Philly band Snacktime made its presence felt in a big way at the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend.
The 215 septet, which got its start busking in Rittenhouse Square during the pandemic, was all over the prestigious Rhode Island boutique festival, most notably guesting with Ms. Lauryn Hill.
It’s the band’s second straight year playing the fest that’s, of course, known for being where Bob Dylan went electric in 1965 and also for its smartly curated lineups and surprise mashups of artists.
On Friday, the band members — wearing their trademark black faux Sixers jerseys — joined Hill as the Fugees singer’s horn section, on “Doo Wop (That Thing),” from her 1998 classic album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which was released on Conshohocken’s Ruffhouse Records.
That day, they also played with Quinn of Mt. Joy — which has a date at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden on Sept. 25. On Saturday morning, the band played with Trousdale. Then later in the day, Snacktime joined Gilfillian for part of his “Sea to Shining Sea” music and storytelling initiative which the Morton, Pa., native put together with Newport Festival Foundation executive director Jay Sweet.
“Wow …. Unreal weekend. We don’t know what to say other than WE LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you @newportfolkfest for one of the best weekends of our lives,” the band said in an Instagram post showing a stage-eye view of a performance of its song “Together,” while heads nodded in the crowd and boats bobbed on Narragansett Bay.
As part of its busy weekend, the band members also posted an AI-generated photo of LeBron James wearing a Snacktime Sixers jersey.
Next, Snacktime is Chicago bound to play the Lollapalooza Festival (July 30 to Aug. 2), alongside acts like Charli XCX, Olivia Dean, and Lorde. They’ll also be joining Gilfillian on tour for dates around the U.S. in September and October.
The final night of Shakira’s “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition” played out like a quasi-religious experience for 15,000 or so ecstatic date-night — and girls-night-out — fans at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City Saturday.
And the two-hour, 25-song performance by the irrepressibly dynamic Colombian entertainer on the short list of the biggest pop stars in the world came with its own 10 Commandments.
The 10 Commandments of the She-Wolf, that is.
That list of lupine words to live by was counted down as the singer hustled off for what was maybe her 10th costume change of the night — I lost count — after she had completed her pre-encore set.
It followed not one but two official World Cup anthems in “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” from 2010 and this year’s “Dai Dai,” a collaboration with Nigerian singer Burna Boy, which they performed together during the halftime show World Cup Final in East Rutherford, N.J., last weekend.
Shakira performs at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., in June. The Colombian pop star played the final show on her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.Chris Polk
(For those seeking a deeper experience of “Dai Dai” — which is an Italian slang expression meaning “Come on” — a cocktail by that name made of tequila, Sprite, and pineapple was available on the concourse for $19 or in a supersized mason jar for $29.)
But back to the She-Wolf. “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” translates from Spanish to English — both of which Shakira sang in and used to address the crowd on Saturday — as “women no longer cry.”
The 2024 album that the tour is named for was largely inspired by the end of Shakira’s relationship with Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué.
And during the South Jersey La Lloran tour date, she repeated themes of female solidarity. Early in the evening she wore a metallic She-Wolf breastplate designed by Gaurav Gupta while singing an acoustic “Acróstica,” speaking of emerging post-breakup “a little bit wiser, a little bit stronger.”
Shakira performs at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., in June. The Colombian pop star played the final show on her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.Chris Polk
But that turned out to be only a teaser of the She-Wolf to come.
For the encore, first the commandments were revealed, including “Do not suppress your wild nature,” “Howl, for no one can silence you,” and “Protect and care for your pack above all else.”
Then, a giant inflatable and impressively lifelike wolf named Isabel emerged on stage, as a physical manifestation of the spirit animal of the headlining dynamo, who is 5 feet 2.
Isabel stood approximately 10 times that height, fitting comfortably beneath the 137-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling at the nearly 100-year-old Boardwalk Hall — a great place to see a show, and an intimate one by the standards of Shakira, who usually plays ginormous outdoor stadiums — shooting blue laser lights from her eyes into the crowd.
Shakira performs at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., in June. The Colombian pop star played the final show on her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.Chris Polk
Meanwhile, Shakira moved about the room in a shimmery bodysuit with her six-woman dance team. (She also had four male dancers who, among other things, dressed as furry tigers and wore pink shorts to accompany her on “Zoo,” from the 2016 Disney animated movie Zootopia, in which she played the pop star Gazelle. She introduced that song, asking: “Are you ready for some surrealism?“)
When Shakira works a room, it’s with more intensity than most. The encore included both her 2009 disco hit “She Wolf” and “BZRP Music Session #53,” her 2023 single with Argentine producer Bizarrap.
The singer and dancer moved up and down the aisles of Boardwalk Hall, fearlessly pressing the flesh with fans, taking selfies, and in one case kissing a baby who, thankfully, was outfitted with giant noise-canceling headphones. When it was all said and done, customized confetti fell from the sky: faux $100 bills, with Shakira’s face on them.
Phew! It’s tiring just to write about how much energy Shakira puts into her show. Over the course of the evening, fronting a five-piece band that seemed to rely on triggering prerecorded parts at many junctures in recreating reggaeton or Afro-pop beats, she played acoustic and electric guitar. She also briefly got behind the drum kit on “Can’t Remember to Forget You.”
And of course, the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer shimmies, shakes, twerks, and gyrates on a level that is unparalleled among aerobic pop performers. A friend of mine commented online: “As my wife said, she moved parts of her body I didn’t even know existed!”
Shakira performs at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., in June. The Colombian pop star played the final show on her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.Chris Polk
And indeed, with a runway extending halfway out onto the Boardwalk Hall floor, Shakira had ample opportunity to strut her stuff. At one point, there was pole dancing onstage, and also an odd pas de deux with a robot lover.
But while Shakira is certainly sexy, the crowd-pleasing presentation comes across as more wholesome than erotic. Even during the extended belly dancing on her 1998 hit “Ojos Asi” in which the singer — whose father is of Lebanese heritage — celebrated her Arabic roots, she nodded and winked to the audience, keeping the mood more lighthearted and playful than sultry.
That vibe carried through the evening, from when she first appeared in a shiny silver spacesuit that was soon discarded to an interlude when a mermaid iteration of the singer on a giant video screen appeared to pound on the glass of a fish tank in an effort to break through and free herself. Of course, she succeeded, because nothing can stop Shakira.
Shakira performs at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., in June. The Colombian pop star played the final show on her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour: World Cup Edition at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.Chris Polk
Between them, artists on the Historic New Jersey record label — which, despite its name, is headquartered in South Philadelphia — have released dozens of full-length albums and EPs since the start of the decade.
That’s a whole lot of indie music in a wide range of styles coming out of a South Philly basement studio, all demonstrating an old-school dedication to craft that prizes first-class songwriting above all else.
And it’s all being created by a small group of close friends who moved to Philadelphia as adults. They all contribute to one another’s records and play in one another’s bands.
The Historic NJ collective core consists of just five musicians, four of whom gathered in their subterranean studio for an interview on a recent summer day.
Emily Moales records as Star Moles — a self-described “sci-fi DIY Wi-Fi band.” She has a new album with a cheeky title that nods to AC/DC called Highway To Hell. It’s one of the most acclaimed releases of the year.
Kevin Basko is super prolific as Rubber Band Gun, and is the label’s founder and producer. He also teams with his housemate Moales in the brash Hot Machine, which he compares to Gorillaz, “like a fake band, something we can have a little more fun with.”
And siblings Sam and Louise Sullivan are a folk-pop duo whose third album, Love & Devotion, released this week. It moved pop culture magazine Paste to call them “the next great family band.”
Drummer and comedian Jem Seidel, who keeps the Historic NJ beat in the studio and onstage, is the fifth core member of the collective.
Musician Emily Moales, who records as Star Moles, inside the Historic NJ studio in South Philadelphia on July 10.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
‘The song comes first’
Moales, 27, is a New Hampshire native who started making music with Basko — a Berklee College of Music grad who has toured as a member of indie band Foxygen — after they met online in 2017.
Basko, 34, grew up in Monmouth County in Central Jersey, where he came up with the Historic NJ moniker.
He was intrigued by Moales’ imaginative ‘70s style folk rock. “She reminded me of Stevie Nicks,” he says and admits he initially clicked on her Twitter profile because she used a Barbra Streisand photo as her profile picture.
“There was an instant sense that we were on the same page,” Moales recalls. It took only a week to record their first work together, the Star Moles album Camelot, in 2018. Two weeks before the pandemic began in 2020, Moales and Basko moved to Philly, a city where he had made friends while working as a touring musician.
The cover image to Star Moles’ album “Highway To Hell.”Historic New Jersey
The Sullivans grew up in Portland, Ore., and New York, raised by music loving parents who schooled them in Woody Guthrie, Richard and Linda Thompson, and traditional Irish music.
Sam Sullivan, 35, who lives in Germantown, moved to Philly in 2016 to take a job teaching English literature at Germantown Friends School, where he still works. His sister, 30, followed a few years later and has also taught at GFS, but is now focused on music and her ceramics business.
In 2022, Basko messaged the Sullivans on Instagram after seeing a video of the siblings performing in a West Philly backyard. They soon joined the Historic NJ song-making family.
“We all share a philosophy, you know?” said Moales, who’s worked retail and food service jobs since moving to the city, including at sustainable general store Good Buy Supply. “All of us here, we’re just truly songwriters at heart. We hold the song as holy, above everything.”
“The vibe comes later,” Basko said. “The song comes first.”
Once assembled, the Historic NJ crew began quietly — and quickly — making music under the radar.
The Sullivans’ debut album Papier Mâché, which includes “Holy Philly,” an ode to their adopted hometown, came out in 2023. Star Moles’ Snack Monster, inspired by Andreas Capellanus’ 12th-century treatise Rules of Courtly Love, was released last year.
Basko makes music at a dizzying pace. The multi-instrumentalist who cites Todd Rundgren as a “musician producer” role model has a staggering 84 releases available on his Bandcamp page. Listeners are truthfully advised: “There’s something here for everyone.”
He’s also made music for TV shows like Walker and Superman & Lois. And he welcomes clients like Brooklyn violinist Marji Shemanski, who was due in for a session later the day of the interview.
Kevin Basko, a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and engineer, sits with his dog Jones, 5, inside the Historic NJ studio in South Philadelphia. Basko and Moales were both collaborators for Louise and Sam Sullivan’s newest release “Love & Devotion.”Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
People are getting hip
“There’s all this great stuff happening, with people getting hip to what we’ve been doing, said Basko, speaking while sitting cross-legged in front of a control board with a custom made big red button that he presses to start recording sessions with dramatic flair.
Jones, his pint-size Boston terrier, sits in his lap. The carpeted room is full of old-school analog recording equipment, with a kitschy guitar-shaped lamp illuminating posters from three Muppets movies.
“But there’s no greater feeling when a second ago we didn’t have it, and a minute later, we do. Prince talks about that. People don’t know what they’re missing when they don’t have that experience of creation,” Basko said.
People are definitely getting hip to Historic NJ. Highway To Hell is a unanimous best-of-2026 pick by taste-making sites like Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan. The album, which came out in February, will be rereleased by a larger, yet-to-be-announced indie label this fall.
“Emily’s leading the pack in terms of pure industry success,” said Basko. “I keep making the joke that she’s falling into the volcano in a ceremonial way, into an industry that isn’t always kind. It’s like [Indiana Jones and the] Temple of Doom.”
The artwork for Sam and Louise Sullivan’s new album “Love & Devotion.”Historic New Jersey
The spotlight is also shining on the Sullivans, who have sung together all their lives.
“Our dad really loved music,” Louise Sullivan said. “He wanted his family to play music. They would give us a song to learn and we would sing it at the end of dinner.”
“Like Pete Seeger songs, or the Watersons, or ‘Here We Come A-wassailing,’” said Sam.
“Or Kirsty MacColl,” added Louise. “Sam would play mandolin and I would sing.”
Sam Sullivan calls himself “a failed poet.” He had never written songs before moving to Philadelphia. But while planning to work on graphic arts projects, he played guitar instead and started putting words to music.
“Sam is one of the most brilliant songwriters I’ve ever heard,” said Basko. “I’ve been trying to be a songwriter my whole life. So for Sam to be just ‘Oh I started just a few years ago’ is mind-boggling.”
“I’m not really a musician,” said Sam Sullivan.
Kevin Basko clicks his big red record button inside the Historic NJ studio in South Philadelphia.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
That led to a high profile gig at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Mass., last month, which turned into a coming-out party for the collective.
The Sullivans played a stripped-down set inside Mass MoCA, the contemporary art museum where the festival is held, as well as a crowd pleasing outdoor show, backed by their Historic NJ compadres.
“It went great,” said Louise Sullivan. “We rocked our little hearts out,” her brother added.
An elusive band
Opportunities to see the Historic NJ groups perform live are scarce. In May, the whole crew banded together and played a two hour show at Johnny Brenda’s.
Star Moles’ last solo show was on Friday, opening for Hannah Cohen at 118 North in Wayne. And the Sullivans have one gig that requires a road trip: opening for Iron & Wine in Lowell, Mass., on Aug. 7.
The siblings would love to become a touring band, but will have to wait, probably till next year when Sam has the summer off from teaching.
Emily Moales (center), known as Star Moles, passes a guitar to long-time collaborator Kevin Basko inside the Historic NJ studio in South Philadelphia. Louise Sullivan is on the right.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Meantime, there’s music to be made.
On a whiteboard in the Historic NJ studio, Basko and Moales worked out the track listing for the next Rubber Band Gun album, due next month. And Sam Sullivan was working up songs for another release with his sister, which they hope to release by year’s end.
“We want to play shows,” said Louise Sullivan. “But you have to make music to play shows, and I feel like that’s the thing we love to do.”
Everyone nods in agreement.
“We want to make the next thing already. That’s what’s invigorating. That’s what’s going to last.”
Philly music this week features Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better Concert Weekend at the Dell, four nights with Jill Scott at the Met, Tim McGraw in Camden, Shakira in Atlantic City, the Disco Biscuits in King of Prussia, and Shinedown in South Philly. And more.
Thursday, July 23
Man Man
Philly-born and Los Angeles-based experimental rock band Man Man — fronted by Ryan Kattner, who performs as Honus Honus — is playing a hometown show. Man Man’s most recent album, Carrot on Strings, came out in 2024, but the band has a new single, “So It Goes,” that found its audience through the video game Cyberpunk 2077. Also, Kattner — who has two children with Crazy Rich Asians actress Constance Wu — plays an undead bass player in the AMC series The Vampire Chronicles. Death Valley Girls opens. 8:30 p.m., Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., undergroundarts.org
Tim McGraw is playing the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden on Thursday.Courtesy of the Artist
Tim McGraw
Did Tim McGraw perform at Taylor Swift’s wedding? And if he did, did he sing “Tim McGraw”? We don’t know because, remarkably, the omertà code of silence remains intact about what happened during the Swift-Travis Kelce nuptials. We do know, however, that the country star will be singing in Camden, and along with including his recent singles “Pawn Shop Guitar” and “Song for America,” he will probably wear a Phillies jersey in honor of his famous father, Tug. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Place, Camden, freedommortgagepavilion.com.
Brent Smith and Zach Meyers of Shinedown perform during the Pierre Robert Show of Life concert on Dec. 17, 2025, at the Fillmore. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/CAIN IMAGES for WMMR)William Thomas Cain/CAIN IMAGES for WMMR
Shinedown
Shinedown singer Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers performed as a duo in December at the Fillmore memorial concert for Pierre Robert. So now that they’re coming back with their bandmates Barry Kerch and Eric Bass on tour for their new album, Eight, expect a tribute to the beloved Philly DJ. Coheed and Cambria, From Ashes to New, and DJ Rock Feed open. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Anthony Hamilton
Before the Make the World Better Concert Weekend rolls in to the Dell, one of the highlights of the Strawberry Mansion venue’s R&B series arrives. Rough-and-ready North Carolina vocalist Anthony Hamilton was raised in the Black church and has brought spiritual ardor to his secular music over a 30-year career. Joe and Jon B open. 7 p.m., Dell Music Center, 2400 Strawberry Mansion Drive, dellmusiccenter.com
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Under the direction of Philly-connected sousaphonist Ben Jaffe, New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band brings the bon temps while always respecting Crescent City tradition. Expect this show to be a lively tribute to Ronell Johnson, the band’s trombonist who died in June at age 49. Meters bassist George Porter & the Runnin’ Pardners and John Papa Gros opening. 6 p.m., Concerts Under the Stars, 175 W. Valley Forge Road, King of Prussia, concertsunderthestarskop.com
Hannah Cohen plays Free at Noon on Friday at World Stage and 118 North in Wayne that evening.Courtesy of the Aritist
Friday, July 24
Corey Hanson
The singer of the Los Angeles psychedelic rock band Wand has moved away from garage rock to a piano and strings sound on his not-entirely-tongue-in-cheek titled fourth solo album, I Love People. Microgoblet opens. 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., JohnnyBrendas.com
Hannah Cohen
Earthstar Mountain, Hannah Cohen’s 2025 album, is a dreamy, pastoral collection that conjures 1970s Fleetwood Mac dreams with a touch of Brazilian bossa nova, and Sufjan Stevens and Clairo as guests. Emily Moales, the pianist and songwriter who records as Star Moles and is part of the South Philly-based Historic New Jersey collective, is the opening act. 118 North, 118 N. Wayne Ave., Wayne, 118NorthWayne.com.
Philly alt-rock star Kurt Vile outside Silk City Diner on May 24, 2026, in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25
Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better Concert Weekend
The former All-Pro Eagle’s fundraising concerts for the MTWB foundation, which rebuilds Philly parks and rec centers, are back at the Dell after one year in FDR Park. Slanted and Enchanted Stephen Malkmus-led indie avatars Pavement — the subject of Bryn Mawr native Alex Ross Perry’s 2024 meta movie Pavements — headlines Friday, with Ratboys opening. Local heroes Kurt Vile & the Violators top the bill Saturday, with They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Twisted Teens. 7:30 p.m., Dell Music Center, 2400 Strawberry Mansion Drive, dellmusiccenter.com
Friday, July 24; Saturday, July 25; Monday, July 27; and Wednesday, July 29
Jill Scott takes to the stage for One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on July 4, 2026. The first of her four shows at the Met Philly is Friday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Jill Scott
Jill Scott performed her entire set at the July 4 One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Ben Franklin Parkway before the skies opened and caused a four-hour delay. For her festival-length set, she was in fine form and her band sounded fantastic. Now it’s time for four full-length shows at the Met in support of her new album, To Whom This May Concern. 7:30 p.m., Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com
Saturday, July 25
Shakira
Shakira and New Jersey: Perfect together. Last weekend, the Colombian superstar performed her global hit “Dai Dai” with Burna Boy at the FIFA World Cup final at Met Life Stadium. On Saturday, she’ll be in Atlantic City in a room that’s smaller than the vast venues she’s accustomed to playing around the world. 8:30 p.m., Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, 2301 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, boardwalkhall.com
Dave P. at the Making Waves festival on the Atlantic City beach in August 2025.Dan DeLuca
Making Waves
The big Making Time ∞ blowout happens at Fort Mifflin in September, but the prelude will be staged this weekend in Atlantic City. Now in its second year, electronic music impresario David Pianka’s Making Waves day at the beach runs from 2 to 11 p.m. on the Atlantic Ocean side on the boardwalk at New York Avenue with DJ sets by VTSS, Detroit in Effect, Baalti, DJ Python, Fundido, and Universal Cave, then moves inside for an Anchor Rock Club after-party, with Curses, ADAAB, Jewelsea, and Dave. P himself. 2 p.m., Anchor Rock Club, 247 S. New York Ave., Atlantic City, makingtimeisrad.com/making-waves
Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26
Disco Biscuits
University of Pennsylvania-born electronic jam band Disco Biscuits is doing two nights in King of Prussia. Longtime drummer Allen Aucoin and the band parted ways last fall after more than 20 years, and these shows will be with new drummer Marlon B. Lewis. DJ Marb Menthols of Goose opens both shows, with Eggy playing the first night and Lespecial the second. Note the early start. 4:30 p.m., Heuser Park, 694 West Beidler Road, King of Prussia, concertsunderthestarskop.com
Sunday, July 26
Toto, Christopher Cross & the Romantics
1980s nostalgia in full effect. Toto guitarist Steve Lukather has been a regular visitor to Philly stages in recent years, singing his band’s hits “Africa” and “Hold the Line” on dates with Ringo Starr’s All Star Band. Now he gets to do it with his own band. Christopher Cross is iconic in Yacht Rock circles for his hit “Sailing,” which came out in 1979. He’s also a great storyteller, as evident on a recent episode of The Questlove Show podcast. The Romantics have at least two songs you know in “What I Like About You” and “Talking in Your Sleep.” 6:45 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.org
Bruce Hornsby performs during the Bourbon and Beyond music festival in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 20, 2024. He plays Ocean City Music Pier on Monday. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)Amy Harris
Monday, July 27
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers
Fun facts about piano-playing “The Way It Is” hitmaker Bruce Hornsby: He’s toured with the Grateful Dead, I once saw him play accordion and sing Christmas songs with Bruce Springsteen, and the 6-foot-4 Virginian once beat his friend Allen Iverson in a game of one-on-one. He also has a freewheeling new album called Indigo Park that features guest appearances from Bonnie Raitt, Ezra Koenig, and the late Bob Weir. 7 p.m., Ocean City Music Pier, 825 Boardwalk, Ocean City, N.J., ocnj.us.
Kurt Vile’s love of Philly — and Philadelphia’s affection for Kurt Vile — has never been in question.
For the cover of Constant Hitmaker, the 2008 album that announced his arrival, Vile posed in front of a blown out wall “that looks like a Rauschenberg painting” at the corner of Frankford and Norris, he recalls. “That stuff’s beautiful, you know?”
Since 2012, a Steve “ESPO” Powers mural that doubles as the cover for Vile’s 2013 album Wakin On A Pretty Daze has adorned a wall at Front and Master Streets in Northern Liberties, visible to travelers headed north on the Market-Frankford El.
With his signature mane and quizzical expression, Vile, who grew up in Lansdowne in Delaware County, has been the face of Philly’s reign as the capital city of 21st century indie rock.
Kurt Vile stands in front of a mural by Steve “ESPO” Powers on March 27, 2013. Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer
The city is embedded in Vile’s music at every turn, from the “I park for free!” boast on the 2018 song “Loading Zones” to the cover of 2022’s Watch My Moves, which pictures the Dad rock king wearing a crocodile mask in Wissahickon Valley Park, flanked by daughters Awilda and Delphine.
But Vile has never repped his hometown so hard as on his new album, Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me, released in May. It includes shout-outs to Lincoln Drive, the Schuylkill, and Sun Ra, and an infectious single “Chance to Bleed” that features Philadelphia gangsta rap pioneer Schoolly D in a video shot at Kung Fu Necktie.
Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me even includes a playful taunt at two of Vile’s classic rock favorites who dared to record songs with the word Philadelphia in the title.
“A couple of my heroes wrote a song,” Vile talk-sings in “You Don’t Know Cuz It’s My Life.” “But that ain’t where they’re from, so hey you don’t know / But I still love you, Neil and the Boss.”
Working in the wee hours in his basement OKV studio — which stands for “Overnight Kurt Vile” — in his fieldstone house in Mount Airy, Vile recalls, “I was singing along to this keyboard track I had laid down, and that thought came to me.”
Kurt Vile in his basement studio at his home in Mount Airy June 13, 2022, with his daughter Delphine.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Vile, who had (legally) parked his Prius in a nearby loading zone, was talking at the Silk City Diner on the Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend where he would realize a long-held ambition: sitting in with centenarian saxophonist Marshall Allen and members of the Sun Ra Arkestra.
Vile — who was wearing a Tammy Wynette T-shirt and MF Doom trucker’s hat, with his 1965 Fender Jazzmaster Sunburst in the booth beside him (without a case) — explainedhis unique position in Philadelphia music history while dining on an Impossible Burger and Korean fried cauliflower.
“Springsteen wrote the song ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ and Neil wrote ‘Philadelphia,’ and they’re both on the soundtrack to Philadelphia, right?” he says, referring to Jonathan Demme’s 1993 AIDS drama.
“I get where they’re coming from, but it’s still an assignment. They’re singing about a city they don’t know that well. I’m proud of the city that I’m from, and I’m also lucky that I’m from here.
“It’s like my friend Mary Lattimore, who plays the harp.” (And has given lessons to Vile’s daughters, who also both play guitar.) “She’s not from Philly, but she lived here forever, so it feels like home to her, even though she’s in LA now.”
The album cover of Kurt Vile’s ‘Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me,’ which features a photo by Memphis photographer William Eggleston.Verve
Adam Granduciel of the War on Drugs, with whom Vile frequently teamed up when both were aspiring artists in the 2000s, also grew up elsewhere and now lives in Los Angeles.
“They’re two of my oldest friends that were in the Philly scene forever, but they don’t have the extended history that I do.”
Kurt Vile with his father, Charlie, and his daughters Delphine (left) and Awilda, who posed with him on the cover of his latest album, at his home in Mount Airy on June 13, 2022.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The Philly fixture
Vile — who is the oldest boy among the 10 children of his SEPTA train operator father Charlie and stay-at-home mother Donna — is Philly-area born and bred.
“I’m the OG,” he says. “That’s what I’m proud about. It’s like Questlove, or something,” though for all the Philly repping the Roots drummer does, he doesn’t live here either.
Vile, by contrast, is a Philadelphia fixture. When artists like country rebel Margo Price, Australian rocker Courtney Barnett, and North African desert blues band Tinariwen have come to town, there was one way to know for sure they were in Philadelphia: Kurt Vile was standing next to them onstage.
Vile plays the Dell Music Center with his band the Violators on July 25 as part of Connor Barwin’s Make The World Better Concert Weekend. He played Barwin’s first MTWB Foundation benefit in 2014, which raised money to build playgrounds and rec centers throughout the city.
“I don’t follow football and I didn’t know who he was,” Vile says, recalling meeting Barwin at a show. “He walked in and he looked amazing. He was so tall, like a [expletive] Eagle. He was just a genuine fan. I love reconnecting with Connor and watching him do his thing.”
Vile’s July 25 show is the second of two MTWB nights at the Dell. The first-night headliners are 1990s alt-rock heroes Pavement.
“Pavement was my gateway drug to indie rock,” Vile says. “Stephen Malkmus was my hero. I got my first job as a busboy at the Blue Comet on Baltimore Pike and I would spend all my money on Pavement CDs.”
Now, Vile is friends with Malkmus, and was stoked when he found out they were both playing the MTWB weekend — until he realized that he has a gig in Boston the night Pavement is playing. “I’m missing Pavement by a day,” he says. “Which I’m not happy about.”
Vile, 46, has spent his entire life living in the Philly area, save for 2002-03 when he followed his wife Suzanne Lang to Boston while she got a master’s degree at Emerson College.
Philly alt-rock star Kurt Vile outside the Silk City Diner on Sunday, May 24, 2026 in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
He worked as a forklift operator for an air freight company. “The most ball bustin’ blue-collar job there is,” he says. Before he mastered the machinery, “I got made fun of a lot my first year. But then I got really good at it.”
Returning to Philly and moving to Northern Liberties, he went to work for Philadelphia Brewing Company, where he was hired by future pizza sensei Joe Beddia who was roommates with Granduciel. “They were all blown away by my forklift skills,” recalls Vile. “And that’s how I met Adam.”
At PBC, Vile met Jack Rose, the late Philadelphia guitarist who, like Vile, was a fan of influential American Primitive guitarist John Fahey.
Asked to name his top five Philadelphia artists, Vile starts with Rose. He then adds Purling Hiss guitarist Mike Polizze, and psychedelic folk singer Meg Baird, Petty Bunco label head and singer Richie Charles, along with Schoolly D.
“Is that five?” It is, but Vile has a couple more: Marshall Allen-slash-Sun Ra, and rockin’ country band Florry. “They’re so fun and excitable and young,” Vile says.
Kurt Vile in the music room in his home in Mt. Airy June 13, 2022 (this is not the basement studio)TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
“I love Mount Airy and Germantown,” he says. “There’s still so much old-school Philly in Germantown. And Mount Airy really saved my life. I love that there’s forest, and I have room to think.
Kurt Vile at his home in Mount Airy June 13, 2022, with his daughters Awilda (left) and Delphine, who posed with him on the cover of his latest album.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
“But I can still go to the city any time, and it’s so quick,” driving his Prius down Lincoln and Kelly Drives. “You go in through the Art Museum, and it’s a classy way to go in, you know?”
Over 10 albums, Vile has continued to develop a raw, unhurried signature sound. He often seems to be talking to himself in a bemused drawl over patient jams that turn out to be transfixing.
What country star Keith Urban once said of Vile’s 2015 hit “Pretty Pimpin’” in naming it as one of five songs he wished he’d written applies to Vile’s songwriting in general: “I don’t know how he wrote it, but it sounds like pure stream of consciousness.”
Philly alt-rock star Kurt Vile walking outside the Silk City Diner on Sunday, May 24, 2026 in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
‘Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me’
On Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me — whose cover features a photo by Memphis photographer William Eggleston — that deft, uncanny approach is evident on tracks like “99th Song,” an ode to a loop pedal that turns out to be a paean to domestic bliss.
“Stoned on music, well, the best kind of high,” he sings. “Got love in my life, and three girls by my side.” Later, the album includes a more straightforward love song: “Every Time I Look At You,” which begins: “Every time I look at you, sparks fly from my eyes.”
At Allen’s birthday party, Vile took a seat next to guitarist DM Hotep at the rear of the stage. “I was playing spacey, bendy Sonic Youth-hybrid leads,” he said afterward. “I felt really calm up there.”
A few days after that party, Vile celebrated the release of Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me at the Triangle Tavern in South Philly, where 200-plus fans lined up to purchase the album and receive a free vegan cheesesteak as a bonus.
Vile headed out with the Violators in June, and checked inbefore a sold-out show at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre this month.
“I’m a little discombobulated today,” he says, ordering a late afternoon large coffee and glazed doughnut. “It was a late night.”
The night before, Vile enjoyed a day off at Festa, a beloved San Fran karaoke bar closing this year he wanted to visit one last time. “I’m shy at first, but then everybody sings and I get up, too.” His go-to is “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks.
The tour, Vile says, “is going good, man.” This trek has made him rethink the streaming era. He’s a fan of physical media, and feels “the past was more simple and honest.”
Philly alt-rock star Kurt Vile at the Silk City Diner on Sunday, May 24, 2026 in Philadelphia. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“But now the way people can consume your catalog from streaming, the younger people can binge my catalog like Netflix, and I can tell that they know all of my music. I just feel that people are connected.
“This is my 10th record, and I’ve accumulated all these songs that have emotional qualities combined with a dreamy, pretty, hypnotic thing, and then it rocks live with my electric guitar. It just keeps evolving. The songs are simple enough, but the possibilities are endless.”
On the bus, Vile has been keeping Philly — and Delco — close to his heart.
Kurt Vile in concert at the Union Transfer, Friday, June 3, 2022Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
“I’m watching Mare of Easttown,” he says. “I never saw it, and now I’m obsessed, just watching all the Delaware County locations and hearing Kate Winslet say a sentence half-Delco, half-British.” He slips into a Winslet impression: “I’m hoping for an an-swer,” and chuckles to himself.
“But it’s my favorite show in a long time,” says Vile, who has Task cued up next. “And it’s got Mannequin Pussy in it. Does the director not know who I am?” he wonders. “I guess I’ve got to get in touch.”
“The timing is interesting, ‘cause I’ve been spending a lot of time in Delco lately,” says Vile, who’s been hanging with his parents and recently dropped in at his old haunt Paul Revere Pizza in Lansdowne. “Now I’m traveling, and I’m touring my Philly record, and I’m loving it. I’m loving being somewhere else and not in Philly every night. But I’m watching Mare of Easttown. And I know I’m gonna love it when I come home.”
Kurt Vile & the Violators with They Are Gutting A Body of Water and Twisted Teens at the Dell Music Center, 2400 Strawberry Mansion Dr. at 7:30 p.m. July 25th, dellmusiccenter.com.
This week in Philly music features Death Cab for Cutie and Japanese Breakfast in Fairmount Park, a pair of John Coltrane tributes, two nights of J. Cole concerts in South Philly, Trombone Shorty in Fishtown, and “Weird Al” Yankovic in Atlantic City.
Thursday, July 15
Earth, Wind & Fire + Lionel Richie
These seasoned entertainers on the “Sing a Song All Night Long” tour are stars of Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s highly entertaining new HBO documentary, Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World). EW&F and its founder and guiding light, Maurice White, are the subjects, and Richie, the American Idol judge and former Commodores leader, is an insightful talking head.
White died in 2016, but three key original members of the band — singer Phillip Bailey, bassist Verdine White, and percussionist Ralph Johnson, are still in the band, so there’s no reason to think hits like “Shining Star” and “September” won’t sound as joyous as ever. And Richie showed just how much of a polished entertainer he is last year, when he played a rare intimate date at Union Transfer. 7:30 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Friday, July 17
Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson was grouped in with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker as an Angry Young Man when he first emerged with his albums Look Sharp! and I’m the Man in 1979, before the British songwriter diversified his musical palette to include Louis Jordan-style jump blues and polished Tin Pan Alley pop. Now, Jackson is feeling cranky again on his latest, Hope & Fury, which finds him again working with bassist Graham Maby. 8 p.m., Lansdowne Theater, 31 N. Lansdowne Ave., Lansdowne, lansdownetheater.com
Death Cab for Cutie plays the Highmark Mann on Friday, with Japanese Breakfast opening.Ryan Russell
Death Cab for Cutie & Japanese Breakfast
I Built You a Tower, the 11th album by emblematic indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie, finds the Bellingham, Wash., band fronted by Ben Gibbard in fine fettle. They sounded sharp debuting the album at the Non-Commvention this spring. Michelle Zauner’s Philadelphia-born band Japanese Breakfast opens. 8 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.com
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue play the Fillmore Philly on Friday.Courtesy of the Artist
Trombone Shorty
Troy Andrews got his stage name playing in his family band when he was 4. Thirty-six years later, Andrews is carrying on the rich tradition of New Orleans funk, R&B, and second line rhythms. Bluesy Americana sister band Larkin Poe opens. 8 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com
Mikaela Davis plays Free at Noon at World Stage on Friday and Johnny Brenda’s on Friday night.Matthew Reamer
Mikaela Davis
Indie rock and alt-country harpist Mikaela Davis is playing two shows Friday. The Graceland Way and Grateful Shred songwriter is doing Free at Noon during the day, followed by a Fishtown gig that night. Noon, World Stage, 3025 Walnut St., xpn.org and 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com
Taj Mahal
Last year, the octogenarian bluesman born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. released his 32nd album, Room on the Porch, a collaboration with Keb’ Mo’. That is a mostly acoustic affair, but he’s playing this show with the Phantom Blues Band. 8 p.m., The Grand, 818 N. Market St., thegrandwilmington.org
Bebe Rexha
The FIFA Fan Festival runs through Sunday’s Spain vs. Argentina World Cup Final, but the final show in its concert series, which has included shows by Leon Thomas, All-American Rejects, and Deadmau5, is Friday. The last star to grace the Lemon Hill stage will be Bebe Rexha, the dance-pop singer who has had hits with G-Eazy, David Guetta, and Florida Georgia Line. It’s free. FIFA Fan Festival, 1 Lemon Hill Drive, phillyfwc26.com
“Weird Al” Yankovic in New York in 2025. He plays the Borgata in Atlantic City on Friday. John Nacion
“Weird Al” Yankovic
The ”Bigger & Weirder Tour” from the accordion-playing master of song parody is headed down the Shore. The “Amish Paradise” and “Eat It” singer will be supported by Puddles Pity Party. 8 p.m., Borgata Event Center, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City, borgata.mgmresorts.com
Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18
Patty Griffin and Kathleen Edwards
A pairing of top-notch songwriters with two performances. Besides the 12 albums Patty Griffin has recorded under her own name, Griffin has had songs covered by the Chicks, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, and Philly’s Dave Hause as well as made her presence felt on Robert Plant’s 2010 Band of Joy. Kathleen Edwards returned after an eight-year break with Total Freedom in 2020 and released Billionaire, coproduced by Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson last year. 8 p.m., Friday, Scottish Rite Auditorium, 315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood, scottishriteauditorium.com and 8 p.m., Saturday, American Music Theatre, 2425 Lincoln Highway, Lancaster, amtshows.com
Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma will play with Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen at Grounds for Sculpture on Saturday.Sound Evidence
Saturday, July 18
Bobby Zankel’s Wonderful Sound 6
Philly saxophonist Zankel is leading a notable tribute to John Coltrane. Along with Zankel, the band includes sax players Jaleel Shaw and Bryan Rogers,plus pianist Sumi Tonooka,bass player Sam Harris, and Nazir Ebo on drums.8 p.m., Black Squirrel Club, 1049 Sarah St., blacksquirrelclub.com
Judy Collins & Richard Thompson
Folk singing legend Judy Collins is on a “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour,” named after the 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash song she inspired. The opening act is British folk rock great Richard Thompson. 7 p.m., Lansdowne Theater, 31 N. Lansdowne Ave., Lansdowne, landsdownetheater.com
Philly avant-garde bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma pairs off with Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen. They will debut new music from Allen’s upcoming album, 101: An Audio Odyssey, and be in conversation with artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores, whose exhibition Raíces & Resistencias is on view.7 p.m., Grounds for Sculpture, 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, N.J., GroundsForSculpture.org
Philly anti-folk hero Adam Brodsky’s new album is “American Epitaph.” S. Elfie
Sunday, July 19
Songs of Welcome: Concert for Immigrant Aid
This afternoon event features an impressive array of Philly songwriting talent. Featured artists include John Faye, Cliff Hillis, Laura Mann, Adam Brodsky, Irene Lambrou, and Scott McClatchy. It benefits the Welcome Project, a Hatboro-based social service agency that provides assistance to immigrants in Philadelphia as well as Montgomery and Bucks Counties. 2 p.m., Fallser Club, 3721 Midvale Ave., thefallserclub.org
Monday, July 20 and Tuesday, July 21
J. Cole
North Carolina rap star J. Cole says his new album, The Fall Off, is his final album. We’ll believe it when we don’t see a follow-up, but in the meantime, the 24-track double album is an impressive if uneven effort, with guest appearances by Tems, Future, Petey Pablo, and Erykah Badu. It’s also spawned a print publication, The Fall-Off Magazine. 8 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St, xfinitymobilearena.com
Downtown Boys play Johnny Brenda’s on Tuesday.Naomi Yang
Tuesday, July 21
Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs
Tom Petty lead guitarist Mike Campbell has carried on after his former boss’ 2017 death, with four albums now with the Dirty Knobs, whose latest is Mission of Mercy. Sara Lee Guthrie, recently seen singing with Billy Bragg and Wilco at the Solid Sound festival in Massachusetts celebrating her grandfather Woody, is the opener. 8 p.m., Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, keswicktheatre.com
Downtown Boys
It’s been nine years since fiery Providence, Rhode Island, punk band Downtown Boys’ last album, but the Victoria Ruiz-fronted fivesome have returned at full strength. The new bilingual Public Luxury comes out swinging with “No Me Jodas” — which translates as “Don’t [Mess] with Me” — and never lets up from there. They’re a fantastic live band. Pop Music Fever Dream opens. 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com
Wednesday, July 22
Coltrane 100: Legacy
This Coltrane tribute features the saxophone great’s son Ravi Coltrane performing reimagined versions of his father’s classics with the Philadelphia Orchestra in advance of what would have been John Coltrane’s 100th birthday on Sept. 23. 8 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.com.
The man in the short, white jacket singing “The Man in the Long Black Coat” at the Highmark Mann on Tuesday? That was Bob Dylan.
You might not have known by looking because he wasn’t easy to see. Dylan has always been a master at hiding in plain sight, maintaining mystery about his true self — or selves — and resisting being known despite his every move being obsessively scrutinized for more than six decades.
These days, Dylan also blurs himself visually. On Tuesday at the Mann’s TD Pavilion — a venue he last played 10 years and a day earlier — he stood behind an electric piano at the rear of the stage, his face partly obscured by the hood he kept over his head as if he were expecting rain.
With the boudoir lighting on stage, it was as if the audience — surprisingly youthful, no doubt thanks for Timothee Chalamet’s star turn as Dylan in A Complete Unknown — was invited to witness a late-night jam in a ramshackle roadhouse.
(Mobile phone photo taking — or phone use of any kind — was prohibited during the show, and enforced by security workers hustling around the amphitheater with flashlights.)
And who were those shadowy figures on the film noir stage set interacting with the grizzled Bard? That was a source of intrigue as well. Dylan has been a road warrior on what he has dubbed the “Long Hot Summer Tour,” playing 51 shows so far in 2026.
But while he and longtime bass player and bandleader Tony Garnier and drummer Anton Fig have been constants, the guitarists have been in flux.
First, in June, Doug Lancio left the band, and Dylan watchers were wowed when he was replaced by improvisational jazz guitarist extraordinaire Julian Lage. Then longtime second guitarist Bob Britt quit the band without explanation, though he did post a “Sayonara Bobby” goodbye on Facebook.
Britt was then replaced with Chicago jazz, blues, and Western swing player Joel Paterson. And the lineup then continued to shuffle this month when Lage missed shows due to prior commitments, and Memphis R&B player Jad Tariq filled in for him.
Bob Dylan and his band at the close of his show at the TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. Left to right: Julian Lage, Tony Garnier, Bob Dylan, Anton Fig, and Joel Paterson.Dan DeLuca
On Tuesday at the Mann, however, Lage was back in Tariq’s place, standing to the right of Garnier and his upright bass. Both kept a close eye on Dylan, careful to follow his lead throughout an 80-minute performance that worked as a steamy midsummer mood piece and intermittent meditation on mortality, while taking an alternative route through the world’s greatest living songwriter’s oversized oeuvre.
Dylan is famous for rearranging much-loved songs from his 1960s and 1970s heyday to the point they become unrecognizable until a chorus comes around.
There was a little of that this time. It took me a minute to realize that the sprightly third song, which was one of many marked by intuitive interplay between Paterson and Lage, was “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
But mainly Dylan keeps the crowd from getting too comfortable by keeping his best-known warhorses out of the set. Nine of 16 songs he sang — in a clear, non-phlegmy voice by his standards, with the band skilled at staying out of his way — came from what are considered latter day Bob Dylan albums. (Though he’s been around for so long that one of those newish albums, Oh Mercy, is 37 years old.)
With Paterson taking most of the leads, the set also included covers of three old-time rock and roll and R&B deep cuts. Bo Diddley’s “I Can Tell,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “I’ll Make It All Up to You,” and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s ”Share Your Love With Me” were all examples of Dylan playing homage and drawing strength from bedrock American vernacular artists who inspire him. That was also true of the evening’s penultimate song, his own “Goodbye Jimmy Reed.”
Dylan is 85, and the New York Times recently asked him about being an octogenarian and to perhaps offer President Donald Trump sage advice on a milestone birthday.
He declined the latter opportunity but said that in his 80s “you don’t chase the parade anymore. You’re an old king from some vanished country. … You’re not rushing to become anything and you’re not haunted by the things that you did.”
Dylan’s songs are enigmatic. They mean different things at different times to different people. Or you might say they “contain multitudes,” as Dylan sang of himself on his most recent album, 2020’s Rough & Rowdy Ways, which led the way with five tracks performed from it on Friday.
Bob Dylan played the Highmark Mann in Fairmount Park on Tuesday.Carol Friedman
But for those tempted to try to puzzle out what Dylan is thinking and feeling about his own eventual demise, Tuesday night’s set did offer opportunities.
Two songs — one played early on, one mid-set — could be interpreted as dances with death, populated by mythical figures that may or may not be the Grim Reaper.
In the doomy, foreboding, and thoroughly compelling “Man in the Long Black Coat,” darkness is embodied by a ghostly presence “with a face like a mask” who takes a woman away “without a goodbye, not even a note.”
And in “Black Rider,” Dylan sounded feisty, casting himself as a mythical figure.
As if his ability to keep on keepin’ on required it, he vowed to fight Death to the death: “Don’t turn on the charm,” he snarled, “I’ll take a sword and hack off your arm.”
That set the stage for the gospel influenced “I Shall Be Released,” which has recently replaced the philosophical “Every Grain of Sand” as Dylan’s closing number.
The song he first recorded with The Band in 1967 can be read as a prayerful plea from a prisoner, or a supplicant seeking heavenly relief from struggles and strife on this mortal coil.
Either way, it was a stirring finale to a satisfying summer evening, and one of two songs — along with the title tune to the 1990 album Under the Red Sky — that featured a Dylan harmonica solo, with both drawing rousing ovations.
Guitarist Jimmy Vaughn preceded Dylan with his Tilt-A-Whirl Band. It marked Vaughn’s return to the Mann, which he played in 1986 with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, opening for his brother Stevie Ray Vaughn, who died in 1990.
Vaughn is a superb Texas blues guitarist. He never showboats or overplays, and along with his band — which included a three-member horn section — he revved up the crowd with a set that included covers of Roscoe Gordon, Slim Harpo, plus “Texas Flood,” the Larry Davis composition that became his brother’s trademark.
The show kicked off with Brittney Spencer, the Maryland-raised Nashville-based vocalist who is a key player in this decade’s Black country renaissance.
Spencer was a featured guest on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, and along with slide guitarist Omri Skop, she followed Queen Bey’s lead in covering the Beatles’ “Blackbird.” And in addition to her own songs “New to This Town” and “Better As Friends,” she won over the crowd with a quality interpretation of Dylan’s own much-covered love song, “Make You Feel My Love.”
An 1891 building that looks like a castle, a cathedral, and a factory
The Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library on 34th Street near Walnut hasn’t quite been itself lately, cloaked in a metallic web of scaffolding. But it will soon reemerge after an exterior restoration and promises to be as striking as ever.
Dedicated in 1891, the building has had frequent updates.
“There was a significant [restoration] project done in the 1980s that Venturi’s firm led. It finished around the 100th anniversary of the building in 1991, and that really brought the building back,” said Mark Kocent, Penn’s university architect, referring to the Philadelphia practice then called Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.
The Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, designed by Frank Furness, at the University of Pennsylvania, July 8, 2026. The exterior of the building from 1891 is being restored.Peter Dobrin
“This is coming back 35 years later and saying, ‘OK, it’s a building that you need to continue to reinvest in.’”
If Penn’s campus is a kind of museum of architectural eras and styles, Frank Furness’s exuberant piece of distinctly Philadelphia Victoriana hits the eye as a masterpiece. Highly ornamented and rendered in deep red-orange tones, the building in one section suggests a castle, a cathedral in another, and, on yet another side, a factory.
The current restoration project, whose principal architect is Vitetta, has a price tag of $16.5 million, and includes attention to the brick and terra cotta plus cleaning of masonry; repairing of the roof; replacing some windows and repainting of windows and doors; and adding lightning protection.
“So really, just kind of tightening the envelope of the building,” said Kocent.
The project began last April and is expected to wrap up this fall.
Penn’s core campus in West Philadelphia has close to 200 buildings totaling around 17 million square feet, says Kocent, and the university conducts ongoing assessments to determine which structures need work.
Among other recent notable restorations was a $87.4 million project at College Hall finished in 2025, and a $238 million renovation of the Quadrangle Dormitories along Spruce Street and Woodland Walk now nearing completion.
The Furness library building, though, is a favorite of Kocent’s, because of its detail and character, but also for a more personal reason: He was once a student at the school himself.
“It was kind of wonderful to have studios in there back in the day where as an architecture student you could go there in the evening at sunset and you’d see the sun setting on the west side of the building, and then after pulling an all-nighter, you’d watch the sun come up on the east side.”
The Fisher Fine Arts Library is at 220 S. 34th St. within the University of Pennsylvania campus.
— Peter Dobrin
Tierra Whack’s new video is for “Candle Wax” from her new mixtape “Whack’s Museum.”PhobyMo
Tierra Whack is back!
Tierra Whack always leaves you wanting more.
The Philly rapper and singer first garnered attention with her 2018 mixtape Whack World. That 15-song, 15-minute debut revealed her to be one of the most imaginative minds in hip-hop.
Since then, Whack has sometimes frustrated fans with her limited output — there’s been just one full-length album since. 2024’s World Wide Whack stretched her stylistically into alt-R&B and pop but didn’t entirely sate the appetite of fans awestruck by her wicked wit and rhythmic command.
Whack — who was a standout star of the July 4 One Philly: Unity Concert for America in its pre-rain delay phase when she joined Jill Scott for “Norf Side” — finally does serve up the pure hip-hop her enthusiasts have been jonesing for, on Whack’s Museum.
“They said I should rap more,” she says on the opening “Whack Job,” which like much of Whack’s Museum, is a team-up with Kansas City producer Conductor Williams. “I’m the goat, show me who to go at,” she raps. “Shouldn’t have to say it, you should already know that.”
Tierra Whack (left) and Jill Scott on stage at One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, on Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Whack puts her abundant skills, predilection for puns, and interior rhyming on dazzling display throughout Whack’s Museum, which is typically concise and economical, with 12 songs clocking in less than half an hour and none lasting more than 3 minutes.
The mixtape was released on Juneteenth along with a video for “Siren” that featured visual nods to Allen Iverson and the Eagles, and a second also-filmed-in-Philly video for “Candle Wax” was released this week. On Saturday, she’ll perform in New York at the Family Style Food Festival at Pier 36.
“Whack’s Museum” is now available for streaming on music services.
— Dan DeLuca
A young Ben Franklin electrifies the stage
It’s hard to imagine Ben Franklin as anything other than the balding middle-aged man we see on the $100 bill. It’s even harder to imagine him with an electric guitar in his hands — until now.
The new musical The Sound of America imagines the story of Franklin’s younger days but with a twist: He starts a band with his buddies and discovers the electric guitar through a lightning strike.
Kohl Pilgrim, the actor bringing Ben Franklin’s rock ‘n’ roll persona to life, poses for a portrait at FringeArts during a dress rehearsal for “The Sound of America” musical on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
As fame and fortune twist his morals, he finds himself abandoning his wife and bestie, and led down a dangerous path by a manipulative British lord (with a Shrek-like Scottish accent). Will Ben be able to come back to his roots, or is the power of electric rock ‘n’ roll too enticing to give up?
The show plays at the Delaware River-side FringeArts, fittingly right under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, through the month of July.
With only two curtains separating the theater from the Fringe Bar, the show is an intimate musical experience.
The cast of “The Sound of America” sit for a portrait during a dress rehearsal at FringeArts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
It had all of the musical elements I know and love; it felt like I was at one of my dad’s band’s dive bar gigs (which was precisely the feel creators Randall Lane and Todd Schwartz were going for).
The cast, led by Temple graduate Kohl Pilgrim, delivered their songs with ease, blending beautiful vocal harmonies and playing guitar at the same time (witchcraft, to me). Their chemistry was palpable, feeling like they never ran out of energy, even after the 2-hour show had ended.
Amid all the America 250 brouhaha, I have found it hard to find a history-related event that didn’t bore me to sleep. While this show may not be entirely historically accurate, this energetic yet flawed portrayal of a young Founding Father was endlessly entertaining, giving us a gritty Philly-style performance that I’ll never forget.
“The Sound of America” runs through Aug. 1 at FringeArts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. Tickets start at $60. soundofamericamusical.com, 215-413-1318, or by email at hello@fringearts.com.
— Morgan Ritter
A section of the 11-panel work titled “Red Metal Dust” by artist Sky Hopinka. The artwork is on display at the Barnes Foundation’s Annenberg Court through January.Bedatri D. Choudhury
Copper landscapes and America 250
I have long admired Sky Hopinka’s films — last year’s Powwow People was one of the best of the year. I went to the “Red Metal Dust” exhibit at the Barnes Foundation expecting to see the Native American filmmaker’s video work but was pleasantly surprised when I got to the Foundation’s Annenberg Court.
Photographs of sweeping landscapes make up 11 panels that flank one side of the walls. Hopinka uses photo prints of different transparencies to recreate the terrain of Tahlequah, Okla., which, Hopinka said to the arts publication Brooklyn Rail, is “one of the bigger towns in the Cherokee Nation.”
Mountains blend into tree tops, sunsets blend into the day sky, clouds bleed into buildings, human beings form little shadows, and billboards stand against the sky. Pieces of copper glisten in part of the image. It is at once one landscape continuing through the length of 11 panels, and also a different world contained within each panel.
“Red Metal Dust” is the Ho-Chunk way of describing copper— “naming the material not as a monument but as a remainder,” the program note says. The copper on the panels is not treated with wax and will, through the course of the exhibit, change color from oxidizing. What gleams in orange in the afternoon light today may turn greenish in a few days, changing how we see and perceive the landscapes in front of us.
A section of the 11-panel work titled “Red Metal Dust” by artist Sky Hopinka. The artwork is on display at the Barnes Foundation’s Annenberg Court through January 2027.Bedatri D. Choudhury
Hopinka’s work has always focused on Indigenous lands and people’s relationship to them. “Red Metal Dust,” created to commemorate the American nation’s 250th anniversary, centers on land that has been cared for by Native Americans for tens of thousands of years before the land got called a nation. It shows us what remains and reminds us what got taken away. It bears witness to aging and change and instead of looking at the country as one chunk of a land mass, “Red Metal Dust” gives us pause to stop and look at the many layers of disruption and repair that lie beneath what meets us in the eye. It is a reminder that this land was a nation of its own people who are way older than its 250 years of history.
“Red Metal Dust” runs through Jan. 18 at the Annenberg Court, Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. barnesfoundation.org
Local Noise Philadelphia, an old-fashioned Battle of the Bands competition, will be staged over two nights at Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia in August.
Bands or individual artists of all pop genres — from rock to hip-hop, R&B to country — have until July 24 to apply to be one of the acts selected to compete at the Fishtown venue on Aug. 13 and 14.
Each act must submit a video performance of an original song through an application portal that can be no shorter than three minutes and no longer than five minutes. That means no 10-minute jams, jam bands!
The ground rules: Applying acts must not already be signed to a record label, either currently or in the nine months prior to July 6, 2026. All band members must be at least 18, and applications must be in by July 24.
The poster for Local Noise Philadelphia.Live Nation
Applicants to the Live Nation contest will have their work assessed by a panel of radio and music industry professionals who will judge them on “originality, musicianship, and presentation.”
Those that make it through that screening process will then compete in the Local Noise semifinals on Aug. 13 and 14, and will be graded and rated by a panel of judges and the live audience. The winners will move on to a final competition at Brooklyn Bowl on Aug. 20, where a winner will be crowned.
The Local Noise Philly champion will receive $5,000, and perform on a side stage during an as-yet-undetermined “major concert” at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden in September. Among the acts playing in the capacious amphitheater that month are Lil Wayne (Sept. 11), Bryson Tiller (Sept. 18), Jason Aldean (Sept. 19), Mt. Joy (Sept. 25), and Gorillaz (Sept. 27).
This week in Philly music features a triumvirate of legends with Patti LaBelle, Bob Dylan, and Todd Rundgren. Plus, a trio of summer arena tour headliners with Alex Warren, Megan Moroney, and Tame Impala, all coming to South Philly.
Thursday, July 9
Patti LaBelle
July 4 has come and gone, but America 250 celebrations go on. Patti LaBelle headlined the Essence Festival in New Orleans on the holiday, but now she’s back in her hometown. Chester Grammy-winning singer Avery Sunshine is also on the bill along with Jeff Bradshaw and Pieces of a Dream. 7 p.m., Dell Music Center, 2400 Strawberry Mansion Drive, thedellmusiccenter.com
Singer Patti LaBelle is photographed at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia on Jan. 22. LaBelle will play the Dell Music Center in Strawberry Mansion in an America’s 250th birthday celebration concert July 9. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives
Philadelphia, Miss., native Marty Stuart and his band, which includes drummer Harry Stinson, guitarist Kenny Vaughn, and bassist, steel guitar player, and drummer Chris Scruggs, is aptly named. Among other surprises at their terrific show in Phoenixville this spring, the country-surf band sang a fab close harmony version of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” 8 p.m., Sellersville Theater, 18 W. Temple Ave., Sellersville, st94.com
Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band performs at the Railbird Music Festival in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 29, 2021. The band plays two shows at the Freedom Mortgage pavilion in Camden this weekend. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)Amy Harris
Friday, July 10
Dave Matthews Band
It’s time again for the annual DMB two-night summer stand in Camden. This is the third year of the environmentally conscious band’s “On the Road to Zero Waste” campaign and the group continues its work with the Nature Conservancy. Pennsylvania DMB fans take note: The Ben Franklin Bridge will be closed to celebrate its 100th birthday in the hours before the show, so if you intended to “Drive In Drive Out” to the show, make alternative plans. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, Camden. freedommortgagepavilion.com
Vince Gill
Too often country acts that aren’t the biggest mainstream stars of the moment skip Philadelphia, and play only in what the music business considers secondary markets. So if you want to see and hear Vince Gill, the 22-time Grammy winner and stellar singer and guitarist, you’ll have to go to Hershey. Now a member of the Eagles, which is doing dates at the Sphere in Las Vegas this fall, Gill is on a creative jag. He has been releasing one EP per month over the course of a year for his 50 Years From Home project. 7:30 p.m., Hershey Theatre, 15 E. Caracas Ave., Hershey, hersheytheatre.com.
Alex Warren
The winner of last year’s song of the summer sweepstakes with “Ordinary” is on his first arena tour. When the tour was initially announced, the Californian former YouTuber, whose father died when he was 9 and mother died when he was 21, called it the “Little Orphan Alex” tour. That has now been amended to the “Finding Family on the Road” tour. Warren’s third album, Wildchild, comes out in August. Noah Cyrus opens. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Philly band Hurry celebrates the release of their new album “Zoned Out” at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday.Luke Ivanovich
Hurry & Sad13
This is a double release party, with two of Philly’s most consistently rewarding acts. Headliners are Hurry, Matthew Scottoline’s formidable four-piece power-pop band, which is celebrating their sixth album, Zoned Out. It’s a 10-song platter of jangling, bittersweet bliss, that features a cameo from Gerard Love of Hurry heroes Teenage Fanclub. Love sings on “Moving After You” and refines the band’s memorably melodic attack.
Hurry will be preceded by Sad13, the solo endeavor of Speedy Ortiz leader Sadie Dupuis. Her cool, compelling new project is 1331, a 13-song, 16-minute mixtape whose concise approach finds inspiration in jingle writing and Tierra Whack, among other sources. Its synthy self-produced songs are shaped by Philadelphia: from Dupuis’ organizing efforts with the United Musicians and Allied Workers to a 2024 biking accident that broke the elbow of the guitarist that Rolling Stone named the 176th greatest of all time. 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com
Megan Moroney performing in Nashville in 2025. The country singer plays Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday.John Shearer / Getty Images
Saturday, July 11
Louis Tomlinson
Former One Direction boy band star Louis Tomlinson’s new album asks the musical question How DidI Get Here? By singing pop songs that send young fans into paroxysms of pleasure,presumably. Canadian rock band Beaches and English indie outfit Picture Parlour open. 6:30 p.m., Skyline Stage at Highmark Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.org
Megan Moroney
The country songwriter has sharp words for foolhardy dudes on songs like “Stupid” and “Medicine” on her third album, Cloud 9, featuring guest spots from Ed Sheeran and Kacey Musgraves. Openers are J.P. Saxe and Solon Holt. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Miami rapper Rick Ross performs at Rolling Loud Miami, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, in July 2021. He play the Met Philly on Saturday. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/TNS)Daniel A. Varela / MCT
Rick Ross & the Renaissance Orchestra
Rick Ross is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his 2006 debut album, Port of Miami, in style. The Florida man will perform reworked version of his songs with orchestral arrangements, and its billed as “Black Tie Affair,” so get dressed up. Philly State Property rappers Beanie Sigel and Freeway open, going on much earlier than they did last weekend with The Roots. Also, anytime Ricky Rozay is in town, it’s a safe bet frequent collaborator Meek Mill will show up. 8 p.m., Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com
Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12
Todd Rundgren
Upper Darby’s own reluctant Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is playing the hits. The “Damned If I Do” tour is subtitled “The Fan-Favorite Classics Return,” and he’s playing with a full band as well as doing an acoustic interlude. So get ready to “bang on the drum all day.” 8 p.m., Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave, Glenside, KeswickTheatre.com
Sunday, July 12
Shovels & Rope
South Carolina folk and Americana band Shovels & Rope is a true duo: Married singers and songwriters Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst are both multi-instrumentalists who play drums, guitars, and whatever else is necessary to bring their sound to life on albums like 2024’s Something Is Happening Up Above My Head. Intriguing openers are the Golden Hours, featuring members of the David Wax Museum and the Lowland Hum. 7 p.m., Bryn Mawr Twilight Concerts, 9 S. Bryn Mawr Ave, Bryn Mawr, brynmawrtwilightconcerts.com
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. He brings his “Deadbeat Tour” to Xfinity Mobile Arena on July 15.Julian Klincewicz
Tuesday, July 14
Bob Dylan
The world’s greatest living songwriter is having difficulty keeping his band together this year. Longtime guitarist Doug Lancio left the band in June, followed by the exciting news that jazz guitar standout Julian Lage joined. Then, second guitarist Bob Britt quit, replaced by Chicago blues guitarist Joel Paterson. He was the lone guitarist in the band for one gig missed by Lage, who now seems to be back in the band. Dylan has not commented. Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-a-Whirl Band and Brittney Spencer open. 7 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.org
Wednesday, July 15
Tame Impala
Australian psychedelic rock mastermind Kevin Parker is Tame Impala. And on Deadbeat, the 2025 album that was its first in five years, Tame Impala became a psychedelic disco Dad Rock band, transformed by Parker’s experience as a father, with a newfound compulsion to head to the dance floor. DJO opens. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
