Mt. Joy jams with Sixers coach Nick Nurse while the Phillie Phanatic shook his belly at the Mann
Mt. Joy's Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper celebrated their biggest hometown show ever with help from the Philly sports friends.
It was a Philly music and sports mash-up extravaganza at the Mann Center as local band Mt. Joy celebrated selling out the Fairmount Park amphitheater by first bringing out the Phillie Phanatic and then jamming with Sixers coach Nick Nurse.
Mt. Joy founders Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper — who grew up in Devon and Valley Forge and met at Conestoga High School — are big-time Philly sports fans.
Their song “Astrovan,” which closed their two-hour-plus show at the Mann on Friday, is featured on the forthcoming Eagles holiday album, A Philly Special Christmas Party, retooled as “Santa Drives an Astrovan.”
In Friday’s show, which featured covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” their Philly fandom was evident in the “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!” chants they encouraged.
Quinn and Cooper wore powder blue Phillies jerseys for their second set, and included “Cardinal,” a song that is partially about tailgating before an Eagles game in South Philly.
Midway through, the Phanatic emerged, shaking his tummy, pretending to play guitar with his teeth and hamming it up with keyboard player Jackie Miclau on ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
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“Did the Phillies win?” Quinn asked. “No way they could lose after we did that?” In fact, they did, burying the New York Mets, 12-2, and clinching a playoff berth for the third season in a row.
The band then brought out Nurse for their second encore, with Quinn saying that the group had previously jammed with the Sixers coach, who is an accomplished keyboard player as well as a guitarist and an avowed Prince superfan.
Wearing a black 76ers ball cap, Nurse more than held his own on the cover of the 1977 Stevie Nicks-sung hit “Dreams” as Miclau gave up her piano bench and watched him from behind.
At the close of the band’s biggest-ever hometown show, Quinn said, “Take good care of yourselves, take good care of this city. Let’s win all these damn championships and we’ll see you soon.”