by Matt Kelchner

Back in the first few weeks of 2014, Yuck and Alvvays were working their way around the country and paid a visit to the corners of Frankford and Girard for a stop at Johnny Brenda’s. Locals Hurry were tapped as the openers for the show. Last Wednesday the two met up again to kick off a quick tour down the East Coast to the inaugural Wrecking Ball Festival in Atlanta.

We last caught Hurry helping Beach Slang celebrate their one year band birthday back at PhilaMoca in the end of June. And much like then, they returned to Johnny Brenda’s for another night playing out of the catalog of hits.

They treated the crowd to a number of new tunes from their forthcoming and yet to be announced new album. The set ended with their ear-worm of a song, “Oh, Whitney”, which settled the nerves of a fan who, worried it might be missed, shouted for it quite early on into the night.

So far, this year has been a relatively quiet year of the 90s college rock throwback specialists Yuck. Wednesday night we learned that they have been hard at work finishing up their third full length album. “Hold Me Closer” was the first taste we got of this new record. The song was released to the world back in the beginning of July and was also the first of the night.

There was an equal divide amongst songs from Yuck, Glow and Behold and the upcoming release. At Johnny Brenda’s, Yuck slipped in a handful of other new songs in between classics like “Get Away” and “Middle Sea”. The set ended with two older songs from their self-titled debut, “Operation” and “The Wall”. As a farewell to the crowd, singer/guitarist Max Bloom handed his guitar to the audience and ran off stage towards the end of “The Wall”.

After a brief time back offstage, Yuck came back to a sea of cheers for two last songs, “Memorial Fields” and “Georgia”. Philadelphia was the first stop on tour and despite a few minor hiccups here and there, Yuck picked up right where they left off a year and a half ago. We’ve got a feeling that things might up be picking up for the band as Wednesday felt like the perfect preview for what’s to come.