It’s Vampire Weekend weekend. Also, Michael Kiwanuka & Brittany Howard, and DIY Super Bowl weekend
It's also an In The Pocket weekend, along with two artists who will definitely be on 2024's best-of lists.
Halloween is still over a month away, but it’s already Vampire Weekend in Philadelphia.
That is, the Los Angeles-based band of New York natives led by Ezra Koenig highlights a weekend in Philly music. And it’s not only Vampire Weekend weekend. It’s also Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard weekend, David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket weekend, and DIY Super Bowl weekend.
It starts early with a busy Thursday. My Morning Jacket and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats double up at the Mann Center and Boston funk band Lettuce begins a two-night stand at the Brooklyn Bowl.
British Brazilian songwriter Liana Flores — whose debut LP, Flower of the Soul, is a sweet, subtle charmer — is at PhilaMOCA, bluegrass mandolinist Sierra Hull plays Ardmore Music Hall, while Ska and reggae stalwarts Sublime are at the Xcite Center at Parx Casino.
On Friday, rockabilly and surf music enthusiasts Southern Culture on the Skids plays Sellersville. John Train — the Philly country-folk sextet fronted by storyteller par excellence Jon Houlon continues their free Friday night happy hour residency at Fergie’s Pub. The residency runs through October.
Philly indie pop bands Another Michael and Dogs on Shady Lane play a free show on Thursday at Spruce Street Harbor Park’s Live and Local series. That show is presented by the 4333 Collective, the Philly promoters who are putting on the DIY Super Bowl indie extravaganza for three nights at the Ukie Club.
Acts include Elephant Gym and Mei Semones (all the way from Taiwan) on Friday, You Blew It! and Carly Cosgrove on Saturday, and Prawn and Slingshot Dakota on Sunday.
The New Hope duo of Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, who make up Ween, was set to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their album Chocolate & Cheese this month at the Mann Center, but the concert was canceled due to Melchiondo’s mental health concerns. Heartbroken fans can bond at World Cafe Live on Friday to the sounds of tribute band Learn to Ween.
And on Friday at Ardmore Music Hall, this month’s The County Jawn — highlighting Delco’s musical talent — brings in Vincena and Dan Goode of Goode Friends.
The Lancaster Roots & Blues Festival runs from Friday to Sunday with dozens of bands, including Marcia Ball, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, and C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Chenier also plays the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill on Saturday in an Allons Danser event.
British songwriter Nilüfer Yanya is at Underground Arts on Saturday behind her new Method Actor, which expertly navigates loss and longing with a twitchy rhythm.
Vampire Weekend headlines the Mann Center on Saturday, touring behind Only God Was Above Us, just the fifth album released by the band that broke out in the indie music blog era in 2008.
It might be their best record, full of cannily crafted songs that find Koenig looking back on the New York of his youth with insight, not nostalgia. It’ll be on most critics’ year-end best-of lists.
Also, Saturday night, Hooters drummer David Uosikkinen brings back In The Pocket for its annual show at Ardmore Music Hall, with his usual all-star cast of long-standing Philly musicians, including Richard Bush, Steve Butler, Tommy Connell, Alexis Cunningham, John Faye, and Ben Arnold.
The latest In The Pocket recording is a remake of “Sally Sayin’ Somethin,’” the 1967 hit by Billy “The Human Perkulator” Harner, that features Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie, who will not be on hand on Saturday.
There are two noteworthy double bills within blocks of one another on Sunday. Psychedelic Furs and the Jesus and Mary Chain — UK rockers from the 1980s and 1990s, respectively — open their U.S. tour at the Franklin Music Hall. Scottish Jesus and Mary Chain brothers Jim and William Reid are in impressively fine form on the new Glasgow Eyes.
And at the Met Philly on North Broad, Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard share a bill in a pairing of adventurous artists who connect with the soul music tradition without being hemmed in by it.
Kiwanuka’s new album, Small Changes, is due Nov. 15 and is produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo of the Sault Collective. Howard’s second solo album, What Now, came out in February. It’s another album of the year candidate.