On Stage (Extra): This Way to the Egress defies categories

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times 

Anyone who has heard the music of This Way to the Egress, a band from Bethlehem that is playing on January 29 at Kung Fu Necktie (1248 North Front Street, Philadelphia, 215-291-4919, kungfunecktie.com), knows that the band is good – and that the band’s music is almost impossible to describe easily.

In one press release, the sextet’s music is described as an “an explosion of sound and sight that’s equal parts unruly vaudeville, ebullient world-beat and three ring circus….an amalgamation of worldly genres that catapults their audience through time and space with unexpected shifts of styles, tempos and time signatures.”

This is not so surprising if you consider the source of the Lehigh Valley band’s name – P.T. Barnum.

Barnum’s American Museum was so popular that people would spend the entire day there. This cut into profits, as the museum would be too full to squeeze another person in. In classic Barnum style, old P.T. put up signs that said “This Way to the Egress.”

Many customers followed the signs, not realizing that “Egress” was a fancy word for “Exit.” They kept on looking for this strange new attraction, the “Egress.” Many patrons followed the signs right out the door. Once they had exited the building, the door would lock behind them, and if they wanted to get back in, they had to pay another admission charge.

This Way to the Egress don’t pull any fast ones on their fans but they do provide an atmosphere that captures the variety, excitement and adrenalin rush of a circus performance. Confetti snowstorms, tuba farts, Balinese chanting, fire-wielding evangelists and puppets sweep across the stage and create an anything-goes atmosphere. There is no escape.

Egress is Taylor Galassi (lead vocals, accordion, piano); Sarah Shown (vocals, piano, violin); John Wentz (tuba, backup vocals); Joe Lynch (trombone, backup vocals); Jaclyn Kidd (guitar, banjo) and Nick Pecca (drums/percussion). Hailing from a wide variety of musical backgrounds with a diverse array of influences, Egress crafts intricately-arranged songs that get people out of their seats. The band’s genre-bending sound leaves the audience wondering what will happen next.

“How do we describe our music?,” said Shown during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from her home in Bethlehem. “We’ve been at odds with that since the beginning. It has a worldly influence along with punk, Eastern European, reggae and gypsy – sort of avant-garde meets punk.

“We all live in Bethlehem except our tuba player John Wentz who lives in Brooklyn. I’m grew up in the Poconos. Taylor originally played accordion and cello in John’s band. Taylor saw me play in a pub in the Poconos and told me that we should play together.

“That was back in 2008 and we were doing stuff in a similar vein. We put the band together and Joe and Jaclyn started playing with us sporadically at the beginning. They were on the first album even though they weren’t in the band full-time.”

This Way to the Egress released its debut album “This Delicious Cabaret” in 2011.

“Originally, it was just a three-piece – me, Taylor and a drummer,” said Shown. “After the album came out, Joe and Jaclyn joined the band-full time and have bee die-hard members ever since. We had a drummer named Matt for the first four years. After he left, we had a number of different drummers. We got our new drummer Nick Pecca in October and he’s become a permanent member.”

This Way to the Egress is still touring behind the band’s third studio album, 2015’s “Great Balancing Act.” Produced by Roger Greenawalt (Iggy Pop, Branford Marsalis, Philip Glass), the album is billed as “an energetic, foot-stomping, arm-linking, sing-a-long call to action from a band that combines Gogol Bordello’s energy and antics with Django Reinhardt’s musical sensibilities and Tom Waits’ grit.”

“We’re getting ready for our next album,” said Shown. “We’re launching a Kickstarter campaign in a week. We already have a studio picked out – Vibromonk Studios in Brooklyn. It’s going to be a 12-track album and all the songs are already written.

“We’ve been doing three rehearsals a week to get them ready. Now, we’re doing a three-week tour to get them ready. There will be quite a few songs on the new album that are different. But, that’s to be expected because we have so many influences.”

Video link This Way to the Egress – https://youtu.be/5TIRkZXXwb0.

The show at Kung Fu Necktie, which also features The Royal Noise and Bella’s Bartok, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

Other upcoming shows at Kung Fu Necktie are Abacus, Drones for Queens, and Supine on January 27; Clamfight, Brain Candle, and Decap Attak on January 28 and Extra Dark, Leisure Muffin, Stateschoolgirl, and Lojit on February 1.

The Tin Angel (20 South Second Street, Philadelphia, 215-928-0770, http://www.tinangel.com) has run a good race for more than two decades but now the venerable music club in downtown Philadelphia is on its “gun lap.”

The Tin Angel will close the room at its current location on Olde City on February 4. Owner Donal McCoy and booker Larry Goldfarb have plans to continue operating the Tin Angel at a larger venue later in 2017.

For the last few weeks, acts have returned to play the Tin Angel one last time and there has been a string of sold-out shows.

Tickets still remain for just three shows – “Farewell to Tin Angel: A Benefit for Soundgirls.org” on January 31, Eric Bazilian and Wesley Stace: Au Revoir to the Tin Angel on February 1 and The Hillbenders on February 2.

The “Farewell to Tin Angel: A Benefit for Soundgirls.org” concert will feature sets by John Francis and Jesse Lundy, Kufie Knotz, Laura Shay, Lily Mae, Ross Bellenoit, Hezekiah Jones, Stargazer Lilly, Brian Seymour, and Nate Gonzalez.

“The premise of this show started with a conversation I had with Larry (Goldfarb),” said Lundy, during a phone interview Thursday morning. “I told Larry that hundreds of people have said – I wish I was playing the Tin Angel one last time. He said – why don’t you and John Francis put something together?

“That’s why John Francis and I are co-hosting this show. We’ve been working on it for a couple weeks. Having Stargazer Lily play is pretty big because they don’t play a lot of live shows. It’s a really strong line-up with a lot of great Philly acts.

“I expect the show to run from about 8-11 p.m. I think we’re going to do a lot of individual short sets. And, I imagine by the end, there will be a lot of the musicians doing a Cumbaya thing and performing together on stage.”

Video link for Stargazer Lily –https://youtu.be/gb8jPkpbJkM.

The special concert at the Tin Angel on February 1 will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.

There is no city in America anything like New Orleans. And, no city in the world has a music scene as distinctive as New Orleans.

The Crescent City has produced an amazing number of top-flight bands in a variety of genres including Jazz, Creole, Second Line, Soul, Dixieland, Rock, Blues, Cajun, Rhythm & Blues, Ragtime, and down-home swamp music.

The Subdudes, who formed in 1987 in New Orleans, play music that encapsulates that sound — a swampy mix of Cajun-style roots, rhythm & blues, rock, folk, soul and gospel with four-part vocal harmonies.   After a dozen records and hundreds of live performances around the country, this quartet has quietly become one of America’s music treasures.

The band, which will be performing on February 1 at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com), features Tommy Malone on guitar, John Magnie on keys and accordion, Steve Amedee on tambourine, and Tim Cook on bass and percussion. 

The finale of each show is a much-anticipated part of the live performance when The Subdudes unplug from the stage and join the audience on the floor to play an intimate and rousing acoustic set.  Their latest album “4 on the Floor” captures that unique experience.

“We get a new life going when we’re out in the crowd singing,” said Magnie, during a phone interview Wednesday from his home in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“We’ve been doing it for quite a while. We just made our new CD in that style. The album just became available on our website. We’re excited to be coming back to the Sellersville Theater. We really like the theater and the town. It’s a fun town.”

The Subdudes got their start in America’s premier “fun town.”

“Us getting the band together was part of our being musical brothers in New Orleans,” said Magnie. “We were playing together in different groups before the Subdudes started. Subdudes was one of those accidents that just happens.

“It was a Monday night ‘piano night’ at Tipitina’s (a famous New Orleans music club) back in 1987. I played accordion instead of keyboards. Steve did his tambourine thing – playing with a spatula. It went over well. After that, we held down the Tuesday Maple Leaf spot for about three months.

“Then, later in ’87, we moved to Fort Collins. Coming up here, we were different. It was timing. We caught on pretty good and, after nine months, we got a record deal with Atlantic Records. We did two albums with Atlantic on their East West label. We ended up with two 10-year runs, eight studio albums and a couple live ones.

“At the end of ’96, we shut it down. We kinda ran our course artistically. We weren’t writing together anymore so the band broke up. At the time, we felt like that was it – that it was over for good.”

But, they learned to never say never.

“After a while, we decided that we all made our best music when we made it together,” said Marnie. “At one of Tommy’s gigs – his show in Denver – I joined him on stage and it was good. We realized we played really good together. Johnny Ray Allen, our original bass player, wasn’t in that second edition. We had Jimmy Messa and Tim Cook on bass. We had a run of 9-10 years and then broke up again.

“Then, Johnny Allen pulled us back together for the third version back in 2014. Four months into it, he died of a heart attack. So, we have Tim Cook on bass again. This is the best version we’ve had yet.

“In our current shows, we have some songs we play all the time. But, we always play something off all eight albums. And, we like playing the songs from our new album. They go over really well live – especially when we’re out in the audience playing.”

Video link for the Subdudes – https://youtu.be/QoGcwTbVbL4.

The show at Sellersville, which also features Bob Malone, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $49.50.

The Birds of Chicago, who will perform on February 1 at the World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com), are billed as a “rock-and-roll ‘secular gospel’ duo.” The duo draws heavily on the gospel tradition and their music feels like a new, secular gospel of sorts.

The Birds of Chicago are a collective fronted by Allison Russell and JT Nero. The band was formed in 2012 when Nero, who had previous success with his band JT and the Clouds, began writing for Russell, who was previously a member of the acclaimed Canadian roots outfit Po’ Girl. Since the band’s formation, they have released two studio albums and one live disc.

Once they got together, Nero and Russell found an unmistakable chemistry. Nero had found the perfect voice for his rock and roll psalms. Russell moved from being a primary songwriter to an interpreter.

“We just came out of the cave,” said Nero, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from his home in Chicago. “We’ve been in the studio for the last four days working on our next album.

“We cut it in Chicago at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio. This studio has a lot of great old gear – and the best live recording room in the city. I’m co-producing it with Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi All Stars. For a Midwest musician, Chicago is like Athens. Chicago has been my home since 2002. “Allison is from Montreal, Quebec but she has been a citizen of the world since 2005.

“I lived in San Francisco for about three years back in 2001 and it had become clear to me that I was going to be all-in doing music. Trish Klein from the band Be Good Tanyas told me about this 18-year-old woman – a singer who had taught herself clarinet. I met Ali. She and I sang together and there was alchemy there.”

Things developed quickly.

“In 2012, we decided to carve out our own musical space – and we also became a couple,” said Nero. “We backed into making a record – doing a Kickstarter thing. We weren’t even calling ourselves Birds of Chicago yet. Our self-titled album came out in 2013. Then, we started touring hard – 180-200 shows a year. We were pretty much out on the road all the time. We found our stride as Birds.

“Our first proper album was ‘Real Midnight.’ We recorded it in Pasadena with Joe Henry as the producer. That was our first real statement. By the time ‘Real Midnight’ came out, we had found our identity.

“The songs on that album came together pretty quickly. They were written in the happiest years of our lives. We had just had our first daughter Ida Maeve. It was more of a melancholy record. Joe Henry was the perfect match as a producer.”

The new album, which is still a work-in-progress, will have a different vibe.

“The next one is much more of a joyous, rocking soul thing,” said Nero. “We finished tracking and now it’s on to the mixing. Hopefully, it will be out in the fall. We want it to be a shot in the arm for people. We owe some loving to our folks. When the macro is oppressive, you have to focus on the micro.”

Video link for Birds of Chicago – https://youtu.be/145bdCkL32M.

The show at the World Café Live, which also features Levon Henry, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Other upcoming shows at the World Café Live are Bronze Radio Return and Air Traffic Controller on January 27; The Infamous Stringdusters: The Laws of Gravity Tour and The Brothers Comatose on January 28; Tiffany Jones Quintet and V. Shayne Frederick on January 29; and Bill Laurance of Snarky Puppy and Darla on January 31.