We are in the midst of summer folks so get ready to work on your tans because it’s festival season. Yes, yes – we know. You can’t ignore that this Saturday will be The 3rd Annual Roots Picnic with the hometown heroes inviting local buddies DJ Jazzy Jeff and Pattern Is Movement as well as a few Pitchfork darlings like Vampire Weekend (headlining? – whose picnic is this?), Mayer Hawthorne and The Very Best. Raekwon, Ghostface and Method Man should be a more interesting performance than originally planned Reverend Run and DMC. We’re also diggin’ on 4AD’s Tune-Yards and Brooklyn’s Das Racist. But if you don’t have eighty bucks ($66 ticket + $14 rip-off charge), then you can join us economically-challenged music lovers at Best Fest (check out the feature interview below). Don’t forget your brown bag for your forty! Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Columbus Blvd. and Spring Garden St., 2pm, $80 w/charges, All Ages
Clark Park (43rd and Baltimore Ave.) Best Fest SAT U.S. Girls 1:00-1:20; Joshua Marcus 1:25-1:45; The Golden People’s Game 1:50-2:10; Attia Taylor 2:15-2:35; Death Panel 2:40-3:00; Far-Out Fangtooth 3:05-3:25; Unidos de Filadelfia Samba School 3:30-3:50; Skeletonbreath 3:55-4:15; The Lesbian Dorkestra 4:20-4:40; My Mind 4:45-5:05; Kozak 5:10-5:30; Chosen Dance Company 5:35-5:55; Reading Rainbow 6:00-6:20; Mojohand 6:25-6:45
Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) FRI MC Digga, SAT Black Landlord
Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) FRI Pilot Cloud, SAT Thinking Machines, SUN Woe
North Star Bar (2639 Poplar St.) FRI Buy Star Bombs and Desoto Jones
The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) FRI (Early) Owl Stations, (Late) Toy Soldiers, TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb, The Divine Lorraine
M Room (12 W. Girard Ave.) SUN Cannons, Mirador, Pet Primative, Northern Valentine
The Khyber (56 S. 2nd St.) FRI Codename and Igor’s Egg, SAT Levee Drivers
Tritone (1508 South St.) SAT The Broken Prayers and Psalmships
World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) SUN Marah
Danger Danger Gallery (5013 Baltimore Ave.) FRI The Armchairs and TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb
Mar Bar (200 S. 40th St.) SAT New Madrid Faults
Angler Movement Arts Center (1550 E. Montgomery Ave.) SAT Fatima Adamu and Eric Carbonara