New live music series at Mt. Airy’s InFusion Coffee features Heyward Howkins, The Love Club and more

Philly promoter Paul Whelan has mostly staged shows at well-trafficked local DIY spaces – PhilaMOCA in North Philly being a big one. Now he’s bringing live music a bit closer to the northwest Philadelphia neighborhood he calls home. Beginning next week, Whelan will start programming free shows at InFusion – the Mt. Airy coffee and tea gallery run by his girlfriend Jane Shapiro – kicking off with Heyward Howkins, Alec Gross, Jake Hill and Kettle Pot Black on Sept. 4. It’s a great lineup and very folk-oriented, but Whelan says his shows moving forward will stretch into a wide variety of genres. “My heart has always been in the indie rock (has that term been beat to death or what) scene,” he says. His next event moves in step, bringing garage-rock bruisers The Love Club to InFusion for Mt. Airy’s monthly Finally Friday – you know, the opposite of Old City’s First Friday – on Sept. 28. From there, Whelan says he’ll program free live music at InFusion every Finally Friday, with other events booked in between. The Heyward Howkins show on Sept. 4 begins at 8 p.m. and will be recorded by Handsome Lady Records, a NYC-based label with Gross, Hill and Howkins on its roster. Below, listen to tracks from The Love Club, Kettle Pot Black and Gross, and check out Howkins’ Key Studio Session here.