July 27, 2016
For much of her career, India.Arie has mined a peculiarly quiet strength in her songwriting. The 40-year-old singer is known for ladling spoonfuls of acoustic guitar strums into breezy songs about Black pride, womanhood, and inequality. Even at the beginning of her career, Arie seemed almost overly mature and perpetually wise beyond her years, a timelessness that has helped her seem at ease onstage alongside legends like Stevie Wonder. That approachable bent has also allowed the soft soul artist to sidle comfortably into adult lounge territory in recent years, most recently recording a Christmas album alongside renowned pianist Joe Sample, who passed away just months before the record was released last fall.
Show 7 p.m. | with Will Downing and Kenny Lattimore | $20+ | all ages
These days, Snoop Dogg seems capable of gaining traction for just about everything but his music. After decades of hard work in the booth, Snoop is now more apt to pop up on your radar as a wonky TV and social media pundit than he is as a recording artist. And yet, the “D-O Double G” is still putting out music at a surprisingly consistent pace. Last year the California legend leaned into laid-back adult R&B territory on “Bush” for one of his best albums in years, and he’s already released two rap records in 2016. Tonight Snoop closes out the final night of the DNC with a much-called-for “Unity Party” at Electric Factory.
Show 12 a.m. | free | all ages
Raj Haldar is a uniquely Philadelphian musician. As the rapper and producer Lushlife, Haldar has struck a wonderfully intellectual balance as a genre-bender, consistently folding savvy indie rock tendencies into his boom-bap paradigm. The New Jersey native channels dense lyricists like Black Thought and AZ in his rhymes, but is apt to enlist experimental musicians like Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier for the musical backdrop. At an intersection in which many artists would seem contrived, Lushlife feels natural, co-existing in disparate spaces without ever seeming like a visitor. All of these skills make Haldar a natural DJ, a skillset he’ll put to use alongside some of Philly’s best for a quiet DNC send-off performance at Johnny Brenda’s tomorrow night.
Show 10 p.m.-2 a.m. | free | 21+
Riff Raff hasn’t made it easy to take him seriously. The flamboyant, neon-draped Houston enigma might seem like a perpetual circus sideshow performer, but the guy can actually rap. Of course, Riff Raff’s erratic behavior and kitschy style have obscured that talent, and he’s probably still most known for inspiring the larger-than-life character Alien, who James Franco portrayed in the 2012 movie “Spring Breakers.” (The emcee tried unsuccessfully to sue the movie’s creators for the uncredited inspiration.) Last month the 34-year-old attention hog released his sophomore album in the form of “Peach Panther.” Never mind keeping a straight face, a little Riff Raff is always fun.
Doors 8 p.m. / show 9 p.m. | with Trill Sammy, Dice SoHo & Dollabillgates | $23 | all ages
A few months ago, Shirley Manson, the lead singer for the alternative mainstay outfit Garbage, told Rolling Stone that the band had turned over a new leaf (again). “It’s an adult record,” Manson said of the group’s just-released sixth album, “Strange Little Birds.” “It’s not a pop, frilly, fun frivolous, frothy thing. It’s not like that at all. I can’t hear it being played on the radio anytime soon.” The new album is Garbage’s second since they reunited in 2012, and it’s undoubtedly their best in more than a decade, carrying wonderfully written hooks that belie Manson’s claims that these songs wouldn’t fit on radio. Newly independent, the band remains consistently and productively downtrodden in their songs, reveling in a mash-up style — grunge and electronica most forwardly — they helped push into the mainstream in the 1990s.
Doors 8 p.m. / show 9 p.m. | with Kristin Kontrol | $40 | all ages
To Tremble is a new band made up of veteran musicians. The quartet’s members split time with their other groups Copper, True If Destroyed, Bore War, and more, but a debut album recorded by Off Minor drummer and prolific engineer Steve Roche is now in the books. The guys — who list themselves inconspicuously and simply as Tim, Willie, Jim, and Drew — released a pair of singles in April under the title “We Grow too Soon Old, Uun too Late Smart.” While the title might be a bit convoluted, the music is straightforward: energetic and rattling hardcore. This weekend To Tremble celebrates their new album with an afternoon release show at a Center City art gallery.
Doors 3 p.m. / show 4 p.m. | with Open City & Crisco Thunder | $7 | all ages
The three women that make up the bluegrass group Ladybird met in typical Philly musician fashion: at house shows. Anna Cecilia, Laura Kay, and Sarah Williams are all West Philly players that dabble variously in jazz, folk, and bluegrass. As a trio Ladybird meld their disparate backgrounds into a thorough treatment of roots music, often anchored in fingerpicked acoustic guitar and dexterous banjo playing.
Doors 7 p.m. / show 8 p.m. | with Haint Blue & August John Lutz II | $7-$10 | 21+
