Concert review: Needle Points, Quiet Life and Chris Cardillo @ Johnny Brenda's
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
They kept saying how "sexy" the crowd was...
Needle Points
Maggie Grabmeier
Maggie Grabmeier
Chris Cardillo
Maggie Grabmeier
Maggie Grabmeier
Needle Points
Maggie Grabmeier
Maggie Grabmeier
Needle Points
Maggie Grabmeier
Maggie Grabmeier
Needle Points
Maggie Grabmeier
Maggie Grabmeier
[ 5/7 ] Wednesday’s show at Johnny Brenda’s was, as all three of the bands mentioned, “a night of friends.” The crowd was intimate, cat-calling the musicians by name, and the music reflected the friendliness of the affair.
Chris Cardillo and his merry backup band started the evening off with their boisterous take on Philly folk. Cardillo’s emotional lyrics came out like sobs, and the vocals were loud and distorted. It was like watching an opera: obviously moving, but I had no idea what he was actually saying. The singing and guitar were lovely, but Jeff White’s proficiency on the lap steel is what really pulled the sound together (and it’s hard to take your eyes off someone playing the lap steel).
Following Cardillo was the Portland country/folk group Quiet Life who made sacrifices to the country/folk gods in the form of songs about cheatin’ lyin’ lovers and rambling across the USA. Down the line, each member’s beard was bigger and more unruly than the last. Wednesday’s show was the first ever with this group’s current lineup, and despite a few technical hiccups, they sounded put-together and I thought they were pretty high energy. …
That is until Needle Points took the stage. First of all, they were in their “traditional” sort of garb, which means tribal (and glittery) war paint, Bindis, flowing ’70s blouses (on the gentlemen), one pair of leopard print bell bottoms, one vaguely Native American dance regalia, and a floppy sun hat that was passed around between the members onstage. The two percussionists, Jordan Kaplan and the super cute Danielle Kinoshita jumped around and clacked their drumsticks together in musical high fives while the frontman Colin Holloway would get so into it, he’d wriggle to the floor. Their music is a bold and psychedelic rock and roll with a distinctly classic rock stage presence, or to use their words, “supernatural/ super good.” The energy shift was amazing: all of a sudden the medium-sized crowd started dancing, whooping, and the band members cracked jokes all at once so we didn’t quite catch any of it, but we loved it. Granted, I was prepared to like Needle Points because they kept saying how “sexy” the crowd was, and I just cave under flattery.
