by Holli Stephens

After touring much of the east and west coasts, The Hundred Acre Woods were happy to be back home to play the last show of their tour at The Golden Teahouse in West Philadelphia.

My journey there was met with a lot of confusion and me deliriously walking around asking strangers, “how do I get to The Golden Teahouse?”. After confirming the destination with one of the bandmates, I swiftly biked over to his directions, described as a “red door next to a convenient store.”

The Golden Teahouse is residential but doubles as a music venue for a lot of punk shows. As I locked up my bike I could hear the blaring sounds of guitar and drums. Winthrop Stevens appeared to my left and let me know that I was in the right place. I asked one of the guys sitting on the stoop if I needed to show anything to get in and he replied, “Get your ass in there!”

Inside was a cluster of furniture piled up to make room for the 60 people that came for the musical lineup of Click, Three Man Cannon, Sorority Noise, and closing the night, The Hundred Acre Woods. I soon learned that the show was already halfway finished, and Sorority Noise was gearing up to play a set. As I wandered farther back into the mass of people I saw a staircase that lead to a mezzanine that overlooked the stage area.

Intimate venues like this have a special place in my heart. You can really see the band play, from the tears and sweat they shed, to the particular note they decide to shred on their instrument. I knew I was at home in the sea of punk rockers and hipsters that came out for this particular show.

The guys of Sorority Noise were literally suited up for their set. The bassist and rhythm guitarist both wore white jackets and the longhaired lead singer stuck to a more classic black outfit that had pops of purple and pink colors on his tie and button up. Ironically, the lead singer told everyone, “if you’re wondering why we’re wearing suits and jackets you’re asking the wrong person.”

This band was new to me so I made it my business to tune in to their sound and come to the conclusion if it was something I liked. Throughout the set the rhythm guitarist would produce such jazzy solos that played around with chord progressions and distortion. One of my friends described it as a more rock Led Zeppelin and I couldn’t agree more.

After a brief intermission I started to see the familiar faces of the guys of The Hundred Acre Woods taking the stage to play their set. I’ve interviewed the band before and even got a behind the scenes look of them recording for their upcoming album, so I was especially excited to finally see them play a live show. With Zack Reinhardt and Stevens on guitar, Patrick Loundas on bass, Will Davis on banjo and Brandon Harrison on drums, the band was a glow of positive energy.

I see Reinhardt hand his glasses over to Loundas who puts them down for safekeeping. About ten seconds later the guys start jamming out hard, dancing with their instruments and leading the audience to a simultaneous head bob. The set was short, but exciting and dynamic. From “City Lights” to “Mississippi You” and “Loose Parts”, each song had a renewed energy that I or anyone else in the crowd couldn’t stop dancing to. The band also threw in “Get Lost” and two other new untitled tracks into the set.

The band announced its last song, “All I Love” and I felt a wave of sadness come over me. Who knows when I’d see The Hundred Acre Woods play another show together. Just as I was about to step out and say my goodbyes to everyone, I hear Loundas start to strum his guitar and mutter the words to Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”. The band ended up breaking out into a full accompaniment as Loundas continued to half sing half mumble the words.

In the last minute, I was sent flying by a mosh that had formed and lasted until the end of the song. By this time the guys were all smiles as well as many of the audience members. I’m never a fan of moshing, but because of the sequence of events that lead up to it, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the night.