By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Sidecar
In the early-to-mid 1960s, the epicenter of popular music was New York City – especially Greenwich Village. Then came the “British Invasion” in the mid-to-late 60s.
In the late 60s and early 70s, the focus shifted to the West Coast – first San Francisco and then Los Angeles…and then Seattle in the mid-1980s.
All along, there has been Nashville – the Mecca of country music from the 1940s until the present time. Jefferson Street was a thriving center for jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues from the 1940s to the early 1960s.
By the 1950s and 60s, Nashville developed the “Nashville Sound,” characterized by smooth strings and background vocals that broadened country music’s appeal.
Today, Nashville is a universal music capital supporting country, rock, gospel, pop, and hip-hop.
Live music is going strong on Broadway and in clubs such as the Bluebird Café, the Listening Room, The Stage, Rudy’s Jazz Room, The Basement, Jelly Roll’s Good Night and The Station Inn.
Some of the most famous rock bands from Nashville are Kings of Leon, Paramore, Lady A, The Dead Weather, Florida Georgia Line, The Black Keys, Rascal Flatts, The Cadillac Three and Judah & the Lion.
New bands emerge on the Nashville scene every year.
One of the city’s most promising young groups is a quintet featuring band members from Chicago, Virginia, San Francisco, North Carolina and Wayne – that’s right…Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Sidecar is a young Americana/Rock & Roll band which came together in “Music City” a year-and-a-half ago.
The band’s lineup features Haverford School grad Gabe Gowen (Lead Vocals) along with Anders Hansson (Virginia Beach, Lead Guitar), Ben Jones (North Carolina, Bass), Jeff Ward (San Francisco, Keyboards), and Dylan Duffy (St. Charles/Chicago, Drums).
The group will make its area debut on September 17 with a show at 118 North (118 North Wayne Avenue, Wayne, www.118northwayne.com).
The two-day, two-show trip north will also include a show on September 18 at SoHo Live in New York.
The Manhattan show, which is billed as “Pure Sonic Bliss Show,” has Sidecar as headliner along with openers Holy Vulture, seeTrees, Kat Rivers & the Second Sight and The Modbeats.
“No-one in our band is from Nashville,” said Gowen, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from his parents’ home along the Main Line.
“I came up a week ago to visit my family and the rest of the band is coming up today. This is their first time to come to Philly so I’m going to have to take them for a cheesesteak at Dallesandro’s.
“We’re doing a hometown show and then heading up to New York. We’re coming out with a new song on Friday. It will be released at Midnight on Thursday – and we’ll play it in the show a few hours earlier.”
Sidecar is billed as a “tight knit crew of seasoned players, each cutting their teeth in different corners of the city’s scene before coming together.”
According to Sidecar’s website, “The range of the band shows: pulling from the classic grit of the Rolling Stones and The Band to the modern edge of Tyler Childers, Marcus King, and Chris Stapleton. Sidecar delivers a sound that’s both timeless and unmistakably their own.”
Gowen, who is the primary songwriter, said, “I just want to make stuff I want to listen to.
“My dad played guitar and I started playing music in high school. Then, I started writing songs when I was in college.”
There is a Chester County connection — his dad is a Devon Prep alumnus.
His dad then graduated from Georgetown while his mother graduated from M.I.T. Gowen kept the ball rolling when he graduated from Vanderbilt last year with degrees in math and economics.
“I met the guys in the band when I was at Vanderbilt,” said Gowen. “They all went to Belmont University, which is a great music school. We had a connection with previous bands.”
Sidecar released its first single, “Show Me The Door,” on November 25 and followed with “Double Down” on February 26.
The third and most recent single was “Virginia” on June 26.
Like all the band’s recordings, “Virginia” was self-produced and self-released.
“Our new single, which is our fourth, is titled, ‘Fine,’” said Gowen. “We’ve played it live a couple times.
“We recorded it in Nashville in June at East Iris Studios, which is a branch of Universal Studio. We’re really pumped about this one. It was totally self-produced.
“It’s the first of three singles we self-produced at East Iris. The engineer at the studio – Andrew Boullianne – was extremely helpful.
“We went in the studio with around nine songs. We were thinking of releasing a six-song EP. But releasing singles is more effective so we changed directions and decided to cut just three songs. The next three will be closer together than the first three.”
For now, Sidecar has a new single, two more in the wings, several dates in South Carolina in October and potentially a return trip to this area later in the year. Things are moving in the right direction.
Video link for Sidecar — https://youtu.be/IWus_n4NUGY.
The show is on June 17 at 8 p.m. at 118 North with The Modbeats and Drew Lawrence (of seeTrees) as opening acts.
Tickets are $20.
Other upcoming shows at 118 North are Basic Cable on September 18, Brown Sugar on September 19, The Tano Jones Revelry on September 20 and Fonville X Fribush on September 23.
“Fiddler on the Roof,” which opens on September 18 and runs through October 25 at the Candlelight Theater (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, 302- 475-2313, www.nctstage.org), takes a look at Jewish history and has an amazing amount of history on its own.The musical, which is based on Sholom Aleichem’s short story “Tevye’s Daughters,” is set in 1905 in Anatevka, a small Ukrainian Jewish village in Russia. It tells the story of Tevye, his wife Golde and three of their daughters — Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava.
It is about Tevye, a poor milkman, and his struggle to preserve family values and traditions in a world where persecution and poverty have taken over. It tells the story of Tevye’s attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions during challenging times.
His three older daughters are headstrong and willing to challenge tradition with their choices of husbands — Tzeitel with a poor young man from the village, Hodel with an idealistic freedom fighter and Chava with a Russian soldier.
The show ran for a record-setting total of 3,242 performances and was the first musical theater run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. In 1965, “Fiddler on the Roof” captured nine Tony Awards and was the winner of the 1965 New York Drama Critic Award for Best Musical.
This will be the final weekend for “Hershey Felder & Jonathan Silvestri — Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” at People’s Light (39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, www.peopleslight.org)
Hershey Felder, who created the show “Monsieur Chopin” at People’s Light in 2025, returns to Malvern in his newest hit.
Felder stars as the virtuoso pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, regarded as one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Renowned for sweeping melodies, lush harmonies, and emotional depth, he is celebrated for works like “Piano Concerto No. 3,” “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” and “Symphony No. 2.”
Overcoming early career setbacks, notably the failed premiere of his First Symphony, he achieved redemption through therapy that inspired his most famous concerto.
Exiled after the 1917 Russian Revolution, he settled in the United States, focusing on his career as a pianist while composing fewer works, leaving an enduring legacy as a performer and composer whose recordings and compositions remain central to the repertoire.
“Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” features the most beloved compositions by this last great representative of Russian romanticism, including “Prelude in C# Minor” and the “2nd Piano Concerto.”
The show at People’s Light is running now through September 20. Ticket prices start at $59.
Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center (226 North High Street, West Chester, www.uptownwestchester.org) will present “Bye Bye Birdie” now through September 27.
“Bye Bye Birdie” is a fun-filled musical comedy that captures the excitement, chaos, and charm of 1950s America.
When rock & roll superstar Conrad Birdie is drafted into the Army, his managers create one final publicity stunt: Conrad will give an All-American teenage girl one last goodbye kiss live on television. Enter Kim MacAfee and her small town, where nothing will ever be the same again.
Filled with memorable songs, energetic dance numbers, and lovable characters, “Bye Bye Birdie” is a classic Broadway hit that celebrates teenage dreams, family antics, and the power of rock & roll.
Featuring favorites like “Put On a Happy Face,” “Kids,” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” this crowd-pleasing musical is bursting with humor, heart, and vintage charm.
Perfect for audiences of all ages, “Bye Bye Birdie” is a feel-good theatrical experience that continues to delight generation after generation.
Tickets are $46 for adults and $41 for students.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) is hosting You, Me and Harry on September 17, Metal Knight on September 18, Dirk Quinn Band on September 20 and California Guitar Trio on September 23.
Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) is presenting Just Guitars Live on September 17, Alex Lopez Xpress on September 18, Brother John on September 19 and The Blues Muthas featuring Steve Shanahan on September 20.
Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) will present Chris Smither on September 17, Copeland on September 18, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys with Mighty Joe Castro on September 19, Dale Watson with India Ramey on September 21 and Reverend Horton Heat with special guest Messer Chups on September 23.
Few bands have had a greater impact on the sound and ethos of DIY punk than Fugazi, and few independent labels have been as influential as the Dischord Records imprint founded by its members.
On September 18, former Fugazi bassist Joe Lally brings his new trio to Philadelphia’s Khyber Pass Pub (56 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, www.khyberpasspub.com), joined by fellow Fugazi alum Jerry Busher (drums/percussion/trumpet) and Yanni Papadopoulos of Stinking Lizaveta.
The bill also features two Philly bands with deep Dischord connections: Applied Knowledge, fronted by former Dag Nasty singer Peter Cortner, and Sun Within.
Lally’s new trio has performed only a handful of shows, including a recent Philadelphia appearance at Johnny Brenda’s with Hot Snakes’ Jason Kourkounis on drums.
While Lally has previously collaborated with Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty in The Messthetics, this new lineup offers a rare opportunity to catch him alongside Busher, who served as Fugazi’s second drummer, percussionist, and trumpeter and currently plays in Dischord band Shadow Riot.
The bill’s Philly connections run deep.
Applied Knowledge is led by Cortner, who sang on Dag Nasty’s Field Day and Wig Out at Denko’s, landmark records in melodic post-hardcore.
Sun Within features drummer Katy Otto, a former member of Bald Rapunzel and longtime operator of Exotic Fever Records; guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Geeta Dalal Simons, a veteran of Rockula and RunHidefight; and bassist/vocalist/cellist Leah Basarab, who previously played with Otto in Rainbow Crimes.
Sun Within released its self-titled 7-inch via Exotic Fever in June to strong critical acclaim, including coverage from The Big Takeover, while Magnet recently premiered the band’s first video, directed by acclaimed Philadelphia photographer and filmmaker Jessica Kourkounis.
Video link for Joe Lally Trio — https://youtu.be/56URw-tmjlI.
The show on September 18 at the Khyber Pass Pub will start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $19 in advance and $23 on day of show.
The Keswick Theater (291 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com) will have Marc Maron on September 18, Judge Reinhold on September 19 and Cheap Trick on September 21.
Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com) will have Philly Loves Wilco on September 17, Whitney on September 18, Tophouse on September 19, Damien Jurado on September 20, Pokey Lafarge on September 22 and Paul Cauthen on September 23.
The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will present Zebra on September 17, Yellow Brick Road on September 18, Chris Smither on September 19, Mighty Manatees on September 20, Danielle Nicole on September 22 and 40 Fingers on September 23.
Brooklyn Bowl (1009 Canal Street, Philadelphia, www.brooklynbowl.com/philadelphia) host Mico on September 22.
Mann Music Center (Mann Center, 5201 N. Parkside Avenue, Philadelphia, http://manncenter.org) will host Boyz II Men on September 18, Dermott Kennedy on September 22 and Chuck on Tour on September 23.
Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, http://undergroundarts.org) will have Cheekface on September 18, House of Heavy on September19, Eihwar on September 20 and Militaire Gun on September 22
Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, 215-232-2100, www.utphilly.com) have Bikini Kill on September18, Ben Harper on September 19, Jensen McRae on September 22 and Charlatans UK on September 23.
The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion (One Harbor Boulevard, Camden, New Jersey, http://bbtpavilion.centercamden.org/) will present Bryson Tiller on September 18 and Jason Aldean, Chase Matthew and Mackenzie Carpenter on September 19.
The Xcite Center at Parx Casino (2999 Street Road, Bensalem, https://parxcasino.com) will present Smokey Robinson on September 18.
Nikki Lopez (304 South Street, Philadelphia, https://nikkilopezphilly.com) will host Skorts on September 17 and Max Fry on September 18.
The Queen (500 North Market Street, Wilmington, 202-730-3331, www.thequeenwilmington.com) will have Thundersmack on September 17, The War On Drugs on September 18, York Street Hustle on September 19 and Circle Jerks on September 23.
Scottish Rite Auditorium (315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood, New Jersey, scottishriteauditorium.com) will host the Rascals on September 17.
The American Music Theatre (2425 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, www.AMTshows.com) will host Trace Adkins on September 17, Magical Mystery Doors on September 18 and Rhoda Vincent on September 20.
