Hey kids -

The South Philadelphia Review featured us in an article just this past week. The story follows the link. 19148 REP-RAH-ZENT!


http://southphiladelphiareview.com/view_article.php?id=6691


The Edge

By Lex C.
March 6, 2008

DJ/promoter/karaoke fiend Sara Sherr’s comments in Feb. 28’s "Sugar Town, spice and everything nice" triggered a thought: Is South Philly’s live-music scene really lagging?

Or, maybe it’s like much of the arts scene over here: simply hiding — a quiet giant swimming under the surface.

When it comes to alternative tunes, it’s all about being underground. Sometimes, the search is half the fun and an unexpected show is the best. So, while Fishtown venues and West Philly stages are getting all the coverage, a little bit of digging reveals rehearsals in living rooms, podcasts coming out of basements, recording studios attached to apartments — and plenty of musicians creating and performing in this area.

Case in point: alt-rock group Beretta76 has been playing gigs up and down the East Coast, opening for big names like The Fratellis, Earl Greyhound and The Fleshtones, for more than five years. Usually, compared to The Pretenders and Ramones, the local band released a self-produced album in 2006. Sweeping up accolades from local reviewers and garage-rock aficionados, the band’s raw, hard-edge sound thickly laden with seductive lyrics about one-hour stands, temptation and beauty queens also won it a Jane Magazine demo contest.

Quietly — but successfully — this foursome has used South Philly as home base since forming in ’02. And, like many of the musicians in the area, they keep a low profile, practicing above a garage at 16th and McKean streets that used to be a Mummers’ rehearsal room.

So, if places like Fishtown are supposedly where it’s hot musically, why does this band stay put?

"It’s like an old-school neighborhood," singer-guitarist Pete Rydberg, who lived in Bella Vista with lead vocalist Camille Escobedo for nine years before they moved to Ninth and Pierce streets in ’04, said. "It’s what I would imagine what parts of Brooklyn were like long time ago." With parents who grew up in the New York borough, Rydberg’s childhood was peppered with stories of a place that didn’t seem to exist anymore — until he found South Philly. "I don’t even know how to describe it," he continued. "It’s really become kind of like more of a destination place. But I’ve always just thought of it as a great neighborhood."

With the band’s new bassist Ben Brower, a former Passyunk Avenue resident ("right around the corner from Pat’s"), and drummer Rob Giglio previously living at 13th and Federal streets, all Beretta76 members have been part of the South Philly club. But in the coming months, the entire crew will spend a lot of time here working on their next record, with hopes of releasing it by the end of the year.

The group isn’t alone in its desire to create music on this side of town. Locally based band Ken co-headlined a concert at the Tritone last week with Beretta76, and, for awhile, Diner at the Plaza, Front Street and Snyder Avenue, served as an unlikely live-show venue during a few whiskey nights (though these have been put on hold for now). Come spring, if it’s anything like last year, the empty lot at 12th and Carpenter streets will serve as a makeshift stage for Art@Sophi Fridays, among other events.

Live concerts in South Philly might be hard to come by, but in some ways it makes them that much more special.