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Local singer-songwriter John Francis is presenting The City of Love Festival tonight at Underground Arts, benefiting Broad Street Ministry‘s hospitality initiative.  The evening will feature sets by Philly favorites Kuf Knotz, The Districts, The Lawsuits, Sean Hoots and more.  John Francis stopped by The Leicht Lunch recently to talk about the Festival – listen back to his interview with Helen Leicht below and download his on-air recording of “Just a Moment Ago” here.  Tickets and information for the benefit concert can be found here.

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River City Extension head out to Harrisburg for a show at Fed Live tonight.  At eight members deep, the Tom’s River, NJ outfit recalls the communal folk sound of The Head & The Heart or Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.  The band released their second album Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Your Anger last year, a record that represents a not-so shining time in front-man Joe Michelini’s life but that pushed the band’s sound forward in an impressive way.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show with Kalob Griffin Band can be found here.  Below, watch River City Extension perform “Everything West of Home/Brooklyn” live.

XPN Welcomes 13-time Grammy nominee Bruce Hornsby to the Scottish Rite Auditorium tonight.  The singer, songwriter and piano player is best known for his debut 1986 hit “The Way It Is” but is also a respected solo musician and was a touring member of The Grateful Dead from 1990 to 1992.  More recently the piano man has reached his keys into such diverse projects as a bluegrass album with Ricky Skaggs, a jazz record with Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette and he wrote music and lyrics for the musical SCKBSTD.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show in Collingswood, NJ can be found here.  Below, watch the video for Bruce Hornsby & The Range performing “The Way It Is.”

XPN Welcomes Morrissey to the House of Blues Atlantic City tonight.  Following the break-up of The Smiths in 1987, Steven Patrick Morrissey embarked on a successful solo career that included an immediate number one album with Viva Hate.  In 2011 EMI released a retrospective of his career and he has slanted this tour in the same angle, stating that it will feature both new / unreleased songs alongside his classics.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show with Kristeen Young can be found here.  Below, watch Morrissey perform “Suedehead” on Later… with Jools Holland.

Photo by Kristian Dowling

Tireless entertainer Kanye West brings his bright and bold live show to Atlantic City’s Revel Ovation Hall for the final night of a three-night stand. Though West did not have a proper solo release this year, he appeared on Cruel Summer, a compilation showcasing the roster of his G.O.O.D. Music label; plus, he’s still riding high on Watch The Throne, the outstanding collaborative album he released with Jay-Z last year. More information on the show can be found here. Friday’s opening night show made some headlines when West appeared onstage in a diamond-encrusted mask, later swapping it out for a mask-and-powered-wig combo that Fuse compared to a Yeti. Check out a video below and decide for yourself.

New Orleans musical institution Rebirth Brass Band brings the party to the World Cafe Live stage tonight. Active for close to 30 years, the group released its 15th album, Rebirth of New Orleans, last year. Information on the show can be found here. Below, check out a clip of RBB playing Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2009.

After headlining a show with Toy Soldiers here in Philadelphia, Kalob Griffin Band heads out west to Lancaster to perform tonight at the Chameleon Club, opening the show for Brethren and Gary Miller. Tickets to the 18+ show are $10, more information is available here. Read The Key’s interview with Kalob Griffin Band here, and check out the fan favorite track “IPA” from their LP June Found a Gun below.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Chameleon Club will be hosting the punk/orchestral group World/Inferno Friendship Society. The Brooklyn based circus punk outfit, fronted by Jack Terricloth, currently has seven active members including guitar, bass, alto saxaphone and piano. This all ages event will also feature the New York alt-country group O’Death. Check out the short documentary for World/Inferno Friendship Society below. For more information on the event visit the Chameleon Club page located here.

Philadelphia rock group Kalob Griffin Band will be playing his annual holiday concert at World Cafe Live. Along with the Americana rockers will be Toy Soldiers, Sean Hoots (from Hoots and Hellmouth) and Ali Wadsworth. Below is the video for their song “The Winter Blues” which was filmed throughout one day in Philadelphia. For more on Kalob Griffin Band, read The Key’s interview here.

Brooklyn lo-fi/garage group The Babies will be headlining a show at Kung Fu Necktie. The band will be supporting their newly released album, Our House on the Hill. This 21 and over event will also feature the Brooklyn punk rock band Swearin’ who has been touring the country with Canadian indie-rock group Japandroids. Tickets and more information can be found here.

Photo by Rhys Asplundh | www.flickr.com/people/rhysasplundh

“Ali!” they call out. “Hey, Ali!” That may be my nickname, but they’re not talking to me.

They’re greeting Fergie’s bartender, Ali Wadsworth, a soulful Philadelphia singer-songwriter and one half of Hoots and Wadsworth, one of the two acts opening for The Kalob Griffin Band (KGB) on December 22 at World Cafe Live.

“Ali’s amazing,” says Griffin, slugging back a shot of Jack Daniels and cracking open a Narragansett pounder almost simultaneously.

“We did a duet with her at The Living Room on the Lower East Side,” adds Eric Lawry, drummer of the indie Americana quintet.

John Hildenbrand, keyboardist for the band, nods. “She can sing like nothing else and she’s a huge supporter of us. So much respect.”

Support is what makes The KGB world go round. It’s been quite a while since Kalob Griffin graduated from Penn State, and while the band’s lineup has always been comprised of five 20-something dudes with hearts of gold and fingers of folk, a lot has changed.

From leaving State College, to settling in the suburbs of Philadelphia, to touring halfway across the country and back, members of the band have come and gone to pursue other passions (theater and love, respectively). Griffin and Rob Dwyer (guitarist, mandolin and banjo player) are the last original members of the band from when they started playing basement parties in the fall of 2009.

Two and a half years later, they debuted their first full-length album at World Cafe Live. It’s been less than six months since then, and the band says they’ve already got enough material for more. They’re hoping to put out an EP in March of 2013 and another LP by the end of the upcoming year. Their fans and their friends are hungry for it.

Friendships hold all the importance in the world to The KGB. After “divorces” from recent bass players, the band was searching the streets for someone who wouldn’t mind touring with a group of guys who speak in inside jokes. Two weeks before their fall 2012 tour, bassist Jonathan Davenport committed to 35 days on the road with perfect strangers. How’d they find such a good guy? He’s a friend of a friend who tutored band manager Trevor Kerin’s little brother for the SAT. Naturally. The KGB has connections, and with those connections come loyalty and love.

“Without our families, we’d be absolutely nowhere,” says Kalob. Eric and John echo the sentiment. While the majority of them currently live in Queen Village, they’ve stayed at every single band member’s parents’ house at one point in time. They’ve lived in basements and guest rooms, slept on floors and couches. Rob’s mother jokes that Kalob was “the best roommate she ever had.” “I lived at the Dwyers for eight months, rent-free,” Kalob says. “They were always there for us.”

Kalob’s own family will make the trek from Pittsburgh for their World Café Live show on the 22nd.

“Our parents truly enjoy our music and condone what we’re doing,” he says. “That is one of our biggest strengths as a band. We have support from those who love us, and that’s what keeps us going.”

Out of nowhere, British boy band One Direction’s poppy youth anthem, “Live While We’re Young” comes blaring from Fergie’s speakers. Two little girls in holiday dresses start dancing in the corner. Griffin raises an eyebrow.

“There’s a certain grace period post- college, you know? It’s like you have two years to dick around after you graduate. We know that we’re way past that point. Now we have to justify to our families why this is what we need to be doing. Why being a part of the band is so important.”

Kalob’s dad went on tour with them in June, just for the hell of it, just to see what it was like. The KGB is all about providing the best live music experience for show goers. As they watched their fan base morph from Penn State students to high school friends after they moved back home, to complete strangers in Southern states, they decided their goal in cultivating a consistent following would be easy: make The KGB a common bond between strangers.

“Trevor read an article about creating a tribe out of fans,” Griffin explains. “And tribe members need a way to identify themselves. We made these ‘IPA’ t-shirts in reference to our song – they don’t say The KGB anywhere on them. We’re cultivating New York, Virginia and DC right now. We want fans to see each other wearing the shirt and say, ‘Hey, you know The KGB?’”

The band’s website has a page for “The KGB Family” where fans can leave testimonial-type messages and download the band’s debut album for free. The sense of community is clear:

“Enjoy our blend of Americana Rock ‘n Roll. It’s an extension of who we are…we believe in delivering honest lyrics you can relate to, creating music that moves you, and sharing a live show experience that leaves us all wanting more.”

If you’ve ever been to a KGB show, you know the chant that’ll get fans riled up towards the end of a set. It’s pretty simple: “K-G-B! K-G-B!” The chant is an homage to their State College roots, the the town that made them who they are as a band.

“We want people to feel like they’re at a party when they come to a show. We want them to dance, to sing, to drink and have fun. That’s the Penn State in us,” says Kalob.

“At the same time, there’s nothing like having an audience that’s there just to listen,” Eric says. Some of the band’s most humbling experiences have been shows where people are quiet.

“In New Jersey, about fifty people who had never heard us before paid $20 to see us play in a living room. You could hear a pin drop,” Griffin tells me. “It was all about the music.”

The band will sing about Rob’s dead dog, a love affair with whiskey, West Virginia, girls and the changing seasons all in one set. Their sound digs into several genres, honing in on folk rock with a fair amount of harmonies and sing-along hooks. Their respect for songwriters like Ryan Adams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen finds its way into every original song and cover. When I ask about the songwriting process, the guys tell me it usually starts with Griffin calling the rest of the band into his room.

“Listen to this sweet riff,” he’ll say.

Then comes the skeleton of the song, and the step where Kalob asks each band member how they want to put their own personal touch on the track. They work one-on-one with Kalob to avoid the complications that come from five guys trying to write one song at the same time. Everyone gets to put their creative stamp on it. “The song almost always turns out completely different than I expect it to,” Kalob says.

“Kalob is always telling us he just wrote the best song he’s ever written,” laughs Eric. “The best three songs he’s ever written were written in the past month.”

In January, The KGB plans to record a video series of South Philly neighborhood sessions. Also known as “Grub and Chug,” these intimate living room shows will stream live so the band can interact with online viewers. Fans can also look forward to a music video for “IPA” and live recordings from a week-long stay at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

“It’s our first time,” says Kalob. “We cannot wait.”

Fergie’s has lowered the stereo, but the little girls in the corner are still dancing. In many ways, you might say, The KBG is living while they’re young.

The Kalob Griffin Band plays with Hoots and Wadsworth and Toy Soldiers at World Cafe Live on Saturday, December 22.

Photo by Tony Wood

The Key: How did you go about expanding the recording studio to become a venue and a coffee shop?

Tommy Joyner: We were approached by people in the town and became very involved in Ardmore. I was on the Board of the Ardmore Business Association, and Jamie on the Board of Ardmore Initiative. The coffee shop/music venue was opened in February 2006 followed by the Bryn Mawr location in 2007, which no longer exists. Then just over a year ago, the folks who owned the property in Center City contacted us. We were looking to get into Philly so it was really perfect timing.

TK: What is the difference between MilkBoy Coffee and MilkBoy Philly?

TJ: MilkBoy Philly is a bar and a rock club. It’s larger, and we’re able to do louder shows because the PA is robust, to say the least. The stage is bigger, and you’re more likely to see a national act perform at MilkBoy Philly. We have to be choosy about doing all-ages shows there, whereas MilkBoy Coffee is smaller, more for acoustic-oriented acts, and always all-ages and BYOB. They are both booked really well to showcase the best talent, but they feel really different from each other.

TK: How did you choose the bands you wanted to play at the anniversary show?

Jamie Lokoff: All of the acts have some sort of connection/relationship with MilkBoy; whether they are friends who have played at the locations previously, been in the studio, personal friends of ours, or recorded under MilkBoy. We reached out to all of them to see if they would perform and they graciously accepted.

TK: Why three days?

JL: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the prime days for shows. So why not do all three?

How do you feel MilkBoy Philly has progressed over the past year?

JL: We love that place, we’re very proud of it. I like to go there and hang out, I think it’s such a great environment. I don’t go to other bars, I just go there and hang out. I’m so happy with how it’s been received, I love the way the room sounds upstairs. For our first year it’s been a tremendous success. I think some people still don’t know about it, but it has been steadily growing month by month.  It’s a place built for where The Black Keys were six years ago, it’s the bands you don’t know about that are just starting to percolate. We’ve had some great bands you may or may not have heard of, that will grow and become huge. And that’s the beauty of a place like this, seeing a band before everyone knows about them. Some bigger acts that played include Spacehog, Youth Lagoon, and a 1 a.m. after-party with Skrillex.

TK: What has been one event that stands out in your mind as particularly awesome?

JL: One was one of our favorite bands called “Le Butcherettes”, a female-fronted band. She came out in an apron with blood all over it totally in character. It was sexy, it was rock. Other favorite shows include Leslie & the Ly’s, Craig Finn from The Hold Steady did two sold out shows, and Lisa Hannigan.

TK: How do you see yourself standing out among the other Philadelphia venues?

JL: We just try to do what we do. There’s nothing like MilkBoy in Center City. We’re just who we are, organically, because we started as a studio so we have the music in our blood. We moved to coffee, so we’re open at 7 in the morning and then we added the bar element and the venue, so we’re very unique. You come to our place at 8 a.m and you’ll see shifters from Jefferson Hospital because they just got off work. In terms of the bookings that we do, we’re all trying to pull from different artists out there, just trying to put on good shows. You know MilkBoy, you know that we booked it, so it will be a good show.

TK: What would you like to change or see happen as time goes by?

JL: Continue to do what we’re doing but just get better at it, we’re always tweaking and trying to get better and improve what we do; and just maximize the place to the best of our abilities.

The MilkBoy Philly anniversary shows will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. All shows are completely free for folks 21+, doors open at 8:30 p.m., shows kick off at 9:30.

Thursday night features: Pete Donnelly, Kalob Griffin Band, and Up the Chain

Friday night features: Gang, Johnny Showcase, The Lawsuits, and Chill Moody

Saturday night features: Sharon Little, Aiden James, The Bailey Hounds, and The Fleeting Ends

Last night, the World Cafe Live stage was full of country rock ‘n rollers all from Philly, playing tribute to legendary southern rocker himself, Levon Helm. The audience was dancing up a storm and enjoying the good vibes, with two keyboards, two drum sets, and seventeen bands total, it was an evening to remember.
All photos by Rachel Barrish.