Kevin Devine and The Goddamn Band do the goddamn thing in Philly

Kevin Devine | Photo by Sydney Schaefer for WXPN | sydneyschaeferphotos.com

The Instigator Tour, which consisted of Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band, Julien Baker, Pinegrove, and Petal, kicked off in the beginning of last month in Baltimore. On Sunday night, this amazing tour came full circle after touring the whole country and performed its last show in Philly at the beloved Union Transfer. Unfortunately, Julien Baker wasn’t able to be there, as she only performed on the first 8 dates of the tour, the stacked bill still put on a stellar show for the Philly crowd.

Philly-based Philly favorite Kiley Lotz, also known as Petal, kicked off the night’s set at 8 o’clock sharp with her friends who were there to play bass, guitar, and drums for her on this tour. Lotz is a total sweetheart who really just wants everyone to be happy, which really came through when she took a few moments half way through the set to speak about the results of the Presidential election last month.

Her commentary was followed by a solo cover of Talking Heads “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” that she said really embodied how she feels about the whole ordeal. She described it as something terrible that happened, which most would probably agree with, including myself, but very much expressed the need to just be nice to people and accept everyone. She also expressed that she wanted the show to be a safe space and just wanted everyone to have fun. “So if anyone makes you feel crappy, come let us know and we’ll take care of it,” said Lotz.

Next up was Pinegrove, who always put on an amazing show. I’ve seen these guys a decent amount of times and they never disappoint, if anything, they get better and better every single time. A few months ago, we had the pleasure of premiering a new Pinegrove song, “Portal”, here on The Key. Unfortunately Pinegrove didn’t play this song during their set on Sunday night, but frontman Evan Hall spoke about how this was to be there second to last show of the year (their last being Something In The Way Festival by Run For Cover which happened on last night up in NYC), and that they were going to take time once the new year came to record a new album, which sent the crowd into a frenzy.

And finally, last to take the stage was Kevin Devine himself. Devine’s name is followed by “And The Goddamn Band” but on Sunday night, he took the stage alone to begin his set, beginning with an original song of his and uniquely incorporating Pinegrove lyrics “One day I won’t need your love. One day I won’t define myself by the one I’m thinking of” into his song. This was undoubteldy cool for Pinegrove considering how, during their set, Hall took a moment to talk about how he personally admires Devine’s work and how emotionally driven all of his songs are.

After his solo rendition, Devine was joined by the rest of his band, or the goddamn band as he might say. As soon as the rest of the band joined him on stage, and immediately began jumping and rockin’ (around the Christmas tree) as soon as the bass dropped, a feeling that radiated through the crowd. About halfway through the set, Lotz came back on stage and accompanied Devine in singing his song “No One Says You Have To.” Devine and his band ended their set in Philly as well as their whole tour with a song called “I Was Alive Back Then,” which is the last song off of Instigator, the album that inspired this wonderful tour. Check out more photos from the show below.