Headed out to the TLA on South Street this past weekend, (mind you it has been renamed ‘The Fillmore’ which I will never, ever accept) to see three great bands: MJ Project, Grimace Federation and The Benevento/Russo Duo. Just to get it off my chest, when I hear ‘Fillmore’ the only thing that comes to mind is Bill Graham’s magical auditorium that was home to the greatest bands of the 1960’s.

We arrived around 9:30 as there was a 9:00 show time on the tickets and what band ever starts on time? I was sad to find out that for whatever reason, MJ Project was forced to play early, around 8:30 and only allowed a thirty minute set. Says a lot for the little guy getting pushed around by those assholes at evil corporation Live Nation. It was my second time seeing Grimace Federation and these guys are seriously a great little beacon of light in the almost non-existent Philly music scene. Backed by a tight rhythm section consisting of two percussionists, brothers Chris and Jon Wood, the band really belts out some really ambient, gritty and analog sounding landscapes.

The set break between Grimace and The Duo felt like forever but a few whisky and Coke’s solved that problem. These guys are seriously one of my favorite acts, they might have a small repertoire of songs, but they really play the shit out of their instruments. The majority of people that I play their album for don’t realize that it is only two guys making this huge, raging sound and that’s what I love about them. Tom Hamilton from Brothers Past came out for a few songs, and the fact that he’s being sitting in with other bands so often makes me wonder what has happened to his own group. I ended up leaving the show a little early because we had a little bit too much to drink and tempers began to flare, why I’ll never know.

As if walking out early wasn’t enough, I had a run in with a thug on Brandywine behind my apartment when I arrived home. I don’t really care to get into details, it’s behind me now but thank god he only took a little bit of my cash and not my entire wallet, phone or you know, my life.

It felt good to spend the day off and I must admit I didn’t celebrate MLK’s achievements in the least bit, but I did get a lot of laundry done and cleaned the kitchen. Hooray for domesticity.