Read previous – The Front Bottoms @ The Fillmore Philly (10/22/2021)
The Front Bottoms annual Champagne Jam returned to The Fillmore Philly campus on December 16th and 17th – bigger than ever, this year’s sold out event took place across 2 nights and all told included 17 other bands! On night 1, performances were split between The Foundry and Fillmore stages. Night 1 performers included Slothrust, Joyce Manor, Another Michael, Emperor X/Chad Matheny, Sweet Pill, Lunar Vacation, and Flycatcher and the night was capped off with an exhilarating performance from The Front Bottoms.
Performances came fast and furious and alternated between the 2 stages with short 30 minute sets. New Jersey’s Flycatcher kicked things off early (at 6pm) and got the crowd warmed up with their anthemic rock on tracks like “Sodas in the Freezer“. Philly’s Sweet Pill was another early highlight – singer Zayna Youseff is an enthralling and energetic frontperson and their brand of twinkly emo/punk is the cat’s pajamas. The party came to a climax when The Front Bottoms finally took the stage at 9:30. The crowd went wild as the band started off their set with “West Virginia”. Dressed for the occasion, singer/guitarist Brian Sella popped open a bottle of Monster Energy champagne before launching into “Swear to God the Devil Made Me Do It” and the balloons started to fall. Sella took an extra big swig of champagne before performing crowd favorite “Twin Size Mattress”, along which came a steady stream of crowd surfers. After nearly 90 minutes of performing songs spanning their nearly 15 year career, the champagne was all gone and they finished their set with “leaf pile”. But it was during their encore performance of “Flashlight” that the big balloon drop occurred.
The Front Bottoms recently released their theresa EP – it’s the 3rd EP of their Grandma Series and features updated versions of older songs they never officially released. You can listen to theresa EP track “hello world” below. No other tour dates have been announced, but they’ll be playing the Adjacent Festival in Atlantic City next Memorial weekend. Keep scrolling below to see more photos from night 1 of Champagne Jam.
