by Avalon Lee
On March 27, Hey Marseilles took the stage at Johnny Brenda’s. Philadelphia was one stop on their national tour promoting their sophomore album, Lines We Trace, which was released on March 5th. The tour kicked off on the first of the month in their hometown of Seattle, Washington and has found them travelling around the country and playing to crowds of adoring fans.
Kicking off the show was Mock Suns, a three-piece band from Philadelphia. The group had a unique sound that consisted of their guitar, bass and percussion. Using high-tech equipment and a loop machine, their “indie-psych-prog-pop” sound was created with a heavy emphasis on the guitar.
Second in the lineup was Young Buffalo. While watching this band perform, I was wondering how I would even classify their sound. After the show, I decided to do some investigating, and discovered that they refer to their genre as “soul vibez”. While that may not be the specific term I would have used, Young Buffalo is a refreshing oddity with lots of character.
Finally, Hey Marseilles took the stage, and as expected, blew everyone else out of the water. Their orchestra-folk fusion, when translated to a live performance, is just as well (if not better) than their studio recordings. The instrumentals literally felt like they were wrapping themselves around you, while Matt Bishop’s vocals pulled you in. Their set was so captivating, it seemed like it went by in the blink of an eye. I wasn’t the only one who experienced this lapse of time, as majority of the crowd began to chant them back to the stage for an encore, making declarations such as, “I’ll call in late to work tomorrow, keep playing all night!”
If you were unable to catch this stop of their tour, you will be able to see them perform at the Firefly Music Festival taking place in Dover, Delaware June 21-23.
