Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Bonnaroo, 6:33 pm Sunday by JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR’S NOTE: Out on the road with these guys for a few days, so posting will be light but stay tuned for a must-read post from Uncle Bill about Snowden/NSA spying on Americans.

Gary Clark Jr., Festival Pier, Roots Picnic, Saturday 7:07 pm by JEFF FUSCO PREVIOUSLY: Pete Troshak’s photos and review The Roots Picnic 2013

Photos by PETE TROSHAK For going on six years, The Roots Picnic has been kicking off summer in the city with a diverse eleven hour bonanza of music in blazing 90 degree heat. This year was no different. Hot as hell? Check. Diverse? As with previous years, the line up was all over the place and everywhere at once. Which is to say, double-check. The mainstage crowd was warmed up by Jennah Bell’s rootsy rock and Sonnymoon’s carnal electronic music. Philly’s own Lushlife jumpstarted the second stage tent with an intense, sweaty one-man-and-a-laptop psychedelic hip-hop throwdown. The Robert Glaser Experiment […]

Photo by MEREDITH KLEIBER Back home in Philly for their last U.S. date before embarking on their European tour, Kurt Vile and The Violators were greeted by a loving, sold-out crowd at Union Transfer Saturday night. After a double-opener featuring the folk-rocky stylings of Steve Gunn and the haunting lilt of Angel Olsen, Vile—face shrouded by his trademark brown mane—emerged onto the stage and opened the set with a stirring version of “Wakin on a Pretty Day,” which also serves as the opener on the Violators’ new album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze. “It’s good to be back home,” an all-white-clad […]

Photo by RORY MCGLASSON Less than hours 24 hours after wowing fans at the WXPN-hosted Non-Commvention at World Cafe Live on Thursday night, Sir Tom Jones was at back behind the mic for a sold out “Evening With Tom Jones” show at the TLA. The 72-year-old legend, with the one-of-a-king baritone voice, treated Philadelphians to an intimate set of deep-cut covers — John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis — from his last two records: 2010’s Praise And Blame and the just-released Spirit In The Room. The new album is a Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin-style cover album collaboration with Kings of […]

Photo by RORY MCGLASSON The light turned from red to a deep blue when Josh Ritter took the stage and walked up to the mic. Supple, genuine and totally alone, he almost stuttered his first words to Philadelphians: “We’re gonna’ leave it all here.” Philadelphia was not Josh Ritter& the Royal City Band’s last tour city, but it was the city where Ritter’s parents fell in love. Undoubtedly, the talented singer/songwriter is looking back in admiration on his parents’ marriage, which represents a longer-lasting union the one he and his ex-wife, singer/songwriter Dawn Landes, shared. That was just two years […]

Photo by TASLIMA AKHTER TIME: Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image. Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK British trio Daughter packed the house at the Union Transfer Friday night, impressing an overflowing crowd with their moody swirling tales of lost love. The show was originally slated for the tiny First Unitarian Church but overwhelming demand for tickets resulted in it being relocated to a larger venue. Not bad for a band that reminisced on stage about their first U.S. show being in Philly and playing to just a handful of people a few years ago. Playing in black and red shadows and darkness, they kicked off their set with the long fragile album […]