The idea of a Philadelphia indie rock renaissance is probably fictitious, but if one existed, The War on Drugs would stand squarely at its forefront. Led by former Kurt Vile bandmate Adam Granduciel, the quartet thrives in the middle distance between brooding latter-day Americana and bohemian exuberance; its third album, Lost in the Dream, released this March, stretches the band's sound out into patient and spacious odysseys without sacrificing any of its previous intimacy or vigor. The yin to Granduciel's other yin, itinerant folk mainstay Cass McCombs, returns to his native Northern California to join the bill. Last year he released his seventh album, an 85-minute survey of expertly rendered folk ditties called Big Wheel and Others, as though to prove beyond all doubt the range — and, paradoxically enough, the focus — of his songwriting sensibilities.
Tags: Hear This, The Fillmore
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