Bands and Friends

Last night, I met Todd, a 39-year-old gay Philadelphian in a vest and cap who was standing on a fire escape, smoking and braving the cold, very eager to talk “good, old-fashioned college girl gossip.” He didn’t know where he was, really, and neither did I. We had both been at the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show at the Starlight Ballroom on Friday night, and were blown away by one of the opening acts, Southern California-based Dr. Dog-meets-Ben Kweller-and-Wilco band Delta Spirit. When we found out that they were playing a second show in Philly, this time at Nadia’s flat (which, no, isn’t a nightclub, like Todd originally thought when he saw the MySpace bulletin, but instead a beautiful, beamed-ceilinged, incense-steeped apartment), we were psyched. The night lived up to expectations: the crowd was small, the concert intimate, the CDs free, white Christmas lights and six-packs of Yuengling were everywhere. Dr. Dog’s drummer was there, and so was the lead singer of Black Stoltzfus, the band formerly known as Mazarin.

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