvious when Zac Carper of FIDLAR came out looking like he just got done ripping lines at Huntington Beach.
Almost immediately they went into “Stoked and Broke,” a song with lyrics about skipping school, smoking weed and taking shitty pills. By the look of the crowd, it felt like everyone did all three.
As everyone got a grip back on reality, they went into the more mellow “Max Can’t Surf,” a song targeted at their drummer Max Kuehn’s horrible balancing skills. After ripping through “White on White,” a song with powerful guitar riffs and foot stomping drum rhythm, Zac took a second to dedicate the next song “No Waves.”
“This song is about rehab, and how much it sucks!” he announced.
The crowd exploded with copious amounts of energy as they belted out the lyrics, “I feel, feel like a cokehead.”
Zac then threw himself on the ground – which he did multiple times that night – and continued tearing through guitar riffs as the rest of the band played around him.
After getting his footing, the band went into “Cheap Beer.” A song about, well, cheap beer. This is one their more poplar songs with a very relatable chorus, “I DRINK CHEAP BEER SO WHAT FUCK YOU.” By the sound of it, everyone there shared the same love for PBR and Genesee.
Going through the set they also played two covers, one being “Undone-Sweater Song” by Weezer and the second being “Lodi” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Blazing through their self-titled album FIDLAR, they began throwing in some new ones off of their LP Too, which is set to release September 4th on the independent record label Mom + Pop. Out of the five new songs they played, the one that really stuck out was “40oz on Repeat,” which has more of a pop vibe. Since the show, they’ve actually released a music video for the song. The concept was based around making fun of old school music videos from Missy Elliot to Korn (when MTV actually played Music Videos).
Closing the set, Zac told the crowd to sit down and promised them, “You’ll know when to get up.”
It’s like they were hypnotized when they began playing dark guitar riffs mixed with blues finger picking. Any real fan knew shit was about to get weird because it was the opening to the song “Cocaine.”
On edge like runners at the starting block, the crowd bursted into a wave of complete chaos almost instantly when the three frontmen started screaming into the microphone: “You take Sally and I’ll take Sue, there ain’t no difference between the two,” the opening lyrics that actually come from Jackson Browne song “Cocaine,” released in 1977.
With adrenaline flowing (and possibly some recreational drugs), the fans erupted in complete synch when the chorus dropped “Cocaine running round in my, cocaine running round in my, cocaine running round in my brain!”
Fists were flying and crowd surfers were getting pitted, as the swell of the crowd got larger and larger. Eventually as the song/set drew to an end, the crowd dispersed like an inflatable pool being ripped, leaving nothing but random shoes and pieces of sweat drenched Hawaiian shirts.
This song has definitely hit home with not only FIDLAR fans, but also fans of Nick Offerman, the comedian and actor from Parks and Recreation. In the video he basically gets fired, drinks about four 40oz Mickey’s and pisses on pretty much everything.
Ending the night was METZ, whose sound isn’t like FIDLAR but definitely fits well on the lineup. With the addition of more grunge and heavier chords, there was no lack of energy on their end as they tore through riff after riff melting faces left and right.
As the concert transformed into a hardcore scene, the grunge punks emerged from the shadows flaunting shirts that said, “Nuke the Cross.” A few 300 pound bald men wearing jean shorts and combat boots stomped the floor in complete rage.
Spewing heavy bass lines and raunchy guitar chords from their new single “Acetate,” the two frontmen, Alex Edkins (guitar) and Chris Slorach (bass), slashed their instruments as sweat flew from their faces into the crowd.
With the release of their second album METZ II in May, the band has continued to keep the noise rock vibe while producing a sound that’s a lot tighter and cleaner.
The band continued throwing themselves to the back of the stage as the fog thickened and rays of light illuminated Alex tearing through the neck of his guitar. Then slowly as the set drew to an end, the last remaining survivors sluggishly applauded with whatever life they had left.
In retrospect, it felt like a house party with two bands that basically have the message of quit you job and say “fuck off” to the “man.”
Text by Dan Halma. Images by Charles Shan Cerrone.
Nestled at the base of a hill at the intersection of Winston Road and Mermaid Lane lies a quaint stone building that, if not for the simple sign hung just below the third floor window marked “Mermaid Inn,” would appear to be just another beautiful albeit unassuming house in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill.
Without prior knowledge it might be easy for one to assume that the Mermaid Inn is a rustic bed and breakfast, or perhaps the cozy neighborhood bar.
While the latter might be an apt description, crossing through the bright red doors of the entrance on most nights of the week would have patrons finding themselves inside one of the Philadelphia folk music scene’s oldest and active homes.
Built in 1734, the building has been a staple of Chestnut Hill, serving as the inn and tavern that its name implies. If rumor is to be believed, the Mermaid was also frequented by some of the nation’s founding fathers and was a favorite Philadelphia drinking spot of George Washington. But what makes the Mermaid a special place in Philadelphia is not its list of famous patrons or the myriad ghost stories and hauntings throughout the years, but its status as an intimate music venue.
Come to the Mermaid on any Wednesday through Saturday night and you are bound to see a variety of bands and singer-songwriters performing anything from folk and bluegrass to classic rock, even the occasional jam band. However, one event is special for regulars – the open mic night held every second and fourth Tuesday since the 1980s.
“What I love about it is that it’s informal, you know?” says Mike McNichol, who runs the open mic events. “Anybody can do it.”
Dressed in a warm brown sweater and bearing an even warmer smile, McNichol has been running the program for the past decade, having taken over organizing duties from local singer-songwriter Tom Gala after Gala’s wife gave birth to twins.
Gala had been key in organizing and running the open mic night. Before finding a permanent home at the Mermaid, Gala’s open mic night was hosted at several different bars in the area including Mt. Airy’s Commodore Barry Club, Lafayette Hill’s Brittingham’s and Fairmount’s London Grill.
“It used to be called the Bothy Folk Club,” McNichol notes, and it served to incubate and promote the folk music talent in Philadelphia.
The name alludes to small, unlocked shelters found in the mountains of Ireland, Northern England and Scotland that were of free use for travelers in need. With a welcoming “come as you are” attitude, the Bothy Folk Club lived up to its name and continues this tradition presently, even though the name has changed.
“For a while there was nobody coming,” explains McNichol. “I think the name scared people away. So Joanne [Mekis, the owner] said, ‘Let’s call it an open mic and see what happens.’”
After the name change, attendance began to steadily increase until the number of people packed into the Mermaid was back to where they once were.
Yet even for its popularity with regulars, the long-standing open mic night is only a small portion of the live music programming at the Mermaid Inn. Except for Sunday, Monday and the sporadic weekday in which the inn is closed, there is always some performance taking place. Friday and Saturday night shows are routinely played to a packed house.
“Saturdays are our busy days,” says Joe Gray in between serving drinks and food to a crowded house on a chilly Saturday night.
Gray is the Mermaid Inn’s latest hire. He shares his bar and kitchen duties with longtime bartender Karen Guarino Spanton. As the duo sprints between customers posted around the bar and running to the kitchen to handle incoming food orders, it becomes clear that the weekend is the premier time to experience a night at the Mermaid Inn.
As many patrons settle in to catch the evening’s performer, others eagerly await their dinner from the inn’s small yet respectable menu of burgers, BLTs, broiled fish, salads and a changing list of freshly made soups.
“Everything we use [to make our food] is local,” says Spanton as she sets a BLT down in front of one hungry patron. “We buy all of our meat from the local butcher and all of our produce from local farms.”
As such, certain items on the menu rotate based on the availability of the necessary ingredients. But for the most part, the bar’s menu stays consistent. The only time major changes to the menu are seen is during certain holidays or special events.
“We had a special dessert for Valentine’s Day this year, “ details Gray, “an ice cream sundae for two.”
While the food and drink orders steadily come in, Gray notes that food is just a part of what makes the Mermaid Inn a special place.
“Food is pretty big here,” he explains,” but mostly people come here for the drinks and the live music.”
Almost on cue, the lights go down and everyone in the Mermaid Inn pauses their conversations to give their undivided attention to the evening’s headlining band.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 