Pink, Peter Gabriel, and plenty of Philly music on this weekend’s pop playlist
Philly bands and bands playing Philly, including Janelle Monae, Blind Boys of Alabama, Shemekia Copeland, the Jayhawks, Madison McFerrin and more.
The concert-scheduling gods can be cruel, and next week Pink and Janelle Monae arrive in Philadelphia on the same day.
Monae’s tour for her The Age of Pleasure is at the Met Philly on Monday, and that night Philadelphia’s own Pink returns home as a stadium headliner with the first of two shows at Citizens Bank Park with Brandi Carlile and Grouplove.
Both Pink, who released her ninth album, Trustfall, this year, and Monae are prominently featured on this week’s streaming Spotify playlist. As is Peter Gabriel, the British art rocker whose “i/o The Tour” is named after the album he has been releasing singles from every full moon this year. He’s at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.
There’s also a must-hear new album from Mitski, plus Philly bands like alt-country sextet Florry, who have a Saturday night date at Johnny Brenda’s in support of their The Holey Bible, and Baroness, the Germantown metal band whose new album is Stone.
Gospel greats Blind Boys of Alabama sing at the City Winery on Friday in support of the new Echoes of the South, named after the first radio show the group sang on after being founded in 1939.
It’s a top-shelf weekend at the Sellersville Theater. Blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland plays Friday. “The Talk” is a powerful song about a worried mother admonishing her son “as sure as you’re Black, there’s a target on your back.” Saturday night it’s folk songwriter and vivacious entertainer Loudon Wainwright III, who never disappoints.
Two radio concerts take place at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden. The WMMR-FM (93.3) MMRBQ on Saturday has Billy Idol and Shinedown, plus roots-rock sister band Larkin Poe and hard-hitting Philly band Vixen77. And the MGK Big Gig on Sunday — presented by WMGK (102.9-FM) — pairs ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Detroit garage rockers The Gories are at Underground Arts on Friday. Americana veterans the Jayhawks play the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville on Saturday. Philly band Dead Love Triangle — promising songwriter Ben Roberts — headlines PhilaMOCA on Saturday, on a bill that includes the band name of the week: New Jersey’s Gabba Ghoul.
Soul songwriter Madison McFerrin — yes, she’s Bobby’s daughter — headlines MilkBoy Philly on Saturday, with Camden’s Kingsley Ibeneche. On Sunday, cosmic country singer Dougie Poole returns to the Dolphin Tavern behind the excellent The Rainbow Wheel of Death. with Tonstartssbandht. Hot Club of Philadelphia play the Living Room & Cricket Cafe on Sunday, and the Figgs are at that Ardmore venue Wednesday.
The album of the week is Mitski’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. The Nashville-based Japanese American songwriter follows up last year’s Laurel Hell with a collection that leans into 1970s Laurel Canyon-style country, pulling heightened drama from pedal steel guitars and sweeping strings.
Also on this week’s playlist: New music from Chicago rapper-poet Jamila Woods and Austin, Texas, instrumental band Explosions in the Sky, the tender “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” from Sufjan Stevens’ forthcoming Javelin, British post-punk band Yard Act’s spiky “Trench Coat Museum,” electronic trio Animal Collective’s punny “Gem & I,” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me” by Cat Power, whose forthcoming album, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, recreates that momentous event. Dylan plays the Fillmore on Nov. 19.