Punk and Community: Something in the Way Festival and lots of Philly bands take on Webster Hall

Alex G | photo by Rachel Del Sordo

Last Wednesday, a mob of punk rock fans engulfed Webster Hall in New York City. The occasion was Something In The Way, a one-night-only festival thrown by Run For Cover Records which featured three stages and fifteen bands crammed into an five-hour time window. The festival was a race against the clock for the sold out crowd to see all the great music packed into the Manhattan venue.

The fest started off with Crying, a New York City electro pop band. I followed them a lot back in 2014 with the release of their debut EP Get Olde, a chiptune album featuring tongue-in-cheek songs about things like going to the bodega, hating to drive and being awkward in high school. This night was the first time I got to hear them perform material from their new album Beyond the Fleeting Gales. The new album is a mature build on their old sound. The band has done away with cutesy lyrics and cut back on the chiptune sound, the songs still have the same fun energy as the first album. Definitely a solid lesson.

The first Philly band to take the stage during the festival (and there were a lot of great ones) was Petal. Not only had they played New York less than a week prior to the festival, they also recently stopped at almost all the surrounding cities on their tour with Kevin Devine which just ended three days prior. Looking over the packed room, it was obvious that everyone still needed a little more Petal in their lives. The band put on a dynamite set as fans sang along to each song. Kiley Lotz debuted a new song which just about brought all of us to tears. It has been a real treat to watch Petal grow and develop their sound over the last couple years; I am so excited to see what 2017 has in store for this band. 

At this point in the festival, the crowd really started to build up and I got trapped in the stairwell going to the main music hall between a frantic security line and flood of people trying to get to the next set. Something in the Way wasn’t just a battle against the clock to see every band but, for me, a battle with a life long struggle with claustrophobia. I ditched my attempts to go to the third stage all together and made an ill-fated attempt to check my coat.

While waiting, I heard a beautiful singing voice coming from the other room. I didn’t recognize the voice at all, which I found odd because I thought I was familiar with everyone on the bill’s music. I check it out the second I get out of line, it turns out the person performing was Nicole Dollanganger. Recorded, her music comes off as downright creepy; the subject matter in her songs is dark and her high pitched vocals always left me feeling creeped out. Live, her voice really shines. I was blown away, I’ll definitely make an attempt to see her live again.

The only band on this bill that was not currently signed to Run For Cover is Philadelphia’s Nothing. It was obviously a good addition as fans packed the main room in Webster Hall, singing along.

Out of all the bands and artists I saw at the Something In The Way festival the one that stood out to me the most was mewithoutYou. I chatted with the band’s bassist Dominic Angelella before the set. He told me mwY was going to play a “power set” tonight. When I asked him what a mwY power set entailed, he replied “maybe we’ll just play ‘Red Cow’ ten times in a row.” The band didn’t play Red Cow ten times in a row, however, they did play an amazing set that never let up once. Over the last fifteen years mewithoutYou have been a staple in the indie rock world, reinventing themselves many times. They still put on one of the best lives set of anyone around. I’ll gladly take another fifteen years of watching mwY play power sets. 

Sharing a set time with mewithoutYou was another Philly music staple, Alex G. I managed to tunnel my way through the packed crowd to catch for the tail end of their set, where I found them playing hits off Alex’s most recent album Beach Music. At the end of his set, Alex proclaimed “This is our last song, its a brand new song that we have never played before.” (That statement might not have been entirely true, a quick YouTube search unearthed at least two other times the band had preformed this song prior to Something in the Way.) But the song quickly broke down from a surprisingly catchy pop riff with the addition of loud guitar and strange keyboard parts. It was definitely quite a departure from the sound of Alex G’s previous tracks and left me excited for the new album; It seems like Alex has something very different in store for us. You can check out the “new” Alex G song here.

There was never any question who everyone at this festival was most excited to see. It seemed like one out of every three kids at this show was wearing a piece of Modern Baseball merch. I followed a packed crowd up three flights of stairs and barely made it to the photo pit in time for the band’s first song. Their set was split 50/50 between old material and tracks from their new album Holy Ghost.

It’s always a huge joy to see to look out and see thousands of people singing along to Modern Baseball songs. It wasn’t so long ago that we were all watching Modern Baseball play house shows in West Philly. MoBo was fresh off the heals of their a tour opening for Brand New, who announced via band merch that they were breaking up in 2018. If you looked really hard at Modern Baseball’s drummer Sean Huber’s drum head you can notice that there is a picture of a tombstone that says “Modern Baseball 2012- 3012”. It was obvious that everyone at Something in the Way fest was looking forward to ninety six more years with their favorite band.

Overall, Something in the Way festival felt like a celebration of an entire music community. Many of the artists preforming made it a point to talk about the importance of safe spaces, LGBTQ+ awareness, and the importance of just being kind to one another. The whole festival was super positive and it made me feel proud to be there. Check out photos from the show below