Out in the secluded haven Foto Club inhabits, The Talking Kind, Eight and Dazy played a friend show on Sunday night. Mimi Gallagher of Eight and Pat Graham of The Talking Kind both told the crowd they were looking out and seeing a lot of familiar faces. Not local to Philly, Virginia trio Dazy — who has played with them (and other Philly bands) before — fit right in. The colorful, pulsing disco-y dance floor illuminated the crowds feet Sunday eve, a light hearted, by-the-seam-of-our-pants vibe precipitated the room.
The Talking Kind | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
Pat Graham’s music moniker, The Talking Kind, is incredibly fitting for his personality and the candor of his set overall (and later, his encouragement from the crowd). In early September, Graham released It Did Bring Me Down, his first full length. It’s deeply personal and often self-critical, family issues somewhat a cornerstone. “This song is about my dead fucking mom,” Graham said, the humor masking a song about grief called “Pretty Flowers.”
His humorous and antagonistic banter between songs seemed to unintentionally introduce the next song, like a self fulfilling prophecy. Talking Kind played “Trouble,” “Damn Shame,” and “Never Bored,” each having grown up Charlie Brown vibes. Meaning they had a passive acceptance to Graham’s life experiences. The lyrics are repetitive and it works well, the songs are super catchy. The Foto Club crowd’s heads bobbed up and down as their bodies swayed, freely in the moment.
“Friend shows are the shit,” Graham said candidly.
Eight | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
With just her guitar, pedals and a track loop pad triggered by a lone drum stick, Eight’s Mimi Gallagher played a stripped down set. Looking out into the crowd she jokingly shouted out her band “they’re all here,” referring to the various musicians whose playing made up the backing tracks. Gallagher went on to reminisce about their first full length Delight in Eight which Foto Club had hosted the release show for.
Smirking and conversational with the crowd at times, Mimi escaped into each song eyes closed. Her vulnerability came forward adding a weightiness to Sunday night’s version of “Die in the Desert,” as well as “Rot” off their 2017 self-titled EP.
Her performance of “Darkness” followed suit, a song in which she sings, “In the darkness of my mind, a memory of a time, it’s hard to pretend it’ll never happen again.”
“Play it again!” Graham shouted from the crowd after several Eight songs. Not to say that was the only Foto Club crowd-participation during the set, but nonetheless Eight’s front woman was showered with love.
Dazy | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
Dazy took the Foto Club stage and frontman James Goodson waved the crowd in, ushering everyone to move up until they were arms length from him. The energy shift was extreme but swallowed the crowd whole Sunday night. The three-piece from Richmond played their setlist back to back, only taking small breaks where tuning (and playful heckling) absolutely needed to take place.
Dazy released OTHERBODY in March, sandwiched between two singles this year, “Pressure Cooker” and “Forced Perspective,” both woven into their set. Both songs experiment with different guitar samples, layered “underwater” vocal distortions, and lots of static, noisy guitar. In addition to their style, it feels like a psychedelia influence at play.
Sunday eve they also played “Deadline” off 2022’s OUTOFBODY, which condenses what the band has to offer, really more of a sampling. Dazy delivers loud, fuzzy noise, well-blended with a chill and anchoring bass groove, powerful vocals from Goodson and bassist Jake Guralnik, and lyrical malaise towards the baggage time produces. Very relatable.
The moral of the story with The Talking Kind, Eight and Dazy’s show Sunday night at Foto Club is go to your friends’ and their friends’ shows because they are, as they say, the shit.