When I told my coworker about Mage Hand, I said that they’re probably the best band in Philly. Well, he hadn’t listened to them before telling me, “No, this is the best band in Philly,” and then he put on Square Peg Round Hole’s 2016 album, Juniper. It was, indeed, some good stuff, but it wasn’t until I saw them live at Kung Fu Necktie that I had to concede that, all right, there are two best bands in Philly. Square Peg is an instrumental, highly percussive trio of serious music nerds Carlos Pacheco-Perez, Evan Chapman, and Sean Gill, encompassing jazz, electronic, post-rock, and ambient elements. With a Fender Rhodes electric piano dueling with a vibraphone to some of the tightest drumming you’ll ever see, these guys are no joke. They will ease you right on into a heart-racing jam so seamlessly that you’ll reach the peak and wonder how the hell you got there, like going from 0-120 in five minutes of highway hypnosis. Their latest release, Five Years, takes an unexpected, yet pleasing, turn in a very ambient direction. The EP is a lonely and beautiful voyage into the ocean’s depths, where staring out from the vessel’s dark porthole only yields one’s own reflection.
SQUARE PEG ROUND HOLE + BELLS ATLAS + GRIMACE FEDERATION @ BOOT & SADDLE TONIGHT 8 PM $12