This is an open letter to ANYONE posting concert times on a website. Elkhorn was listed on the NEB website as starting at 6pm on 9/12. I appear at the venue at 610 only to learn that the music starts at 7, and there is an opener! To give y’all a picture of NEB, it is a dusty,musty, used bookshop selling water damaged copies of The South Beach Diet. The “performance” space is a glorified hallway with a small stage and twenty used office chairs picked up on the side of the road, not the type of venue to be 2 hours early.
Drifting North is group of local music nerds that do a pretty good angular guitar rock sound. Lead man on guitar/vocals, keys, lead guitar, bass, and excellent drumming. How did they fit you ask? Well, not really cuz the singer was in the doorway. It would have been a fire trap, but the diet books were probably still wet making for more of a smolder than a fire. Singer gave off a hint of Tom Waits. You know the band is local when they tell you their song “Up Around The Corner” was written for the “sketchy all-night Shell station” on Willow St.
Elkhorn is the Philly duo of Drew Gardner electric guitar/keys and Jesse Sheppard on 12 string acoustic. On this evening, they were joined by a drummer who helped propel the sound. The rotten space was perfect for viewing this trio, and I was glad I stuck around. Gardner led the jams, while Sheppard and drummer shaded the background. The 12 string could serve as bass, rhythm, or percussion depending on Jesse’s use of the effects pad. The wordless music was captivating and veered from Americana-ish passages that gave way to an almost Grand Funkian choogle. Look into this duo’s regular and acoustic “Storm Sessions” recordings, worth the wait.
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