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Philly music this week with Sweet Pill, the Bul Bey, Jamie xx, Joy Oladokun, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and more

A whistling woman whistles at World Cafe Live, a Philly emo band at Underground Arts, a Sudanese alt-electro artist at PhilaMoca, and more

Sweet Pill play Underground Arts on Thursday. The Philly emo band's "Unraveled" EP is due out Friday.
Sweet Pill play Underground Arts on Thursday. The Philly emo band's "Unraveled" EP is due out Friday.Read moreCourtesy of the Artist

This week in Philly music is packed with cool shows in small- to medium-sized spaces around town that underscore the richness of the city’s music scene, even on weeks that are short on big names.

These shows include a whistling woman at World Cafe Live, a Philly emo band at Underground Arts, an innovative dance music producer at Franklin Music Hall, a hip-hop and R&B triple bill at Johnny Brenda’s, a Sudanese alt-electro artist at PhilaMOCA, a sparkling country star at the Foundry, and a bluegrass band playing above an Ethiopian restaurant in West Philly.

And if you must have more household name music makers, you can watch them on screen. The star-studded Ladies and Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, directed by The Roots’ Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, is streaming on Peacock.

Also, on Thursday night, the FireAid concerts, to aid those who’ve suffered losses from this month’s Los Angeles wildfires, are streaming just about everywhere — Amazon, Apple+ TV, Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming services.

The lineup includes Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Green Day, Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga, Anderson .Paak, Joni Mitchell, Jelly Roll, Peso Pluma, Stevie Nicks, and Sting. Pink will be our proud Philly rep.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, things get going Thursday with Sweet Pill, the Philly emo band fronted by Zayna Youssef, whose new EP Unraveled is due on Topshelf Records on Friday. The group is doing a special acoustic sit-down show at Underground Arts, with a Q&A to follow. 22° Halo is also on the bill.

Georgia-born, New York-based country singer Willow Avalon kicks off her U.S. tour at the Foundry at the Fillmore on Thursday, just a week after making her television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert backed by a quick pickin’ honky-tonk band. Her clever and contemplative Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell debut album is an early 2025 highlight. Zandi Holup and Darryl Rahn open.

At Solar Myth on Thursday, improvisational jazz trio Dromedaries teams with writer and activist Alex Smith. It’s billed as Dromedaries x Alexoteric. At the McCarter Theater in Princeton, Solar Myth regular Marshall Allen leads the Sun Ra Arkestra, and Mannequin Pussy headlines the Queen in Wilmington.

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, the Baltimore funk-jam band featuring guitarists Greg Ormont and Jeremy Schon, kick off a three-night stand at Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday.

On Friday, veteran songwriter Steve Forbert and the New Renditions are downstairs at the Music Hall at World Cafe Live, while Molly Lewis, the musical whistler from Los Angeles who opened for Beck and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center last summer, plays upstairs at the Lounge.

Upstairs at Abyssinia, the bar above Ethiopian restaurant Abyssinia at 45th and Locust is keeping a busy schedule of music, comedy, (and chess!) nights. On Friday, the attraction is Philly bluegrass band Red Tailed Rounders, who released a fine six-song EP called First Round last year.

The Bul Bey — Philadelphia rapper Amir Richardson — tops a triple bill at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday, with R&B/soul artist Balmour and AngelConcepcion.

There’s also action on the Main Line. Soulive, the Hammond B3-heavy jazz funk trio featuring guitarist Eric Krasno, plays Ardmore Music Hall on Friday and Saturday. And Philly rock legend Tommy Cowell headlines with his bluesy Houserockers band at 118 North on Friday.

On Saturday night, Jamie xx, the British beatmaker for the electro-soul trio The xx, and a producer who has worked with the late Gil Scott Heron, among others, headlines Franklin Music Hall. Handsome Dick Manitoba, singer of New York legendary punk outfit the Dictators, tops a bill at Kung Fu Necktie.

Heading down the Atlantic City Expressway, Blind Boys of Alabama plays the Stockton Performing Arts Center in Galloway on Sunday. And if you’re looking for laughs, Nikki Glaser, who killed, as they say, at the Golden Globes this month, is at Hard Rock Live in Atlantic City.

Drive-By Truckers brings its “A Southern Rock Opera Revisited” tour to Ardmore Music Hall on Monday. Joy Oladokun, the Nashville folk-pop singer-songwriter, opens her new album Observations From a Crowded Room with “Letter From a Blackbird,” a response to the Beatles song that Beyoncé covered on Cowboy Carter. She headlines Union Transfer on Monday.

And Dua Saleh, the Sudanese American songwriter who mixed club beats with R&B and gospel on last year’s standout I Should Call Them, plays PhilaMOCA on Tuesday.