A trip to Philly

December and January are surely the cruelest months. so few bands arrive in Boston I feel like Punxsutawney Phil hibernating and refusing to come out.
In such a mood my RSS feeder told me The Spinto band was playing Philly on a weekend in one of my favorite venues - Johnny Brenda's. My music drought convinced me that it wasn't such a long trip and we booked the tickets and the hotel.
If you go to Philadelphia and want to see a show I heartily recommend Johnny Brenda's, it is much like Great Scott but BETTER as it serves great food, wonderful different micro brews and the sound system has been revamped and is AMAZING, oh and the venue is small and intimate.
Plants and Animals, a threesome from Toronto were a very nice surprise. They started quietly but ended up making a glorious noise. It was strange to see the guitar and bass roles swapping throughout the set.
The Whigs started setting up and a small point I hadn't been aware of started to be rather funny and pointed. I had decided to wear my MGMT t-shirt from last November before th Net buzz makes it just too pathetic. What I didn't realize was the whigs had recently lost their bass player as he went to join MGMT and that the two bands are best buddies! Lets just say each of the three members came up and told me all about this seeing I was wearing the shirt, maybe I am just trivial but I found this amusing!
So they started playing and they made their album Mission Control a lot more fun than i found it on CD. And also after finding the bass guitar swapping so amusing in Plants and animals then The Whigs went and started to do the same. Probably because of their lost bass player. I am not certain I would go out of my way to see them again BUT I would certainly NOT go out of my way NOT to see them which considering some support bands is a very good thing.
So The Spinto Band started to set up, teh good thing about being at the front is the chance to throw questions their way.
The new album is ready and just waiting for some one to release it.
They are going to SXSW.
Very nice set 15 songs including new songs. Two songs for encore including a very tongue in cheek cover of Tiffany's I think we're alone now.
This band sweep in under my defenses, not pretty not trendy but fun, energetic and lacking pretenses. Support real music.