Huffamoose | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Free at Noon Flashback: It’s a family affair with Huffamoose at World Cafe Live
The new release from long-running Philly rockers Huffamoose was only 12 hours old when the band took the stage at WXPN’s Free at Noon today. To celebrate the release of …And That’s When the Golf Ball Hit Me in the Head, out today on Delco label Winding Way Records, the local four piece spent most of the concert showcasing the album’s heartfelt, midtempo rock songs with a couple throwbacks to their back catalogue.
The first of those throwbacks, “Enigmatic” from 1997’s We’ve Been Had Again, opened the show with a deadpan delivery from lead singer Craig Elkins, while lead guitarist Kevin Hanson shredded at stage right. From there, the band — Eric Johnson on drums, Jim Stager on bass — leapt into the meta new “Send Out Your New Song,” a bit of an inside joke that offers lyrical vignettes of the album production process, with Hanson’s daughters Chloe and Phoebe appearing onstage to read an email thread that ultimately led to an exchange with XPN’s Helen Leicht.
Hanson’s kids returned later in the set to sing backup vocals on the socially conscious “Don’t Look Now” in English and Spanish, with Chris Farr providing flute accompaniment. The theme of family ties also surfaced in the sensitive “Restaurant Manager,” where Elkins sings about getting a food service industry day job that allowed him to stay close to home.
The set closed with another We’ve Been Had Again cut, the slow-burning “Wait,” which sent the band and a sold-out house of fans back into the afternoon. Their celebration of …And That’s When the Golf Ball Hit Me in the Head continues tomorrow night at Ardmore Music Hall. Tickets and more information on the concert can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.
Below, listen to an audio archive of Huffamoose’s Free at Noon concert, and check out a gallery of photos from the show.
Setlist
Enigmatic
Send Out Your New Song
Restaurant Manager
Wait
Buy You a Ring
Don’t Look Now
Wind Outta My Sails