All of the Music: A Weekend of Jams
My friends are pretty frickin’ talented. This past weekend I had the opportunity to see one of my friends perform with his band, The Racket Boys, at their new album party show and in addition to that I got to see my other friend perform with her a cappella group, Broad Street Beat when they opened up for In the Mix.
The Racket Boys are a five man band and they describe their musical style as “a blend of hip-hop and funk-rock that works so well it’s flagged by the FDA for causing colon-melting euphoria.”
They certainly don’t disappoint. The entire audience was jamming with them the entire show without pause. My friend Kevin, the lead singer, was dancing, jumping, water-gunning the audience and rocking out on-stage. And the rest of the band doesn’t slouch – they perform every song with intense focus and also a healthy amount at fun.
One hilarious moment of the night: after continually mentioning how much their drummer was sweating, said drummer threw his shirt into the audience. A few minutes later the shirt was thrown back – but when the drummer when to put it back on – the audience “boo”’ed. So the shirt stayed off.
The Racket Boys’ new album, Breakfast for Dinner, is available online now: TheRacketBoys.com. Right now, my favorite song of theirs is “Shot Down” – it’s got a really great here-comes-summer vibe. I highly recommend seeing The Racket Boys perform live – I can promise you’ll have a blast.
The next night I went to my first Broad Street Beat show. Broad Street Beat is a contemporary a cappella group based in Philly. They were opening for another a cappella group, In the Mix and both groups were really fantastic.
Broad Street Beat opened with Delta Rae’s “Bottom of the River” (one of my personal faves) and really blew the audience away:
My friend Candace sang in my favorite of their mashups, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”/“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. It was a really impressive show, and I can’t wait to see the next one. They are holding auditions and looking for a bass and soprano – so if you know of anyone – feel free to share.
You don’t have to go far to find talent in Philadelphia. It’s one of the many reasons I started My Friends Make Art. Philly is such an amazing place because it doesn’t just have talented people – it helps those people find outlets and thrive so they can share their talents and make our city a welcoming music and arts town.