Normally, World Cafe Live’s Free at Noon host Mike Vasilikos announces this week’s band or artists, and then the clapping begins. This week was different. Almost as soon as something started to happen onstage, the crowd began cheering, only getting louder as Dave and Tim Hause, Sug Daniels, and Langhorne Slim took to the stage. It’s easy to recognize this irresistible patchwork of artists reflective of Philly’s sound.
Starting off with “Friday I’m in Love,” it’s clear that the artists, all featured in this weekend’s Sing Us Home festival in Manayunk, love what they’re doing. “What a joy to be here,” remarked Tim Hause after the group danced along to “High Hopes.” And it was.
In this Friday’s sampler, Sug Daniels discussed her move from Delaware to Philly with an electric ukulele, shouting out World Cafe Live in her solo song and earning whoops and cheers from the crowd. Things got real when both Langhorne Slim and the Hause brothers sang songs they’d written for their children. Slim’s “Song for Silver” was written when his son responded to a melody he was just starting to pluck out, and Dave and Tim Hause duet in “Tarnish,” dedicated to Dave’s sons Harrison and Smith.
Dave Hause was naturally charismatic in his promotion of “Sing Us Home”. It’s clear that he worked his a** off to get here, to organize an annual music fest and play in multiple folk- and punk-rock bands. In true Gen-X style, he urged the audience (both in-person and listening on the airwaves) not to work for the man this weekend – instead, come to Manayunk. “I feel like a knife salesman or a preacher,” he said. “This is your altar call!”
The group wrapped up Free at Noon with “one of the finest songs ever written by two of the finest singers who ever did it”, according to Dave Hause. An acoustic version of “I’ve Just Seen a Face” by The Beatles went out to Tim and Dave’s father and earned every clap, cheer, and sing-along. After a long round of applause, the four hugged one another as they left the stage and the crowd started to dissipate, armed with the knowledge that the fun isn’t over – see you at Sing Us Home?