Read previous – Japanese Breakfast + Long Beard @ White Eagle Hall
Amidst the hustle and bustle of South Philly’s Broad street lies the welcoming glow of Boot & Saddle, one of the city’s smaller live music venues. With its cozy bar and intimate vibe, it served as the perfect setting for Saintseneca and Long Beard as they mesmerized fans with a mid-week show on 9/18.
Opening the night was Long Beard (the music project of New Brunswick, NJ-based Leslie Bear). Her journey as an artist started back in 2015 with a cultivation of home recorded demo tapes and small studio sessions that would eventually shape and influence her excellent brand new sophomore LP Means to Me. Bear is a self taught musician, and her style pulls from a mix of folk, ambient, and pop influences. With her keen knack for melody, combined with her soothing voice and themes of empathy and ego death, her songs tend to pull listeners in with their ease and relatability. Her performance that night along with her fellow band members shone with humor, authenticity, and set a warm welcome leading up to Saintseneca.
Four-piece group Saintseneca formed back in ‘07 in Columbus, Ohio and have stayed on the radar of folk enthusiasts across the East Coast since. Lead by singer/multi-instrumentalist Zach Little, the band has fine tuned their style and have successfully managed to incorporate genre elements in their music that are rarely used in the folk genre, and their newest album, Pillar of Na has proven to be the most ambitious in that respect. Live, the group played with a fever like energy as they bantered back and forth with fans in between songs. Similar to Long Beard’s approach, themes revolving around memory and empathy were prevalent during a majority of their tracks, and were received with smiles and open ears throughout the room.
Long Beard will be back in the area again when they play Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on 9/26 for their official record release show (tickets here).
Keep scrolling to see more photos from the show.
