Review: The War On Drugs ‘Drugcember’ homecoming at Johnny Brenda’s

The War On Drugs didn’t call their 2021 album I Don’t Live Here Anymore because the members of the Philadelphia band are now scattered across the country.

The album’s title song is more metaphorical. It’s about shedding skin and finding a way forward creatively and personally, putting here behind you and moving on to there.

But the fact remains that the band that, as leader Adam Granduciel pointed out at Johnny Brenda’s on Monday, was formed two blocks away in a rented house in Fishtown, doesn’t have the geographical center it once did. Granduciel lives in Los Angeles, bassist Dave Hartley, his longtime aide de camp, resides in Asheville, N.C.

Which is what made the thrilling first night of the band’s sold out, three-night-stand, dubbed “A Drugcember To Remember,” such an emotionally — as well as musically — satisfying experience.

This year’s Drugcember resumes an annual tradition the band began in 2018, of playing multiple end of the year hometown shows, with proceeds benefiting The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia.

In the first two years, before the tradition was interrupted by COVID, the Drugs played a variety of venues around town, including big ones like the Fillmore and the Tower Theater.

That made sense for a band that has grown in popularity and acclaim, as its brought Granduciel’s vision to fruition for a new kind of guitar rock that draws on songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, as well as the German motorik bands Kraftwerk and Neu!

On a year-long tour culminating this Drugcember, the band played two sold out shows at the the 3,400 capacity Met Philly and headlined the Xponential Music Festival in Camden. They also opened for the Rolling Stones in London before 65,000 people.

The Johnny Brenda’s shows are a bit smaller than that. The former boxer’s bar holds 250. It was crowded on the club’s tiny stage, with Granduciel, Hartley, drummer Charlie Hall, keyboard player Robbie Bennett, and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca, Jon Natchez, and the band’s newest member, Eliza Hardy Jones.

And it was even cozier in the sold-out room, lit with Christmas lights and a Drugcember banner on the balcony rail. Anyone going to Tuesday or Wednesday’s show, be advised: don’t stand in the pathway to the bar!

Before the official run began, the Drugs held a rehearsal open to friends and media on Sunday night that had a casual vibe, with Granduciel shouting out to pals in the crowd, and the band working out surprises for the three shows to come.

One of those was The Waterboys’ “Strange Boat” with Rob Hyman of The Hooters, who’s been pulled into the Drugs orbit since being featured on A Philly Special Christmas, the album Hall produced and Bennett and Jones appear on. (Granduciel joked that Hall and Jones are so close to the Eagles that they phoned in play calls to Jalen Hurts on Sunday.)

Hyman showed up with his melodica again on Monday, blowing along with Granduciel’s harmonica on the song’s elegiac coda, in one of two covers in Monday night’s set, the other being a version of Bob Seger’s “Against The Wind.”

Monday’s show carried over the familial feeling from Sunday’s rehearsal, with the two-sets structure and an intermission in which Bruce Warren of WXPN-FM (88.5) raffled off items like a War on Drugs merch pack and a cooking class with Kismet Bagels.

But it was also serious business. The 2 1/2 hour show kicked off just after 8:30 p.m. with “Harmonia’s Dream,” the I Don’t Live Here track built around a hypnotic Bennett keyboard riff that’s nominated for a best rock song Grammy. (The band won best rock album for A Deeper Understanding in 2018).

As the Drugs have grown in popularity, their music has attained epic sweep. The undulating weave of guitars and keyboards, along with Hartley’s fluid bass lines, builds to stretches of real grandeur suitable for oversized spaces. It was apt that the video of I Don’t Live Here’s title song was shot on a rooftop, because it didn’t feel like any room with a roof could contain them.

It was fascinating — and rewarding — to witness those songs being performed in an intimate setting. To say it worked would be an understatement. It felt like a rare treat to see such a road-tested, super tight band work together at close quarters. The songs weren’t scaled back and played with precision, with Granduciel and Lamarca turning their backs as the septet faced each other in a circle, back on a stage where they’re stood many times before.

The first set peaked with Natchez honking Clarence Clemons-like on “Eyes To The Wind.” And in the second, the band moved from strength to strength, from the diaphanous “Lost In the Dream” to the claustrophobic and ultimately cathartic “Under The Pressure.”

Granduciel called Jones’ addition as a permanent member “the best part of our 2022,” and she bolstered the band from the back of the stage all evening — on keyboards, guitar, tambourine and vocals, particularly loud and clear on “Strangest Thing,” as her voice twined with Granduciel’s.

It was clear throughout how much the band valued their homecoming. In a digital age — as Covid made clearer than ever — you can be anywhere and make music together.

But a band’s core identity derives in part from where it’s from, and in The War on Drugs case, that place is Philadelphia, and more specifically Fishtown, and Johnny Brenda’s. “We love this city, we love this bar,” Granduciel said before closing with “Arms Like Boulders,” from the band’s 2008 debut album. “Thanks for making it special.”