By Tom Collins
Staff Writer

While aimlessly browsing through Twitter during the early afternoon of Dec. 30, something piqued my curiosity. R5 Productions, a Philadelphia based booking agency that puts on shows from small local bands and bigger, well known acts alike, posted a picture of a flyer for a show that was taking place that night in the basement of the First Unitarian Church. The tweet itself read, almost sarcastically, “Spooky secret show tonight at the Church. BUT WHO IS PLAYING??”

Three bands were listed on the mysterious flyer. Largest, at the very top, was Thy Foes Profanely Rage, indicating they were headlining, and, on the bottom, listed Eight Legged Prawn and Lithuania. Out of the three bands, only Lithuania actually existed. Upon closer examination, I quickly noticed, that, in the cartoonish bedroom illustrated on the flyer, a poster on the wall read, “It’s mewithoutYou!”, and another that read, “The Districts.” Both of these happened to be very real bands, both hailing from the Philadelphia area.

After seeing mewithoutYou had posted the same exact flyer on their Instagram and Facebook pages, and that a Google search of “Thy Foes Profanely Rage” showed that the name happened to be the title of mewithoutYou’s forthcoming sixth album, I figured it was safe to say that they were playing that night, so I immediately bought tickets, only several hours before the show sold out.
When I arrived at the First Unitarian Church slightly after doors had opened, I went inside to find the basement already packed with a large crowd. Everyone was very visibly excited for the show. If it wasn’t already obvious enough that it was mewithoutYou and The Districts playing, there was a merch table in the back of the room, already selling t-shirts of both bands.

About a half hour later, Lithuania, the indie/punk side project of Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick took the small stage, and their fast paced, fuzzed out songs more than warmed the crowd up for what was coming later that night. Near the end of their set, Slick, who sings and plays guitar for this project, asked the crowd, facetiously, “So who’s excited for Eight Legged Prawn? And what about Thy Foes Profanely Rage?” After some laughs and cheers, he quickly followed up, telling the crowd “Who am I kidding? It’s The Districts and mewithoutYou, guys.”

Lithuania finished their set, and after a brief set change, the next band took the stage. As expected, it was The Districts, a young, bluesy folk rock band out of Lititz, Pa. While they’ve only been around for a few years, the group has already been making waves in the Philadelphia music scene and beyond. Their set consisted of all of the songs from their 2014 self-titled EP, including fan favorites “Long Distance” and “Funeral Beds”, as well as new songs from their full length album “A Flourish And A Spoil”, which comes out on Feb. 10. Some of the best moments of their set came from these new songs, like “Suburban Smell”, an acoustic song which singer/guitarist Rob Grote played by himself, before strapping back on an electric to close with “Young Blood”, which found Grote standing on top of his amplifier, jumping off when the band reached the loud climax at the end of the song.
Unsurprisingly, after another set change, mewithoutYou took the stage. Within a few seconds, the lights went down, and the sounds of the slow, melancholy guitar chords of the opening of “In A Market Dimly Lit” filled the church basement. Singer Aaron Weiss began his unique vocal delivery, softly speaking the first lines of the song, before getting to the chorus, where the entire band abruptly enters the song, with Weiss shouting at the top of his lungs to the crowd.
For someone who has never heard it, the band’s music, often labeled as alternative or indie rock out of pure laziness to find an actual classification for it, is hard to describe, because it can literally change from song to song. After the very loud, aggressive opener, the band played a set spanning all of their discography, from other loud, almost punk-esque songs like “A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains”, “Messes of Men” and “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume”, to slower, more mellow, folky alternative songs that had the whole crowd singing along, like “Timothy Hay” and “The Angel of Death Came to David’s Room”. The band also played a song from their new album being released this year, called “Red Cow” for only the second time, and added a spur of the moment cover of The Smiths’ “What She Said”.

After fourteen songs, the band took quick break, before returning for an encore of “In A Sweater Poorly Knit”, a slower song about questioning one’s existence, and “All Circles”, a short but sweet song to end to the night, which got the entire crowd singing along once again.
While it easily may have been the least secret secret show of all time, musically, it was definitely one of the best. Even though everyone knew who the mystery bands were ahead of time, everyone in the crowd knew they were part of something special. They all got to see some of their hometown musical heroes playing at one of the most beloved (literally) underground venues in Philadelphia, the basement of the First Unitarian Church. I doubt the connection felt between fellow members of the audience, as well as the bands, can even come close to being replicated at any other show, which is one of the many reasons I can’t think of a better way to have brought my 2014 concert-going to an close.