American Football & Pure Bathing Culture - Union Transfer, Philadelphia, 5/17/2019; A Dynamite Pairing If There Ever Was One



Photo courtesy of American Football

It's really sweet when you hear about a group you love being booked to play your town and you find out that they are second billed and although you're unfamiliar with the headliner, when you go listen to their latest release you love them too. Such was the case when American Football & Pure Bathing Culture played Union Transfer, Friday night May 17th.

American Football began their set with an epic version of "Silhouettes", which also leads off their latest album LP3. The song included sections where the xylophone mixed with rhythm elements that almost sounded like something that Yes once played on their Topographic Oceans record. In concert, the rhythmic last section added a trumpet and went right into "Every Wave to Ever Rise", which completed an impressive live suite of the new album's first two tracks.

They didn't just stick to LP3, their set provided a good mix of old and new. With that epic opening, their set started out super strong and it just got stronger with each composition they played. This band, American Football, playing live is a beauteous thing to behold. On the three songs from LP3 that featured guest vocalists (“Every Wave To Ever Rise,” “Uncomfortably Numb” - which the crowd especially loved, and “I Can’t Feel You”), Sarah Versprille of Pure Bathing Culture came out and sang with the band, sounding just terrific.

The first thing about this band that grabbed me was the way their guitar sound sparkles and shimmers. And then its the deliberately unhurried pace of the bass and drums that catches you next, reminding me a lot of the sound of Scotland's Blue Nile. The vocals, at least on record, sound a bit like Prefab Sprout.

I may not have been the oldest person in the room, but it occurred to me later that the crowd was mostly in their teens and twenties and probably were not listening to music during the 1980s and 90s. Heck, some of them were probably not even born yet. I've heard this band called "emo" and I've also heard "inde rock", but I say whatever you call it, American Football has a sound that I cannot get enough of, and their live show was all that and more.

Mike Kinsella - guitarist/bassist, singer
Steve Lamos - drummer, trumpet player
Steve Holmes - guitar player
Nate Kinsella - bass

Watch "Uncomfortably Numb"


Setlist - Click on linked titles to watch
01. Silhouettes
02. Every Wave to Ever Rise
03. My Instincts Are the Enemy
04. Give Me the Gun
05. Honestly?
06. The Summer Ends
07. Life Support
08. Uncomfortably Numb
09. Never Meant
10. I Can't Feel You
11. Heir Apparent
12. Stay Home
13. The One With the Wurlitzer

American Football's Website
American Football's Twitter
American Football's Instagram
American Football's Facebook


Photo courtesy of Pure Bathing Culture

I found every minute of Pure Bathing Culture's set to be a thrill. These two bands are perfectly matched and in my book they could go out and co-headline.

Pure Bathing Culture opened the show with a sound that falls somewhere between Swing Out Sister and Everything But the Girl. It turns out that they recently released a new album, Night Pass. I was familiar with their debut full length, Moon Tides, from 2013; I relish catching up with Pray For Rain (that I somehow missed in 2015) as well as the new one. As much as I like them on record, they sounded even better live.

Pure Bathing Culture's sound is defined by Daniel Hindman's guitar and Sarah Versprille's voice. The backbone of their sound is the rhythm section, which at Union Transfer was provided by their touring members namely Zach Tillman (bass) and Christopher Icasiano (drums). The road band also includes Justin Chase (keyboards); Tillman also adds some keys.

One of the nice things I noticed is that both groups are making well written, well arranged, and well produced music - music to be listened to, music with a meaning, music with a purpose, and not just for the sake of sales. That's incredibly encouraging.

Sarah Versprille – keyboards, vocals
Daniel Hindman – guitar, bass, keyboards

Watch "All Night"


Also watch these videos from the show:
"Tower"
"Pendulum"
Pure Bathing Culture's Website
Pure Bathing Culture's Twitter
Pure Bathing Culture's Instagram
Pure Bathing Culture's Facebook

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the Main Point, 1964 - 1981

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #5 Begining in 1964, The Main Point in Bryn Mawr provided the Philadelphia area with one of its most enjoyable venues for live music. Although it started as a folk based coffeehouse, all styles of music were presented over the years. Financial problems continually plagued the Main Point, and in spite of frequent benefit shows by artists who loved the place as much as the audience, the club finally closed in 1981. The following brief history is contained in an obituary of Jeanette O. Campbell, one of the founders and owners of the Main Point who died on October 22, 2006, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sally A. Downey as reprinted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. Jeanette Orndoff Campbell, 89, former owner of the Main Point, a music hall in Bryn Mawr where young talents including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor were introduced to local audiences, died of complications from hip surgery Oct. 22 at Stap...
Read more

Cream and Blind Faith at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 1968 & 1969

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #3 (L-R) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, & Eric Clapton I could not have foreseen it at the time, but looking back on a concert going history now entering it's fifth decade, my first three concerts were absolutely formative in the development of the music obsession that has driven life as we know it from that point forward. Attending a rock concert pre drivers license was no small feat, that I even got to these shows is the first indication that I knew I was onto something even if I couldn't quite explain it. I've already detailed my first concert (The Beatles at JFK Stadium) in my MMMM#1 . My second and third concerts took place at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, they were less than a year apart, and due to the fact that concerts never end at the time predicted, these concert experiences both ended with a very angry driver stuck waiting in the car outside the venue until the last encore had finished. I shot both concerts with the same starter...
Read more

And We Danced - Filming the Hooters Video, 7/27/85

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #4 "And We Danced" (picture sleeve above) was released in 1985 as the second single from the album, Nervous Night , the Hooters' major label debut for Columbia Records. Here's the video. The call went out to the Hooters' mailing list the last week of July 1985 that an audience with cars would be needed on the coming Saturday for a video shoot. Participants would report to the Exton Drive-In by late morning and be prepared to stay all day until after dark. This stage set, early in the day, was a warm-up for the crowd and probably a dry run for the production team for the night-time performance to be filmed later. The banner backdrop does not appear in the video. Some of the antique and custom cars that were on hand for the shoot. The production crew prepares the ticket booth for its shot. This is the film crew shooting the acoustic intro part of the song. The acoustic intro was shot twice, first with t...
Read more