Music, Marketing, Entertainment, Events, and more: Summer Season Concert Series

Rittenhouse Square Park:

Headliner: A Place To Bury Strangers

Opening Act: Homophones

Show: 7pm

Tickets: FREE

One of the loudest bands from New York is back in town for a free show tonight. Their sound is indeed loud, heavy, fuzzed out and heavy on the shoegazey. Rumor, however, has it that their newest record ditched much of the volume for more concise songwriting and a focus on melody. The first track "It Is Nothing" is a total amp melting Bailter Space style dream fuzz blowout, looped mantra like vocals, massive washes of blurred guitar, hypnotic drumming that you'll come to enjoy at their shows. The sonic touchstones of influences or similarities apply - Jesus And Mary Chain, Loop, My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3 and especially Bailter Space. With vocals being quite washed out and weary, the drums a solid propulsive pound the bass wiggly and melodic, a band like this could be all about the guitars. They are seemingly always on the verge of careening out of control, throbbing and buzzing, soaring and screeching, grinding out thick chunks of caustic crunch, or unfurling a gauzy sheet of glimmery haze.

North Star Bar:

Headliner: Patterns

Opening Act: Welter / Plushgun / Cheat To Win

Doors: 7pm / Show: 8pm

Tickets: $8

Patterns is an experimental rock project from West Philly. They came together in late 2008, the current line-up of the band consists of founding members Brendan Burke(guitars, effects, noise), Mike Wyman(bass guitar, effects, noise), and Brian McClure(drums, percussion). Their show tonight is to showcase their 2 year long project of playing with each other, formatting their sound, solidifying an identity to what they've been experimenting on. They'll catch your ears first with their riffs and noise as they often have more of than vocals in their songs.

Trocadero:

Headliner: Desoto Jones

Opening Act: Bright & Early / Opening Day / Eyes On The Prize

Doors: 7pm / Show: 7:30pm

Tickets: $12

After a long hiatus both from the studio and from tours, Desoto Jones are back. In their absence, however, they were pretty busy. For one, they had to say goodbye to close friends and family, guitarist Chris Gill and drummer Justin Staszewski. It was very hard but it was what made the most sense for everyone.They then went through a search for new members and welcomed in new rhythm guitarist and backing vocals Greg Townsend and new drummer Adam Francois. After a few sessions together and finding their new and awesome sound to be in working order, they partnered with the Camden Riversharks baseball team to write and record the team's new theme song to commemorate the baseball team's 10th season and will be heard at every game for the 2010 season. They also released "Inward Telescopic," a new EP this past June. Check out their new sound tonight. With their new line up, they still kept their sound and could possibly have had an upgrade.

Electric Factory:

Headliner: Crystal Castles

Opening Act: None Listed

Doors: 7pm / Show: 8pm

Tickets: $25

This thrash, hypnotic, techno, experimenting duo, named after She-Ra's home, are in town tonight to promote their new release, "Crystal Castles II." Ethan Kath and Alice Glass will be showcasing their pulsing and pounding sound topped with Alice's often haunting vocals. Get ready to get your groove on to their disco tech, experimental, yet danceable tunes. The rhythms and beats they garner tend to get that trippy aura that only a few rave and techno DJ's are able to pull off, but then they total do a 360 and bring you to heavy rock, thrash sounds to trigger your senses. It just gives you a great listen to the versatility of their sound and the strength and range of their vocals. So whether your grooving to the beats or raving to the rhythms...just make sure you do it with them in the room!!

Keswick Theater:

Headliner: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Opening Act: Dar Williams

Doors: 7pm / Show: 7:30pm

Tickets: $36; $46

Mary Chapin Carpenter was part of a small movement of folk-influenced country singer/songwriters of the late '80s. Although many of these performers never achieved commercial success, Carpenter was able to channel her anti-Nashville approach into chart success and industry awards by the early '90s. Many have been fans of MCC's kickback celebrations of fiercely independent women and her somewhat introspective ballads. She had a long hiatus of not performing, but is now back and a lot of fans couldn't be happier. There will be plenty of the kickback felt in her show with the big band that she travels with and whose members are all the very top notch and at the top of their game. Her vocals are from the soul, her lyrics from the heart and when they come together she creates songs that talk about being true to yourself and the world around you.

Susquehanna Bank Center:

Headliner: Last Girl On Earth Tour Presents - Rihanna

Opening Act: Kesha

Doors: 6pm / Show: 7:30pm

Tickets: $31 - Lawn; $46 - $106

Since the turn of the century, every American summer has seemed to produce one or two Caribbean-styled dance-pop hit sensations, and the summer of 2005 was no different, as the relentless dancehall-lite booming rhythms of Rihanna's "Pon de Replay" seemed as omnipresent as sunshine. Like Daddy Yankee ("Gasolina") and Sean Paul ("Get Busy") in summers prior, Rihanna emerged initially as an unknown superstar, known far more for her song than for herself. Unlike Daddy Yankee and Sean Paul, however, she is a woman -- a young and beautiful green-eyed one, to be more specific. Her show is sure to bring about a great performance with a lot of energy. She's riding a sort of comeback wave to erase her dram with Chris Brown. Everyone knew, though that as soon as she went back into the studio, recorded a few tracks and sent the album into shelves, everything would be ok. Well, it went far from just ok. Single after single from her new album, "Rated R", brought about monster tracks and tons of publicity for the young singer from Barbados. She spent the next few months being almost everywhere and at times, all at once! This show promises to give fans a glimpse of her new album that set to release in late 2010.