Weekend Picks: Love Thy Neighbor/Dress Up With Thy Friendgroup
FUNDRAISERS | When Broad Street Ministry — long a force for good in Center City, offering a bevy of services to those unhoused and/or in deep poverty — rebranded a few years back as Broad Street Love, they also refined and redefined their mission somewhat in just two words: “Radical Hospitality.” Behind that is a pretty broad (forgive me) notion of care and compassion, and to put that in motion, Broad Street Love always needs funds, donations, and awareness of its mission. To further that, Jeremy Kuhar has produced this Sunday’s first-ever daylong Love Your Neighbor Fest. Across a full day of programming that includes music, a makers market, family fun and more, this free-to-attend fest promises both a solid Sunday hang as well as a great window into BSL’s mission and their utterly beautiful gathering space.
COMEDY | Over the last year or two, local comedian Adam Flick has been hosting sell-out, lively comedy shows in the upstairs room of Brownie’s Irish Pub in Old City. It’s come at a moment where indie comedy (that is, stuff off of the usual and often chain-comedy club circuit) could use a lift. And under the banner of Close Quarters Comedy, a roving set of nights that has broadened to weekly open mics at Brownie’s, he’s found his scene. Now, he’s broken through the second floor wall and into the adjoining address with a new night, Knee Slappers & Record Scratchers at 48 Record Bar, a monthly Sunday-night show that’s a little more dialed in that gives a shorter lineup of comedians more time to spread out. This Sunday, he’s got Marcus Levar, Parrish McWhorter, James Kelly and host Charlie Gibson. (Emo Phillips fans, take note of that last one. (Full disclosure: Our editor and publisher is also the creative director of 48, for in the clerb, we are truly all fam.)
MUSIC | As we speak, this year’s Philly Music Fest is already underway, boasting headliners like Waxahatchee, Amos Lee and more. In a short time, the fest has come into its own, as well as becoming a legit non-profit; the fest reinvests by donating to music education programs teaching underprivileged kids. We’d especially call attention to the show’s closing night, featuring Marshall Allen and Angelo Outlaw at Solar Myth on Sunday night. Allen, of course, is the 100-year-old sax player and bandleader who was one of Sun Ra’s right hand men. Outlaw is a little bit younger, having released his utterly excellent vibraphone-soul-jazz debut LP Axis of Time earlier this year. Also of note: The great English post-punk psychedelic singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock at City Winery
FOOD | Across the street from the Haunted Acme on Passyunk Avenue in South Philly, there’s a corner store on its own little island called Passyunk Market. It’s had a couple of different owners over the years, but the speciality has always remained the same: A full garage freezer full of locally made frozen pasta, and plastic quart containers of Crab Gravy that are definitely homemade and definitely one of the great undersung Philly love dishes. Long before Palizzi Social Club came along and made an era-defining recipe of a more elevated version, this Crab Gravy was the most well-known iteration. The Market version is a looser red gravy than you’d think, but has been steeped in blue crab to the point where it’s essentially become as present and elusive as pulp. Pair it with linguine and a can of crabmeat from Anastasi’s on 9th Street, and know love. You can even put parm on it, you filthy animal. Just don’t tell anybody.
HANGS | If you roll up to Electric Zeetar’s Halloween Bash at the RUBA Club and get the feeling that everybody knows everybody, that’s because everybody does. Now in its sixth year, this annual Halloween party (costumes strongly recommended) started out as a kind of friendgroup hang that has been expanding its Venn diagram each time it comes around. In addition to drinks and DJ Romain Let Us, there’s a performance by the Halloween Bash house cover band Talk Show. If you’re gonna go to a Halloween party in Philly this year, this is the one. Also of note: Repo Records’ South Street Vinyl Block Party.
