Friedman — who has posted over 50,000 photos and videos of dogs (and their humans) online since 2013 — is hosting a meetup on Sunday morning on the Schuylkill Banks. Hundreds of hounds are expected to attend.
“We’re going to meet at the Schuylkill River Dog Park,” said Friedman, speaking via Zoom from his Manhattan apartment, “and then we’re going to walk along the river up to the Art Museum and climb the Rocky steps for a group photo.”
Friedman will be there with his dog, Elsa, the Instagram-famous white husky mix who was dog of honor at his 2025 wedding to Samantha Cutler, his fellow alum of Wynnewood’s Friends Central High School. The wedding was featured in the New York Times’ Vows column.
“It’s a little crazy for me,” said Friedman, “because I feel like I’m a prophet, or” — he laughs — “some sort of dog evangelist, where everybody’s gonna follow me. It’s like I’m leading a march.”
“It’s a very joyful thing to have people meet up around a shared love of dog. They get to know each other, and make a lot of connections. It’s an amazing show of the power of not just the dog community, but the Dogist community.”
Sunday’s walk with Friedman is part of a Dogist tour tied to the launch of the Dogist Company, a canine wellness brand whose first product is Vitality, which is advertised as a “Board-Certified Vet-formulated antioxidant chew that supports brain, joint and immune health.”
“It’s salmon flavored so a dog might consider it a treat,” Friedman says of the product he developed with veterinary nutritionist Angela Rollins, which is available at thedogistcompany.com. “But it’s not a treat, it’s a supplement.”
Elias Weiss Friedman, a.k.a. the Dogist, holds a package of his newly launched canine wellness brand, The Dogist Company’s Vitality supplement, during a Zoom interview.Dan DeLuca
“Everybody wants more years with their dog. But it’s also about having good years with your dog,” says Friedman, who credits Elsa, 6, as “chief wellness officer” on the Dogist Company website.
“I’ve spent the last 13 years of my life showing the world how amazing dogs are. So the next evolution of the Dogist ecosystem is creating products that make dogs’ lives better — because it’s the least we can do for them for all they do for us.”
“They’re based in Narberth where I grew up,” Friedman said. “They raise service dogs to work with teenagers and children who are clinically diagnosed with depression, or PTSD, or are on the autism spectrum.”
Friedman also has a show on YouTube — simply called Dogs — where he strolls around meeting pups with celebrities, such as actors Zooey Deschanel and Sarah Paulson, and comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Lewis Black.
Elias Weiss Friedman, photographer and founder of the Dogist, holds onto his dog named Elsa, while photographing Michael Rey and Rosie, in his childhood neighborhood on May 20, 2025, in Narberth.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Last year, Jane Goodall was a guest in an episode recorded a week before her death. Meeting the English primatologist and anthropologist “was the biggest honor, probably, of my life,” said Friedman.
The Dogist origin story dates back to when he was a 2 year old and wandered away from his grandmother’s house in Narberth toward traffic on Montgomery Avenue. Oreo, his grandmother’s dutiful black Lab, kept him from walking into speeding traffic.
Most of the Dogist’s photos are taken in New York, but Friedman’s content-gathering travels have frequently brought him to Philadelphia, where he’s found four-legged subjects in Manayunk, Rittenhouse Square, and the Main Line.
“Negativity is easily found on the internet,” he said. “Dogs are an antidote or a respite to all that.”
At group meetups like Sunday’s — where walkers without dogs are also welcome — he can connect IRL with members of the digital Dogist community.
“I always enjoy going out and meeting people and talking to them about their dogs,” said Friedman, who has published three books including last year’sThis Dog Will Change Your Life.
“Dogs don’t have an ego, right?” he said. “They’re not burdened by one like we are. So part of the joy of seeing that they’re so free is that it allows us to transcend our ego for a few minutes. And that’s a very liberating experience.”
The Dogist Company Vitality Walk at Schuylkill River Park, 30 S. 25th St. at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, Instagram.com/thedogist
AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson made a promise shortly after taking the stage at Lincoln Financial Field on Tuesday night: “We’re gonna do the same thing we always do.”
It was met by a roar of approval from the sea of fans sporting red light-up devil horns, reaffirming that the Australian-born band’s multigenerational audience expects nothing less — or more.
Throughout its more than half-century history, AC/DC has belonged to a stunted-but-exultant branch of the rock family tree that stubbornly refused to evolve past the bracingly simple riffs, the strutting duckwalk of Chuck Berry, and the lyrical concerns of a hormonal adolescent.
That these sentiments are coming from a group of men in their 70s has rarely been an issue for rock icons of a certain age, but AC/DC has clung to its aura of misspent youth with an impish fervor that shrugs off questions of dignity with a raised pint and a lascivious grin.
AC/DC fans sing and dance Tuesday during the band’s “Power Up” tour stop at Lincoln Financial Field.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
At 78, Johnson remains the gregarious, leering charmer with the air of a man perpetually perched on his favorite barstool, even as he skulks around a stadium-size stage. A decade after being replaced on tour by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose because of hearing loss, Johnson sounded strong despite a few stumbles — swapping verses on “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” which he acknowledged with a chuckle, or missing his entrance on “Whole Lotta Rosie.”
A voice that in its prime sounded like a junkyard dog snarling double entendres through a barbed-wire fence suffers the ravages of age differently than a more finely honed instrument. But Johnson managed to summon his gloriously serrated howls when he needed them, talk-singing his way through the rough patches as if sharing a private joke.
AC/DC’s guitarist Angus Young performs during the band’s “Power Up” tour stop at Lincoln Financial Field on Tuesday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Which brings us to Angus.
The poster boy for arrested development, Angus Young still sports a schoolboy uniform at 71 (royal blue for this occasion, topped by a bright yellow cap emblazoned with his first initial). With his shock of gray hair, Young looks less like the juvenile reprobate gone to seed of his younger days, more like a student cursed, mummylike, to wander the halls of his school for all eternity.
The sole remaining member from the band’s 1973 founding, Young is indisputably the star of the show. From the opening riff of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” to the closing cannon fire of “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You),” the guitarist remained in perpetual motion throughout the two hour-plus show while churning out nearly two dozen indelible riffs. He eventually removed his tie, bashing it against his strings for the solo to “Sin City,” and even took the mic to growl a couple of lines of “Dirty Deeds.”
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson (left) and Angus Young play on during the band’s “Power Up” tour stop at Lincoln Financial Field on Tuesday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The leaps that accompanied each song’s final crashing chord don’t quite achieve the height they used to, and the blistering fretwork on “Thunderstruck” has slowed a step or two, but Young commands attention like few guitarists can. He quite literally eclipsed the rest of the band for an extended solo showcase on “Let There Be Rock”: As the rest of the stage fell into shadow, he first duckwalked to the end of the stage, where he was hoisted skyward on a raised platform, spinning and spasming on the floor as confetti erupted around him; then ascended to a catwalk atop the bank of Marshall amps to engage in an extended call and response with his adoring audience.
Johnson and Young both have personalities outsized enough to split the spotlight between them, necessarily so as the touring version of the band is otherwise filled out by hired guns. Longtime bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd remain official members of the band and contributed to the most recent album, 2020’s Power Up, but have been replaced for the tour by Chris Chaney, formerly of Jane’s Addiction, and Slash’s Snakepit/Alanis Morissette drummer Matt Laug. From half a football field away, Stevie Young could pass for his late uncle Malcolm, clad in all black and jittering along with the steady chug of his rhythm guitar.
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson sings during the band’s “Power Up” tour stop at Lincoln Financial Field on Tuesday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
AC/DC’s first Philly stop in seven years came two and half years into its “Power Up” tour, which finally wraps up Friday in East Rutherford, N.J. Its namesake album was given two nods in the 21-song setlist, with “Demon Fire” and “Shot in the Dark” fitting snugly in with the classics. The title track from 2000’s Stiff Upper Lip was the only other song drawn from the band’s 21st-century output.
Otherwise they stuck, as promised, to the familiar, accompanied by unobtrusive visuals: columns of flame for “Highway to Hell,” monochrome and static for “Back in Black,” a bell lowered from the rafters for “Hells Bells.”
Opening the evening, as they have throughout the lengthy tour schedule, was the Pretty Reckless. Led by former child star and model Taylor Momsen, who has been moonlighting recently with the sporadically reuniting Soundgarden, the band shares the headliner’s penchant for amped-up, blues-based rock, if not its gift for memorable riffs.
The Fire, the Northern Liberties music venue that played host to an illustrious list of Philadelphia and national touring acts in the 2000s and 2010s, will shut its doors this week.
Karen Lauria Saillant, the owner of the club at 412 W. Girard Ave. that is housed within the Philadelphia Bar & Grille, announced in a Facebook post that the music venue and the bar will close permanently on Wednesday.
“I am not able to continue after the death of my beloved son, Christian Bygott, who was our manager & our backbone,” she wrote, citing the reason for closure.
Bygott, who had been the club’s talent buyer and was also, like his mother, an opera singer, died in 2024 at age 41.
Saillant, who has long touted the Fire as Philly’s only fully woman-owned music venue, purchased the Philadelphia Bar & Grille with her husband, Bernie Bygott, in 1988.
In Jonathan Demme’s 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, the exterior of the bar is shown in an opening credit sequence while Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” plays.
After her husband became severely incapacitated in 1999, Saillant founded the Fire. In the decades that followed, many rising stars played there, particularly in the years between 2003 and 2017 when Philly music manager and talent buyer Derek Dorsey ran the venue.
Acts that played at the Fire and went on to big things, include John Legend, Rilo Kiley, My Chemical Romance, Amos Lee, Maroon 5, Kurt Vile, Alex G, Jason Mraz, Modern Baseball, Hop Along, Damien Rice, Santigold, Iron & Wine, Cold War Kids, and more.
In 2022, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance — who played the Fire in 2002 — gave the venue a shout-out in a show at the Wells Fargo Center.
On Wednesday, the final show at the Fire is scheduled to be Philly hip-hop and R&B artist Deek Westside, celebrating his new album, Everything Is Different. It’s billed as “a Fire celebration for a fire artist.”
Saillant wasn’t immediately available for comment.
In more official terms, that makes Wilkins, 29, a MacArthur Fellow — the youngest member of his class. All fellows will receive $800,000 in unrestricted funding over the next five years, with the awards giving financial flexibility to recipients for their artistic and scholarly visions.
“I was just outside,” he said. “Which was nice because then I could yell as loud as I wanted to and celebrate.”
In a video introducing the 2026 fellows, Wilkins described himself as a saxophonist and composer who anchors “original compositions in history and spirituality.” He added that as a performer, he was “looking to escape the gaze that might be on me and direct my creative energy inwards and upwards.”
Presented by Ars Nova Workshop, “RECESS” featured the musicians playing on a stage modeled into a combination playground and bandstand, which Wilkins earlier told The Inquirer was a way to inspire “radical play.”
“I started thinking about the landscape of Philadelphia as functioning as a kind of abstracted play space,” Wilkins said in a May interview.
Wilkins’ debut album, Omega, was released in 2020, and connects the 1918 lynching of a pregnant Black woman, Mary Turner, to the 2014 fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, Michael Brown. The abstraction of music, Wilkins told the AP, allows him to represent these stories without “recreating the violence of them.”
“Although it is some of the most painful material, the music itself feels so good,” Wilkins said in the MacArthur Foundation clip.
Most recently, Wilkins released Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 1, a three-volume recording of performances at the iconic New York City jazz club.
In addition to Wilkins, two other MacArthur Fellows this year have ties to the Philadelphia area. Both are Princeton University professors.
Ellora Derenoncourt, an associate professor in the university’s economics department, told the AP that she would use the award to translate issues of economic justice for the broader public and interested policymakers. And Elizabeth Ellis, an associate history professor, hopes to support research projects focusing Native American history, the university said.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
On “Garden Song” from her 2020 album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers sang: “When I grow up, I’m gonna look up from my phone and see my life.”
When she sang that lyric on Monday in South Philly, she didn’t have to take her eyes away from her mobile device because, of course, she was on stage and didn’t have it with her.
But what was different about The Lost Tour — the concert trek that brought Bridgers to the Xfinity Mobile Arena along with her nine-piece band and her opening act, Havertown’s own Alex G — was that none of the other 20,000 or so people in the room had their cell phones with them either.
Or rather, most had them in their possession, but the phones were locked away in Yondr pouches attached to lanyards around their necks, and thus inaccessible for the combined three-hour duration of Bridgers’ 26-song headlining set and Alex G’s 19-tune opener.
So: No photos, no videos, and no Instagram until after the show was over. What a concept: Does an actual shared experience even happen if it can’t be immediately shared virtually?
And perhaps more importantly, how are you supposed to know the Eagles score if you can’t constantly check your phone? Though that turned out to be a blessing, considering the Birds’ abysmal Monday Night Football performance.
Bridgers’ performance, on the contrary — as well as the impressive and imaginative staging of the singer-songwriter’s inaugural arena tour — was exemplary.
Phoebe Bridgers at Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly during The Lost Tour on Monday night.Wes Ellis / Courtest of the Oriel Co.
The show drew from her grief-stricken, joyous, emotionally complex, darkly funny, and musically varied new album, Lost Weekend, as well as Punisher and her 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps.
It also looked really cool. This summer, in the run-up to the release of Lost Weekend, Bridgers stoked the ardor of her fan base first with a series of no phones pop-up shows around the country, and then Lost Weekend listening parties staged in planetariums.
The Lost Tour recreates that sparkly star-filled aesthetic in an arena setting. Bridgers began with the main stage covered by a dome that looked like a giant cloche — one of those plate covers that a server lifts to reveal a dinner plate at a fancy restaurant.
The first song “Outside,” also the opening track on Lost Weekend, was played by musicians not yet visible under the dome. In its first verse, Bridgers’ heavily processed voice cracked a macabre joke about the funeral of her father, who died in 2022: “Crying in a suit and tie, but you should see the other guy / One more time for old time’s sake, I’ll watch him get carried away.”
Then the dome slowly lifted to reveal the dressed-in-black band. The ensemble, which excelled at folk-pop but also moved into more electronic and noisy textures, included a four-person string section, plus multi-instrumentalist Melina Duterte, who performs under the stage name Jay Som.
As it hung overhead, the dome then tilted back to reveal outer space imagery — the surface of the moon, or what looked like Jupiter — in its circular core while sky-high back and white visions of Bridgers were projected on curtains on either side of the stage.
The action began with Bridgers’ “Motion Sickness,” about an abusive relationship (“I hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid”) and kicked into gear with the new album’s earworm “Lost Boys,” about men behaving badly, again.
Alex G with Phoebe Bridgers at Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly during The Lost Tour on Monday night.Wes Ellis / Courtesy of The Oriel Co.
Bridgers rose to popularity as an unstinting and artful chronicler of her interior life not only with her solo work, but also with Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and especially boygenius, with bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.
The trio broke through to mainstream popularity in 2023, when it sold out the Mann Center in Fairmount Park. That fan base of teenage and older women singing along to every word was in force on Monday, when the merch line was even longer than the queue for the men’s room at Willie Nelson and Neil Young’s show at the Mann last week.
Boygenius reunited at Bridgers’ shows in Brooklyn this month, but her bandmates didn’t make the trip down the Jersey Turnpike to Dacus’ former hometown. Not to worry, though: Bridgers had a special guest at the ready in her opening act.
In her own set, she brought out “my friend Alex G.”
The singer whose last name is Giannascoli cowrote two songs and co-produced 11 on Lost Weekend. It’sno surprise he and Bridgers are simpatico, as his music bears the influence of Elliott Smith, one of Bridgers’ songwriting heroes.
Many of Bridgers’ songs — catchy as they are, and sung in a sweet upper register — can be heavy going, even when she makes not really light-hearted jokes like in “Governor’s Waltz,” about “hiding in the bathroom, like Shelley Duvall” in The Shining.
But her music also rocks out with ecstatic release. As it did on Monday with “Bobby,” a euphoric tune about her partner, comedian Bo Burnham, who cowrote it.
She then brought out Alex G and his band, including violinist Molly Germer, for a duet on his song called “Bobby,” a country lament from 2017.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a decade,” Bridgers said.
Much of the most memorable action happened on the second, satellite stage. Bridgers played a six-song set there, at some points solo and others accompanied by her string players.
Alex G with Phoebe Bridgers at Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly during The Lost Tour on Monday night.Matt Grubb / Courtesy of the Oriel Co.
She sang the devastating “Funeral,” and thanked fans for putting phones away, as part of a trend that’s also seen artists like Jill Scott go the Yondr route to create a more present, in the moment experience.
Some fans in other cities had cut the pouches open with knives, Bridgers said, but joked “they have to live with who they are.” Creating a phone-free experience, she said, “is actually no more thought out than it’s really nice.” Which it was.
Before “Still Standing,” a song about domestic violence, Bridgers, 32, talked about her complicated relationship with her father, and how satisfying it’s been to talk to fans and friends who’ve had similar experiences.
“I used to think that artists had traumatic lives,” she said. “Now I realize it’s just that artists sing about it. Really, it’s everyone. Everybody deserves their own documentary.”
Alex G played his entire set from the second stage, which was lit by light saberlike sticks that made it appear that he and his band were performing from inside of a light bulb.
The prolific musician who has moved into film scoring, most recently stretching out as a composer with his work on Jane Schoenbrun’s horror rom-comTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, was in fine form.
His economical set courted Bridgers’ fans early on with melodic nuggets like “Gretel” and the grabby “Runner” before moving into more gnarly territory.
Coming on stage as a recording of “Here Come the Sixers” played, he let his subtly appealing music do the talking, but also charmed with awkward, blurted out stage patter.
“It’s good to be back in the greatest city in the world,” he said, adding “I can’t think of anything else to say. Is everybody excited about LeBron James?”
And after thanking everyone involved in the show, from Bridgers to his driver, he ended with the words that all Philadelphians understand but which did no good on this particular evening: “Go Birds!”
Willie Nelson and Neil Young are old buddies who get together once a year to play Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert that takes place in Virginia Beach this Saturday.
But the two giants of North American song, who between them, have released over 150 albums, have never actually toured together.
Until this week, that is.
In the run-up to Farm Aid, which this year will include John Mellencamp, Margo Price, Sierra Ferrell, and Jesse Welles, Nelson and Young added a two-show warm-up trek.
They played one date in Bridgeport, Conn., before the two proudly unpolished songwriters pulled up to the TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann in Fairmount Park on Thursday.
Teenage Texas country and blues songwriter Ty Meyers opened, followed by a clip of Nelson performing his welcoming, immigrant-friendly patriotic song “Living in the Promised Land,” singing of an America “where there’s room for everyone, livin’ in the promised land.”
Then the lights went up and there was a 93-year-old Nelson, seated and wearing a down jacket on a chilly September evening.
Along with him was his band Family, which in this iteration included his son Micah on guitar and vocals, longtime compadre Mickey Raphael on harmonica and accordion, and Waylon Payne, the son of Nelson’s late longtime band member Jody Payne, also on guitar and vocals.
Nelson is a marvel. For regular attendees of his Outlaw Music Festival — which cut back on its schedule and did not stop in Philly this year — his 70-minute set was familiar.
Neil Young joining Willie Nelson and his Family Band at the Highmark Mann on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.Dan DeLuca
With his trusty, impossibly beat-up guitar, Trigger, on his lap, he opened as always with Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River,” before segueing into a taste of western swing with Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys’ “Stay a Little Longer,” and then his own Zen masterpiece “Still Is Still Moving to Me.”
Early on, his spoken-sung vocals were a little rough and clotted, but he loosened up as the set progressed and by the time he got to “Georgia (On My Mind),” his singing was notable not only for his uncanny, conversational phrasing, but he also sounded relatively robust, even frisky.
He got a little help from his bandmates, easing his vocal burden.
Micah Nelson got plenty of chuckles with his songs “Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven),” which is written from the perspective of his famously weed-loving father, and “Everything Is [Expletive]” in which both Nelsons took a look at the world around them and found not much to recommend.
Payne, meanwhile, added gravitas with covers of Merle Haggard’s “Workingman’s Blues” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” To the lyric, “And it’s sad to be alone,” he added, “but it isn’t, because we’re up here singing with Willie Nelson!”
Then there were two special treats. Young came out and sang with Willie on a ragged but right “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” from his 1985 album Old Ways, into which he dropped a new lyric expressing contempt for A.I. data centers.
The set closed in the traditional Willie way, with the country gospel medley of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away,” with a surprise guest joining in on the sing-along.
Who was that skinny dude with his hair tucked into a trucker’s cap? But of course, it was Philly’s own alt-rock star Kurt Vile, who guested with centenarian Marshall Allen earlier this year and now can add an appearance with nonagenarian Nelson to his resumé.
Before Young took the stage with his band the Chrome Hearts, which includes the hard-working Micah Nelson along with illustrious Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section keyboard player Spooner Oldham, the video screens issued a three-word written reminder to Americans: “Keep Freedom Free.”
The loose-limbed set that followed leaned toward the acoustic early on. Young, 80, ambled through the warm and wistful sentiments of “Long May You Run” and “Comes a Time,” and later rang out with the one-two punch of “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” bringing the packed house to its feet, where they stayed standing thereafter.
Young has just released Second Song, a collection that contemplates aging and mortality. It’s his 50th album and one of his better efforts this century. With a backdrop that read “LOVE EARTH,” he performed two songs from the album, including the sweet heartbreak tune, “Casting Me Away From You,” which he said, “I wrote in 1963 or ’64, but it was never released. That makes it a new song, right?”
Neil Young in a video screen image at the Highmark Mann on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. The Canadian rocker played with his band the Chrome Hearts on a bill with Willie Nelson & Family.Dan DeLuca
The title is a sly reference to his remark “It’s all one song!” from his 1997 live album Year of the Horse, referring to the unifying, liberating squall he tends to lean into when turning the amplification all the way up.
On Thursday, Young revisited that idea: “You guys realize this all one song, don’t you?” He also poked fun at President Donald Trump by making repeated references to Lake Ontario — which the president has renamed “Lake America.”
And at one point, while wandering over to the piano where he would sit and play the environmental anthem “After the Gold Rush,” Young took a sip from a green bottle of beer that appeared to be a Molson and said: “How’d that get here? That’s Canadian!”
The show grew raucous down the stretch.
Two days earlier in Connecticut, Young had ended his pre-encore set with “Gold Rush.” In Philly, he apparently felt the need to rock out.
The packed house got the catharsis it had been hoping for with a ripping “Powderfinger,” which delivered classic 1970s Rust Never Sleeps-era power chord crunch in one of the most satisfying salvos from Young’s peak period.
And that was followed by “Roll Another Number (For the Road),” a song simpatico with Nelson if there ever was one, pulled from 1975’s Tonight’s the Night, the third album in his illustrious “Ditch Trilogy,” when the maverick songwriter decided he was spending too much time in the middle of the road “so I headed for the ditch.”
Young and the Chrome Hearts returned with “Living With War,” a song written in protest of the U.S.’ war with Iraq in 2006, now presented in opposition to the war on Iran.
The simultaneously combative and sorrowful thrust of the song hit home, timeless, but it’s lumbering in comparison to Young’s more unstoppable, on-target epic rockers.
No matter, it wasn’t a long wait for one of those. The inevitable closer was “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World,” still managing to deliver big rock show defiance 37 years after it was first recorded.
Fists were pumped, a one-of-a-kind night with two legends came to an emphatic conclusion, and the Canadian American rocker left the crowd with one last exhortation: “Keep America Free!”
“I had a tape recorder I would sing into,” said the South Jersey jazz vocalist.
“I was one of those kids holding a brush in the mirror, singing Billy Joel songs. I was that kid.”
But it was a roundabout route to the stage for Farnese, whose debut album, Oh No, I’m in Love Again, was just released on Philly jazz pianist Orrin Evans’ Imani Records.
First, he followed his father, Aldo Farnese — the star of Philadelphia children’s television shows Dickory Doc and Adam Android in the 1960s and 1970s — in pursuing an acting career. After a stint in Hollywood working in production and scoring some small movie and TV roles, he came home to Philly in the mid-1990s.
Since then, Farnese has had a day job — actually, usually a night job — as a TV camera operator for the Phillies, first at Veterans Stadium and, since 2004, at Citizens Bank Park. He operates a super slo-mo camera from the left field power alley in front of Ghost Energy Deck (formerly Harry the K’s).
By 2012, Farnese was long settled into that job, and also working Sixers and Flyers games for NBC Sports Philadelphia. In 2012, he won an Emmy for his work on the World Series.
But then he felt — as he puts it speaking via Zoom from his home in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, while his golden retrievers Bailey and Oliver lounge on a sofa behind him — “a tap on the shoulder.”
The cover image to Greg Farnese’s album “Oh No, I’m in Love Again.”Courtesy of Imani Records
“When I was a kid, my father would sing throughout the house. We would say ‘Dad, you’ve got a great voice, you should be a singer,’” Farnese said. “And he would go, ‘Meh,’ and kind of blow us off.”
Then one day, he said, “I was singing while putting my son’s air hockey table together.” His wife, Laurie, said “Greg, you’ve got a beautiful voice. You should sing.”
“I started to go ‘Meh …’ — and then I stopped myself. Because I remembered that as a child, I thought my father was wasting his talent.
“So I said: ‘Get me a karaoke machine for Christmas, and I’ll start working on my voice.’ And that’s what I did.”
Farnese, who will perform at Tim McCloone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park on Oct. 4 and the Exit 0 Jazz Festival in Cape May on Oct. 23, is a poised vocalist and skilled song interpreter. Oh No! I’m in Love Again features two originals, including the title cut, both written with Alan Gardner, a former collaborator with Farnese’s father.
Greg Farnese, a television cameraman and musician, is photographed Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2026, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, where he works as a camera operator in left field. Farnese, a crooner, recently released his debut album, “Oh No, I’m in Love Again,” on Grammy-nominated Philadelphia pianist Orrin Evans’ Imani Records. Farnese also works as a Phillies television cameraman for NBC Sports Philadelphia, stationed nightly in the left-field power alley.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
‘The magician canceled, can you come down and sing a song?’
The album, whose polish belies that it was recorded in a single day at MorningStar Studios in Montgomery County, features Philly jazz players like drummer Leon Jordan Sr. and horn arrangements by trumpeter Elliot Bild.
Along with a delicate version of Johnny Mercer’s “Dream” accompanied by guitarist Paul Bollenbock, the album includes Green Day, Oasis, and Tears for Fears songs, all artfully rearranged to make familiar sound fresh.
It’s been a long road of confidence building for Farnese to work with a musician as accomplished as Evans, a three-time Grammy nominee who this spring was named artistic director of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. (He’ll split his time between Seattle and Philly.)
Speaking between innings during a recent Phillies-Astros game — an 11-7 win, thanks to a Kyle Schwarber grand slam — Farnese calls Evans “so smart and honest, and a great pianist. It’s like having Quincy Jones in my corner.”
Greg Farnese (center) performs at the World Stage in University City on Sept. 18, 2026. Farnese just released his debut album, “Oh No, I’m in Love Again.”Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“I started out singing in pizza parlors,” said Farnese, 62. “My wife is a psychologist and she used to work at nursing facilities. She called me one day and said, ‘The magician canceled, can you come down and sing a song?’
“I told her no, I’m not ready yet. She said, ‘Get the hell down here, just do it!’ I was afraid, and I was so self-conscious about being good.”
But as Farnese sang the 1940s standard “Moonlight in Vermont” to an elderly audience in Egg Harbor Township, he had a revelation.
“The two ladies in the front started crying. I was bringing them back to when they were young. That moment I realized that it wasn’t really about me. It was about the effect the music had on the audience. I saw them crying and I thought: This is what I want to do.”
Since then, Farnese has surrounded himself with first-class musicians and sung in area jazz clubs and private events, while also traveling for gigs in New York and Chicago.
Working with the Phillies suits his ambitions. Knowing his schedule months in advance, he books shows when the team is on the road.
“We’ve brought him on a couple of times to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’” said Phillies TV play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy. “I love his energy. He just brings so much professionalism and creativity and knows how to get the crowd involved. He’s an entertainer.”
Farnese put an exclamation point on one of the Phillies most memorable wins this year.
‘What would Ray Charles do with a Green Day song?’
Evans wasn’t all that familiar with Farnese’s music before he decided to produce Oh No, I’m in Love Again and put it out on his label, home to artists like Philly keyboard player Luke Carlos O’Reilly and Los Angeles drummer Tina Raymond.
Choosing who to work with isn’t about “it has to be the best vocalist, or the best saxophonist. It’s if somebody asks me to help them, and I believe in them as a human being.”
Though he “wasn’t super-duper familiar with Greg’s singing,” Evans said, “I knew some of the people he was playing with. So I know this person doesn’t play with slouches, so he can’t be a slouch.”
The key to success in recording, Evans says, was trust.
“I just like working with people I like. And I know that if we can vibe off the bandstand, there’s no way we’re not going to vibe on the bandstand.
“One of the best things I can say about Greg is his desire and ability to learn. He has an inquisitive spirit. He’s not done evolving. I really love this record, and I’m excited for the next one because of him.”
“I love jazz and swing music,” Farnese said. “You know, Bennett, Bublé, Sinatra. That’s my wheelhouse. But growing up I was exposed to all these different styles. Everything from Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles to Curtis Mayfield and Puccini.
“So I’m creating a vocal style that combines songs I really love in jazz arrangements. What would Ray Charles do with a Green Day song? What would Duke Ellington do with a Blood, Sweat & Tears song? I want to be my own artist that creates my own music in my own style.”
“I have a great job at NBC Sports Philadelphia. But when I got that tap on the shoulder, that was God saying. ‘This is not what you’re supposed to be doing.’ And being a middle-aged man, this is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. Now’s the time.”
Greg Farnese will perform Oct. 4 at Tim McCloone’s Supper Club, 1200 Ocean Ave N, Asbury Park, timmcloonessupperclub.com and Oct. 23 at the Exit 0 Jazz Festival, Cape May, exitzerojazzfestival.com.
This week in Philly music ushers in fall with some of the last outdoor shows of the year, with Willie Nelson and Neil Young at the Highmark Mann, Mt. Joy and Gorillaz in Camden, and AC/DC in South Philly. Slayyyter, the Sex Pistols, and Phoebe Bridgers are also in town, and the Bob Dylan musical returns for a monthlong run in Old City.
Thursday Sept. 24
Willie Nelson & Neil Young
Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival skipped Philly this summer, but then this double legend show arrived as a sweet surprise. In the run-up to Saturday’s Farm Aid concert in Virginia, Nelson & Family — including sons Micah and Lukas, plus longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael — will be joined by Young, always a brilliant live performer. He has just released his 50th album, the terrific Second Song, that considers the rages of time while looking death in the eye. Young is playing with the Chrome Hearts, which includes Micah Nelson and Muscle Shoals keyboard player Spooner Oldham. 7 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann Center, highmarkmann.org.
Slayyyter plays Thursday at the Fillmore.Alexa Zeliger / Courtesy of The Oriel Co
Slayyyter
Catherine Grace Garner — aka Slayyyter — refers to herself as The Worst Girl in America in the title to her third album. The follow-up to her 2023 LP, whose title cannot be published here, however, is a grimy, energized, and fairly addictive playtter of hyper-pop that when, all is said and done, is likely to stand out as one of the best records of the year. Pearly Drops open. 8 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.
Purling Hiss
Philly guitarist Mike Polizze has mainly been playing shows under his own name, but this show is a proper full-band Purling Hiss gig. The Polizze-fronted power trio that debuted in 2009 was most recently heard from with the heavy rock of 2023’s excellent Drag on Girard. Marathon ’77 and Emily Robb round out the all-Philly bill. 6 p.m., Spruce Street Harbor Park, 301 S. Columbus Blvd, delawareriverwaterfront.com.
‘Girl From the North Country’
Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country is set in a boarding house during the Great Depression in Duluth, Minn., where Bob Dylan lived the first six years of his life. The show, which came to the Forrest Theatre in 2024, begins a monthlong run at the Arden. What sets it apart from typical jukebox musicals is the quality of the writing — McPherson’s and Dylan’s — and the song selection, which includes some of Dylan’s best-known compositions, but also less familiar choices, such as “Sign on the Window,” “Lay Down Your Weary Tune,” and “Pressing On.” 7 p.m. or 2 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays through Oct. 25, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., ardentheatre.org.
Friday Sept. 25
Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter
Can we really pretend it’s the Sex Pistols without John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten? The band’s former frontman — who is playing with Public Image Ltd at Union Transfer on Oct. 2 — has said Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook playing with new singer Frank Carter is “karaoke.” Fans who might be tired of Lydon’s antics, however, will find in Carter a punk veteran who throws himself entirely into the performance of songs they dearly love. 8:30 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.
Mt. Joy
The onset of autumn is Mt. Joy back home in Philly time. In recent years, the “Astrovan” band founded by Conestoga High School graduates Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper, has played the Mann Center in Fairmount Park at the tail end of the outdoor music season.
This year, the quintet is touring behind its 2025 album, Hope We Have Fun, and is crossing the river to Camden on its “10 Years of Mt. Joy” tour. Snacktime opens. Conshohocken band Mid Sentence, winners of this ’s Local Noise Philadelphia battle of the bands at Brooklyn Bowl, was awarded an opening slot on the Pavilion’s Plaza Stage. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedommortgagepavilion.com.
Tom Jones
Does Tom Jones often come to Atlantic City to play casino show rooms? It’s not unusual. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Now 86 years old, the Welsh Elvis, who has had hits with “What’s New, Pussycat?” and “It’s Not Unusual,” remains a powerful showman. Check out the clip of him singing Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” on The Voice UK. 8 p.m., Borgata Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, borgata.mgmresorts.com.
Saturday Sept. 26
Haverford Music Festival
The Haverford Music Festival is actually in Havertown, on the grounds of the Oakmont School. This year’s acts on two stages include New York singer-songwriter Shannon McNally, New Jersey bluegrass and country outfit Demolition String Band, and Philly vocalist Abby Lee. Philadelphia Englishman Wesley Stace, whose new album One Last Heist marries jazz and soul grooves with narratively sophisticated songwriting, is a late add to the bill. Free. Noon, Eagle and Haverford Roads, Havertown, haverfordmusicfestival.org.
David Uosikkinen’s In the Pocket, with John Faye in red, are playing Ardmore Music Hall on Saturday.Dallyn Pavey Uosikkinen / Courtesy of Dish Public Relations
David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket
The annual Ardmore gig for Hooters drummer Uosikkinen’s all-star Philly band will honor Pierre Robert, the late DJ who was a regular at ITP shows. The band’s new single is a cover of the Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around,” a Thom Bell-Phil Hurtt composition sung in a new rendition by John Faye. Along with local luminaries, such as recent Philly Music Walk of Fame inductee Pablo Batista, Tommy Conwell, and Richard Bush of the A’s, expect original E Street Band drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez. 8 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.
Sunday Sept. 27
Gorillaz
On The Mountain, Damon Albarn augments his virtual band with many guests, including Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, Asha Puthli, and Johnny Marr. The death-haunted album also features collaborations from Dennis Hopper and Bobby Womack, who recorded with Gorillaz before their own deaths. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedomortgagepavilion.com.
Katie Pruitt plays Ardmore Music Hall on Sunday.Chiris Hershman / Courtesy of Shore Fire Media
Katie Pruitt
Georgia-raised songwriter Katie Pruitt has distinguished herself as a folk-country artist of the first order since her 2020 debut Expectations through to the new Fools for the Fleeting. As a writer, she always comes off as honest and intelligent in her efforts to make sense of modern life, as well as being unafraid to tackle touchy subjects, such as on “White Lies, White Jesus and You” from 2023’s Mantras. Next of Kin opens. 7 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.
Monday Sept. 28
Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers has laid low since selling out the Mann Center with boygenius in 2023, but now she’s back in a big way. She stoked the ardor of her fan base with pop-up shows around the U.S. before releasing the moody, compelling, and intensely personal Lost Weekend, whose many guests include Havertown’s own Alex G. She also has a costarring role alongside Robert Pattinson in the upcoming Primetime, for which she’s written the song “On Video.” 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St. xfinitymobilarena.com.
AC/DC – with Brian Johnson on the left, and Angus Young on the right – will bring their Power Up tour to Lincoln Financial Field on September 29.Courtesy of the Artist
Tuesday Sept. 29
AC / DC
The Australian hard rock band’s “Power Up Tour” will be powering down after this show at the Linc, the final date after two and a half years on the road. Could this be the last time ever in Philadelphia for the band whose 1980’s Back in Black trails only Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the second-best-selling album of all time. Taylor Momsen’s the Pretty Reckless opens. 7 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field, 1020 Pattison Avenue, lincolnfinancialfield.com.
John Coltrane, the fearlessly adventurous saxophonist whose music continues to transport and inspire spiritually seeking artists and audiences in jazz and beyond nearly six decades after his death, would have turned 100 tomorrow.
The Coltrane centenary is being celebrated around the U.S. and the world, and especially in Philadelphia, his adopted hometown. Here, a Coltrane 100 celebration that has been ongoing all year has picked up steam this month and kicks into high gear this week with concerts, movies screenings, and various events.
Coltrane moved to Philadelphia from High Point, N.C., in 1943, following his mother north. After a stint in the Navy, he bought the house at 1511 N. 33rd St. in Strawberry Mansion, where he would later famously kick his heroin addiction and develop the groundbreaking “sheets of sound” method of playing on his landmark 1960 album Giant Steps.
“John Coltrane learned his craft in Philadelphia,” says Ravi Coltrane, his saxophonist son, speaking to The Inquirer this week from California, where he was set to play in Los Angeles on the night of the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth.
“He played countless gigs there, and he became a saxophonist like no other in that town, where he bought his first home, where he lived with his first wife, Naima. He lived there with his mother, my grandmother, and that home still exists as a kind of symbol of John and his legacy.”
“Everything he was able to do, he did in the city of Philadelphia, and I’m grateful that the town is recognizing him more and more.”
Celebrations for a Philly master
The surge of Philadelphia pride in Coltrane’s deep connections to the city are evident. City Council has declared Sept. 23 John Coltrane Day. Temple University’s WRTI-FM (90.1) will play nothing but ‘Trane, all day long, and the radio station is also presenting a free A Love Supreme concert with Jaleel Shaw, Alexander Claffy, and Jeff “Tain” Watts in LOVE Park.
Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 five-day concert series at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University kicks off Wednesday with Sun Ra Arkestra and includes performances through the weekend by Terri Lyne Carrington, Marilyn Crispell, Tyshawn Sorey, and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, among others.
Immanuel Wilkins will perform with his quartet and special guests at the Mandell Theater at the Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival. Wilkins will also speak on an “Impressions of Coltrane” panel with Teri Lyne Carrington and Angelika Beener at the Study at University City at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.Courtesy of ALMA Communications
From Friday through Sunday, Scribe Video Center will presentNorth Philadelphia History Festival: The John Coltrane Edition, a multisite series of film screening, video exhibitions, and performances.
Ravi Coltrane has no memories of his father, who died of liver cancer at 40 in 1967, when his son was 2 years old. As an adult, Ravi has forged his own identity as a musician while also honoring his mother, Alice Coltrane, and his father, whose music he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Highmark Mann in July.
Alice Coltrane’s music will be celebrated on Saturday as part of the Ars Nova concert headlined by Wilkins and include a performance by Ravi’s stepsister, Sita Michelle Coltrane.
Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra will perform the music of John Coltrane at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival on Wednesday, Sept. 23, which would have been Coltrane’s 100th birthday. Courtesy of ALMA Communications
The renovation of the Strawberry Mansion home
As executor and steward of the Coltrane Estate, Ravi Coltrane has overseen the restoration of the Coltrane house, where Mary Alexander, his father’s cousin who is immortalized as “Cousin Mary” on Giant Steps, lived until a few years before her death in 2019.
With a working group that includes Ars Nova’s Mark Christman and Anthony Tidd, and many local partners, Ravi and the Coltrane Estate have overseen the restoration of the facade of the house, which had fallen into serious disrepair.
Ravi Coltrane performs with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Edwin Outwater, during a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of jazz legend John Coltrane’s birth at the TD Pavilion at the Mann in Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
“The whole building was crumbling,” Coltrane says. “We’ve done everything we can to shore up the foundation. But we really wanted the facade to be restored first to show the city that this landmark is a vibrant part of this town.”
He hopes the house, which he frequently visited as a child, can become “a cultural center” and “a place that can inspire young people as a symbol of what’s creatively possible.”
Coltrane history is Philadelphia history
Among the many projects released in conjunction with the centenary is Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend, a gorgeous photo book of images by photographers Chuck Stewart, Francis Wolff, and others, that includes essays by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carlos Santana, and Patti Smith.
In Ravi Coltrane’s foreword, he writes of a lucid dream he had of hoping to see his father perform at Mitten Hall at Temple University in November 1966, just 8 months before his death. An album, Offering: Live at Temple University, was issued in 2014.
In the dream, Ravi Coltrane woke before getting to see his father play.
John Coltrane at Monterey Jazz Festival in 1960 as pictured in “Coltrane: the Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend,” the new book edited by Ravi Coltrane and published by 10 Speed Press.Unknown Photographer (1960), Courtesy of RHINO/UMG
“To Talk With God,” Smith’s essay in the Coltrane book, tells of trying to see the sax player at the Showboat, the basement venue on Lombard Street, as a teenager in 1963 but being refused admission because she was underage.
“I have a vague memory of descending half-lit stairs, strains of McCoy Tyner, a glimpse of Coltrane … before being escorted back into the night. I left not disappointed but ecstatic, for those precious moments were the closest I ever came to seeing Coltrane live.”
Coltrane’s appearances at the long-gone Showboat in the early 1960s as well as performances at the Jazz Gallery in New York are included in The Tiberi Tapes, a holy grail set of recordings by musician Frank Tiberi, due to be released Nov. 6 on the Impulse! label.
Christman, who founded Ars Nova in 2000, says Coltrane history is Philadelphia history.
Terri Lyne Carrington will perform John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival on Thursday, Sept. 24. She will also speak on an “Impressions of Coltrane” panel with Immanuel Wilkins and Angelika Beener at the Study at University City at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.Courtesy of ALMA Communications
“He buys a house in Strawberry Mansion, thanks to the G.I. Bill. Philadelphia at this point is the workshop of the world, and he gets a job in manufacturing at a sugar refinery plant. He joins a union, Local 274, one of the first African American musicians’ unions.”
Telling that story around Coltrane 100, “there is a unified force in Philadelphia right now that I have not experienced in 26 years of presenting and being part of the jazz ecosystem,” Christman says.
“There’s a sense of unity about sharing the message that Coltrane and Philadelphia are talked about together for a very long time.”
‘Just the first taste’
Along with Coltrane 100 concerts, Ars Nova is hosting talks in West Philly. On Thursday, “Remembering the Man and His Music” will feature Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, and Odean Pope with Coltrane biographer Ashley Kahn at the Study at University City. The trio will then perform on a bill with Irreversible Entanglements that night.
Christman also promises programming that illuminates Coltrane’s Philadelphia legacy will continue, thanks to Ars Nova — whose home base is Solar Myth in South Philly — for the next six months to a year, with Ravi Coltrane due back in town for multiple performances.
“This is just the first taste,” he says.
John Coltrane at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1960, as pictured in the book “Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend,” edited by Ravi Coltrane.William Claxton, courtesy of Demont Photo Management
‘He’s the North Star’
Before he performs with his quartet on Saturday (with guests Will Parker and Jeff “Tain” Watts), Wilkins, who was raised in Upper Darby, will participate in an “Impressions of Coltrane” conversation with Carrington and Angelika Beener on Wednesday at the Study.
Wilkins, the saxophonist who records for Blue Note Records and released three volumes of live recordings from the Village Vanguard this year, says “I feel like I’ve always known [Coltrane’s] music ever since I’ve known anything about the saxophone.”
“Even though Trane wasn’t from Philadelphia,” he says, speaking this week from Brooklyn, where he splits his time with the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in West Philly. “I think his time in Philadelphia really has a profound impact on the city.
“His ethos and how he conceptually approached his process of playing. What that means materially is people at jam sessions playing these long, like 30-minute modal compositions. Whereas if you go to New York, you’re hearing something from the Great American Songbook.”
Coltrane, Wilkins says, “shows you that more work actually gets us closer to the divine. He’s the North Star, for sure.”
“The thing that is really spectacular about John Coltrane is that though he takes these solos that are so long. Like 20-minute solos, that could read as egregious. But there’s this interiority that’s so profound. The music is imbued with humility. It doesn’t sound selfish at all.”
Coltrane 100 continues this week, with many events throughout the fall. More information at jazzphiladelphia.org.
Mike Bowe, 76, of Audubon, Camden County, longtime local disc jockey and popular radio show host at WMGK, WPEN, WHAT and other stations, Army veteran, devoted Phillies fan, and proud son of Gloucester City, died Monday, Sept. 14, of complications from cancer at his home.
Mr. Bowe enjoyed music and socializing as a teen at Gloucester Catholic High School, and was skilled at chatting with people about their favorite songs and other interests. So he was a natural fit later as a radio show host and disc jockey for more than 40 years in studios and at remote appearances, dance parties, charitable fundraisers, and other events.
“I like to think I communicate with people,” he told the Courier-Post in 1987. “I think I can relate the same way to somebody whether he’s on Ninth Street in South Philly or at a bank in Center City.”
Fellow DJ Chris McCoy said. “He had something intangible. He made you feel like he knew you, and you knew him.”
Using what his fans and colleagues described as a “calming and smooth voice” and “velvet intonations,” Mr. Bowe hosted music shows at WMGK from 1977 through the early 2000s, at KISS 100 in the 1990s, and at WPEN and WHAT between 2000 and 2011. Colleagues called him “loyal, dedicated, witty” in online tributes, and praised his “down to earth and friendly style.”
They credited him with making WMGK’s Saturday Night ’70s show a hit in the mid-1990s. “He was the very foundation of that success,” McCoy said.
Listeners called him “truly a master of this craft,” “one of the best ever,” and “a memorable radio legend.” He worked after 2011 at other local stations and iRadioPhilly.com.
He teamed up with other popular DJs on morning, afternoon, and evening shifts, interviewed performers, took phone calls from listeners, and broadcast from Phillies games and charitable benefits. In 1989, he dressed up as George Washington to cross the Delaware River when the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge was finally reopened after repairs.
He liked to air remotely from his favorite clubs and pubs, and ride shuttle buses with listeners to concerts. He also worked DJ dance party gigs at nightclubs, holiday parades, and private events in Philadelphia and South Jersey.
Mr. Bowe appeared often in The Inquirer and Daily News, including in 1987 (above) and 1989 (below.)Newspapers.com
His favorite song was “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got)” by his favorite group, the Four Tops. “He knew Philadelphia from A to Z,” McCoy said. “He brought a smile to your face.”
Mr. Bowe served three years in the Army, 11 months and 11 days in Vietnam in 1968-69, and earned several medals and service stars, and an achievement badge. Fellow DJ Sue Serio said online that she enjoyed annual Veterans Day lunches with Mr. Bowe, “a treasured tradition that we never took for granted.”
One day, a former WMGK colleague said online, Mr. Bowe took him to Mr. Bowe’s favorite three local landmarks: the Melrose Diner in South Philadelphia, Mel’s Italian restaurant in Bala Cynwyd, and the pool table at the VFW in Gloucester City.
“Mike was a gift to Gloucester City and to the Delaware Valley professionally and as a man,” longtime friend Patrick Healey said. Longtime friend F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III said: “He prized honesty of character above all else.”
Mr. Bowe, right above, was an avid Phillies fan. Below, he worked morning, afternoon, and evening shifts in the studio.F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III
Mr. Bowe’s niece, Debra Ann Leblang, said: “He lived the ultimate American dream.”
Michael Joseph Bowe was born Nov. 4, 1949, in Gloucester City. He graduated from Gloucester Catholic in 1967, studied broadcasting in Minnesota, and worked his way through the radio ranks in South Jersey and Philadelphia.
Mr. Bowe and his wife, Debbie, married in 1985. Where one of them went, family and friends all said, the other followed. F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III
Off the air, Mr. Bowe played softball and enjoyed visits to Atlantic City and Brigantine. He was a Sunday morning usher at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and belonged to the Townsend C. Young VFW post.
He used to take dates to Jim’s Pizzeria in Gloucester City, and he told The Inquirer in 1994 that he enjoyed the place’s acerbic camaraderie. “Gloucester’s always been like that,” he said. “People love it. It’s a sarcastic, get-under-your-skin kind of thing. You don’t even get to order your own food.”
His family said: “He was funny, quick-witted, sentimental, outspoken, and unforgettable. He carried his South Jersey roots with him wherever life took him.”
In addition to his niece, Mr. Bowe is survived by a sister, a brother, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the McCann-Healey Funeral Home, 851 Monmouth St., Gloucester City, N.J. 08030. Funeral services are to be at 11 a.m. at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 350 Province Line Rd., Wrightstown, N.J. 08562.
