Four Local Bands You Need to See This Month
The amount of musical talent coming out of Philly lately is unprecedented — and in the coming weeks, lots of those local-acts-of-significance are headed to area venues.
Low Cut Connie | Photograph courtesy of Amber Patrick
Mannequin Pussy
The Show: May 5th at First Unitarian Church
The Sound: Really intense, highly personal punk that explodes in your earbuds and calls one and all to the mosh pit.
Fun Fact: Lead singer and guitarist Marisa Dabice gave up a career in ballet — she danced from age five until 16 — to be a rock-and-roll star.
Download Now: Forget digital: Find their 17-minute-long 2016 release Romantic on lavender vinyl and you’ll officially be the coolest person on your block.
Marian Hill
The Show: May 8th at Union Transfer
The Sound: Super-sultry electronica from two Haverford High grads.
Fun Fact: Producer Jeremy Lloyd and singer Samantha Gongol were cast opposite each other in a junior high production of The Music Man. They had to kiss, and Gongol couldn’t stop laughing during rehearsals.
Download Now: You’ve already heard their single “Down” thanks to an Apple commercial. Their new album is due out soon, and a pair of tickets to the show gets you a free copy once it drops.
Low Cut Connie
The Show: May 17th at Union Transfer
The Sound: Good old party-hardy where’s-the-kegger, dude? rock-and-roll that has made fans of everyone from President Obama to Elton John.
Fun Fact: Lead singer Adam Weiner performs on a piano named Shondra, because if you don’t name your piano, what are you doing, really?
Download Now: Dirty Pictures (Part II), their brand-new follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album, the name of which you can probably deduce.
Mary Lattimore
The Show: May 27th at PhilaMOCA
The Sound: Solo harp (yes, harp), played through effects that turn it into something you’ve never heard before.
Fun Fact: Lattimore — who recently relocated to L.A. — used her 2014 Pew Fellowship funds to travel the country and record along the way.
Download Now: The result of those recordings: At the Dam, which Pitchfork said “bursts with ambition and ideas, offering a meditation on the ever-evolving relationship Lattimore has to her instrument. … ”
Published as “Listen Local” in the May 2018 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
