Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
SEVEN IN SEVEN
Welcome to Seven in Seven, where we look at shows coming to the region over the next week. As always, whether your musical tastes are rock ’n’ roll, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singer-songwriter or indie, there will always be something to check out.
Here are seven of the best on the docket for the week of April 5:
1 Jessie Murph — Friday at XL Live
Country pop singer-songwriter Jessie Murph was born in Nashville, Tenn., but raised in Alabama, bouncing between small town and — somewhat — big city living. But when her family moved to Athens, Ga., there was a noticeable switch in lifestyle, one where women’s roles were still viewed to be cooking and cleaning. At this point, Murph was already building a buzz on TikTok, posting videos of her dancing to various songs and singing covers. Once her school caught wind of her growing online popularity, they started wrongfully punishing her for it, ultimately causing her family to relocate. Not all was lost; the backwards society pushed Jessie further toward music, where she blasted past gender norms surrounding her former community. The result? Last year her global headline tour sold over 85,000 tickets and saw her command stages in major markets abroad as well as 40 cities across North America. The now 19-year-old is back on the road with Harrisburg as one of her destinations on Friday.
2 Hail the Sun — Saturday at Brooklyn Bowl
“Divine Inner Tension,” the latest album from Hail the Sun, finds the veteran rock band questioning everything about what it means to be here and to be alive, on both a micro level, where the importance of our existence is
profound and paramount, and on a macro one, where our time on this planet is nothing but irrelevant and insignificant. Across a dozen stirring and intense songs, the album embarks on a journey that goes back and forth between those two extremes while trying to reconcile that paradox of living intentionally but relinquishing control by taking your hands off the wheel and letting the universe guide you. It’s about being in and out of control, a brazen contrast sure to be on display this weekend at Brooklyn Bowl.
3 Vio-Lence — Sunday at Underground Arts
Formed in 1985, Oakland thrashers Vio-Lence helped define and refine what came to be known as the Bay Area sound, dropping three seminal albums before splitting in 1993. Leaving behind a heady legacy, they briefly re-formed a handful of times in the intervening years before becoming a full-time band once more in 2019. They return to the stage this month for a special eight-date headlining tour — including Philly this weekend — where they will be performing their classic 1988 debut full-length “Eternal Nightmare” in its entirety.
4 Lany — Tuesday at The Fillmore
Pop rockers Lany have quietly cracked the mainstream on their own terms as one of the most unpredictable and undeniable alternative rock bands of this era. Tallying billions of streams, selling out arenas and earning widespread critical acclaim, the Los Angeles group by way of Nashville consistently deliver rafter-reaching anthems anchored by the songcraft and outsized personality of frontman and songwriter Paul Jason Klein, who leads Lany with percussionist Jake Clifford Goss. So far, they’ve earned four Gold singles in addition to scoring Platinum status with the 2015 smash “ILYSB.” Live, it’s their energetic and ever-evolving show that continues to draw fans worldwide, with their last tour touching down in 17 countries and now rolling into The Fillmore with the band ready to show what all the fuss is about. The 69 Eyes — Wednesday at Underground
5 Arts
Helsinki’s favorite vampires, The 69 Eyes, finally come back to the States in support of last year’s “Death of Darkness,” their 13th album. Starting off as a glam metal act, the band quickly plunged the world into a sinful cosmos of love, death and melancholy, while outliving any other band emerging from the goth hype of the early 2000s. By developing their sound further into sleaze rock and not shying away from pitch black Elvis allusions in singer Jyrki 69’s dark voice and unique onstage dance moves, the band unsurprisingly established a worldwide following. The new LP is a far cry from the early days of the new millennium when gothic rock bands emerged from every graveyard and Finnish vampires stormed the charts around the world. Yet it’s The 69 Eyes who are still very much alive.
6 Old Crow Medicine Show — Wednesday at the Keswick Theatre and next Thursday at F.M. Kirby Center
Since getting their start busking on street corners back in 1998, Old Crow Medicine Show have emerged as one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music. Over the last quarter-century, the twotime Grammy Award-winning band has brought their sublimely raucous live show to rapturous audiences around the world and toured with the likes of Willie Nelson and John Prine, all while amassing an acclaimed catalog that includes such standouts as their double-platinum hit single “Wagon Wheel.” The Nashville-based six-piece comes to the region twice next week, to Glenside and then Wilkes-Barre, to support their eighth album, “Jubilee,” which coincides with the celebration of their 25th anniversary.
7 Steve ’n’ Seagulls — next Thursday at Ardmore Music Hall
Steve ’n’ Seagulls, the five-piece Nordic progressive bluegrass phenomenon known for their viral covers of renowned rock and metal songs, has brought their electrifying performance to the United States. It’s the band you didn’t know you missed but you do know you want to hear again. How did it happen? Well, someone came up with an idea to combine bluegrass, Finnish folk and hard rock/ metal music. The outcome was and has since been Steve ’n’ Seagulls. Soon they found themselves touring around the world, recording an album, and releasing singles like the recent “The Signals From the Past,” a fusion of ’80s electronica and progressive bluegrass.