As promised earlier in the week, here is a review alongside some great shots of Surfer Blood’s in-store performance and gig in Philadelphia which took place earlier this month.
Words & pictures by Taylor Farnsworth.
Surfer Blood, who’s debut album ‘Astro Coast’ was released earlier this year, hail from Florida and produce a mixture of catchy surf and indie rock. A sound which has earned the band recognition from the likes of the New York Times and Pitchfork in recent months.
The band were scheduled for an in-store performance at Main Street Music, an independent record store in Philadelphia. Along with the in-store was a sold out concert at The Barbary, a small venue in the Philly area the same night. Not only was I lucky enough to attend both performances but I also got an exclusive interview with frontman John Paul Pitts.
Waiting patiently for the band to arrive at their first performance I was informed the band were running a bit late, “most likely 15 minutes.” They were scheduled for the in-store performance at 5pm. Those 15 minutes of waiting quickly became 2 hours. The band finally arrived around 7, the same time that the doors of the Barbary were scheduled to open. When they arrived the band were apologetic about their much delayed arrival and were surprised at how many people waited that long to see them perform, as the record store was packed.
At the in-store the band played a set of four songs, including ‘Floating Vibe’s, ‘Take It Easy’, ‘Fast Jabroni’, ending with ‘Swim (to reach the end)’. It was an excellent performance, and definitely worth the wait. After the in-store John Paul Pitts was nice enough to answer a few brief questions for Indiescreet, he told me to meet up with him after the bands evening performance at The Barbary to continue with the interview.
As soon as Surfer Blood hit the stage that evening they immediately sounded incredible, from Marcos Marchesani ‘s percussion and keyboard, T.J. Schwarz’s drums, Brian Black’s bass guitar, Thomas Fekete’s guitar and J.P. Pitt’s vocals and guitar. Marcos was particularly outstanding and energetic on percussion, adding plenty of personality to the band’s already great performance. Throughout the night they played through their entire album and kept connected with the audience, J.P. even managed to make fun of two of their band members, Marcos and Brian for being under 21. After their performance I waited around for the crowd to diminish and caught up with J.P. Pitts to finish off our earlier interview.
Surfer Blood managed to put on two excellent shows for the people of Philadelphia, even with all the problem’s they’d encountered through the day.
For more shots from both performances click here, to check out some of the other great performances Taylor Farnsworth has shot click here.
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