5/22/17 – The Voltage Lounge was host to Red City Radio, The Bombpops and Russian Girlfriends as they stopped in Philadelphia as a part of their huge national tour. The tiny club offered a no-frills setting though the narrow space upstairs held the merch and additional vantage points. For those of us who stayed on the floor, it was an intimate event.
Philly’s own Goddamnit started things off with their own tuneful brand of punk. It had been almost a year to the day that we had first encountered them at the Nesheminy Creek Brewing Company’s anniversary show. Russian Girlfriends from Albuquerque, New Mexico were not on my radar at all before the show. That changed after seeing them. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.
Next, The Bombpops were up and they tore through tracks from their debut full-length ‘Fear of Missing Out.’ In fact, they picked most of the more immediate and memorable tracks to play like “CA In July”, “Sweet For Sorrow”, “Be Sweet” and “I Can’t”. All of the best elements of the band were on display with speedy tempos, vocal harmonies and catchy melodies. As an added bonus, singer-guitarist Poli van Dam’s son Adler came out on stage toward the end with a guitar and nearly stole the show.
At the end of the day, this was Red City Radio‘s tour and they wrapped up the evening. Seeing them again was a treat as the last time we had seen them was when they opened for Strung Out a few years back. Some of their tracks were still in my memory from promoting their previous album. We only caught the first 5 or 6 songs before it was time to chat with The Bombpops, as this was the main purpose of this whole expedition.
This was conducted in their van with Poli, Jen Razavi (vocals/guitar) and bassist Neil Wayne. Drummer Josh Lewis was running around…doing drummer things. We covered a lot of ground here including: The Beatles, recording in Colorado, those mysteriously absent 3 songs they recorded, writing a theme song, their social media comes back to haunt them, and more. **Special shout out to Poli’s husband Mike and son Adler for their patience and to Jen for soldiering through despite being under the weather. I cut this one a little short for everyone’s sake but we got to the priority questions and they gave great answers/stories. A tip of the cap to them for being willing to have fun with this.
Check it out, listen to/buy Fear of Missing Out and go see them live. It’s a good life decision.
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