Philly music shows to ring in the new year
Electro-jam bands at the Fillmore and Union Transfer, Snacktime at Brooklyn Bowl, the Menzingers in Ardmore, Pitbull in Atlantic City. And much more.
The live music calendar in Philly goes dark at Christmas, but only for a moment, with both hometown acts and regional touring bands getting gigs in the days before the big New Year’s Eve blowouts.
The action picks up immediately on the 26th with John Faye celebrating the release of his new album The Long Game. The album, whose grabby new single is “Asking For a Friend” is a celebration of a long, fruitful career in music reaching back to the 1990s, as was Faye’s excellent 2023 memoir The Yin & Yang Of It All. He shares an Ardmore Music Hall bill with the Jealousy Curve on Thursday.
On Friday, the Francie Medosch-fronted Philly country-rock band Florry, whose fans are awaiting the follow up to 2023’s superb The Holey Bible, tops a three-band bill at Johnny Brenda’s. The show is billed as Florry & Friends and includes Dari Bay and Soup Dreams.
Roxborough-raised and California-based Dave Hause recently announced that his Sing Us Home Festival will return to Manayunk in May for the third year running, with Frank Turner and Bouncing Souls joining Hause’s band the Mermaid. Hause is home for the holidays, and playing a pair of intimate gigs at the First Unitarian Church side chapel on Friday and Saturday.
Bassist and bandleader Adam Blackstone is setting up shop at City Winery on Saturday, broadening his Legacy brand — that’s the name of his 2020 album that was nominated for a Grammy — and calling it A Legacy Christmas. He’s up for a Grammy for his contributions to Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen musical theater album.
A number of out-of-town bands have traditions of playing Philly between Christmas and New Year’s on mini tours of the Northeast. New York family band Felice Brothers brings its winning, ramshackle sound, that was in fine form on this year’s Valley of Abandoned Songs, to Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday.
The next night, the Fishtown bowling alley and music venue will host Gogol Bordello. The antic punk rock band from Manhattan fronted by hyper-energetic Ukrainian showman — and named after 19th century Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol — headlines with Puzzle Panther and Pins opening.
The David Wax Museum, the Virginia duo of David Wax and Suz Slezak whose indie folk sound is shaped by Mexican music, is at 118 North in Wayne on Monday.
Now, back to Philly bands playing hometown holiday gigs. Art DiFuria brings his 1990s psych-rock band Photon Band to Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday, with simpatico garage rock exemplars Brother JT with Vibralux, featuring John Terlesky of Original Sins.
Two Philly bands have two-night stands coming to fulfill all your electro-jam band New Year’s Eve needs. Lotus, whose 20th album How To Dream In Color released this year, plays Union Transfer on Dec. 30 and 31.
And Disco Biscuits, the trance-fusion band formed at University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s whose latest is Revolution in Motion — which is collaborating with playwright Nick Schmidle on the musical The Very Moon — has gigs those same nights at the Fillmore.
Horn-happy party band Snacktime — soon to be introduced to ESPN audiences as the house band for They Call It Football with Jason Kelce — is the star of its own 2025: A Space Luv Odyssey show at Brooklyn Bowl on NYE.
Scranton-born Philly “don’t call us emo” power-pop band the Menzingers close out 2024 at Ardmore Music Hall. On Monday, Crossed Keys and Gladie are openers, on NYE it’s Captain, We’re Sinking, and the Wild Ones.
At City Winery, Johnny Showcase, recently seen hamming it up with a Purple Rain tribute at Ardmore Music Hall, plays Dec. 30. Taking stage on Dec. 31 is Kindred the Family Soul, the married couple of Aja Graydon and Fatina Dantzler, who have been furthering the neo-soul sound that they helped define for more than two decades. They do two shows New Year’s Eve. DJ Rocdaspot opens.
Meanwhile, in Atlantic City, the big attraction of the week is Pitbull. The Cuban American rapper and entertainer known as Mr. Worldwide has three shows at the Etess Arena and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino: on Friday and Saturday, and then again on New Year’s Eve.