Your Weekend, Philly: Jul 10–12

The forecast calls for sweat, feedback, and at least one band you'll be bragging about seeing "before they blew up." Here's where to point yourself this weekend.

Friday, Jul 10 — WAAX + The Blackburns at Kung Fu Necktie. If you like your punk with real hooks and a frontperson who means it, get to Front Street early. WAAX are Brisbane, Australia lifers — formed back in 2012, Triple J Unearthed winners, and now fronted by Marie "Maz" DeVita, who revived the project as her own after a 2023 hiatus. They're touring behind this year's independently released Angel's Mess, and Kung Fu Necktie's cramped, El-rattled room is exactly the pressure cooker this kind of alt-punk was built for. DeVita has always framed the band as bigger than herself: "The WAAX community is who I am," she said when she brought the project back. Openers The Blackburns warm up the low ceiling.

Saturday, Jul 11 — Wim Tapley & The Cannons + Certainly So + Justin Leigh Walters at Kung Fu Necktie. A roots-and-indie triple bill, and a nice tonal 180 from Friday's racket. Tapley — a Washington, D.C.-raised, Athens, Georgia-based songwriter billed, delightfully, as "the East Coast's resident space cowboy" — trades in Americana laced with neo-soul, folk-pop, and the occasional horn blast, citing Jason Isbell and Bill Withers as touchstones. He's sold out Athens' Georgia Theatre more than once; catching him in a room this size is the kind of thing you'll be smug about later. Certainly So and Justin Leigh Walters round out a bill worth showing up early for.

The big regional draw — Dave Matthews Band, Jul 10–11, across the river. If your weekend runs bigger and breezier, DMB plants a two-night stand at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, the waterfront amphitheater that's practically an annual summer ritual for the band and its faithful. It's a quick trip over the Delaware and a reliably massive singalong under the stars — the polar opposite of a Front Street dive show, and gloriously so. Bring lawn-seat patience for parking.

The Brotherly Beat play: do both ends of the spectrum. Sweat it out at Kung Fu Necktie one night, spread a blanket in Camden the other, and let the weekend remind you that "the Philly scene" was never one thing. It's a punk band from Brisbane, a space cowboy from Georgia, and a jam institution from Charlottesville — all of them, this weekend, ours.

Whatever you pick: hydrate, tip your bartenders, and don't be the person filming the whole set. See you out there.

Sources: Kung Fu Necktie calendar — Songkick; WAAX — Wikipedia); Dave Matthews Band announces two Camden shows — PhillyVoice; Upcoming Philadelphia concerts — Visit Philly