Last Thursday night Johnny Brenda’s hosted The War on Drugs Record Release Party for their long-awaited sophomore full-length Slave Ambient with locals Tin Horses and NYC’s Caveman. The show sold out earlier that afternoon so there were plenty of disappointed people at the door. Many of our friends were forced to settle with drinking in the downstairs bar at JB’s, and waited for us to join them between set breaks. Before any of the live music started, the mood was nicely set with an abundance of Dylan tracks befitting the night. The room was filled with familiar faces, and it was a relaxed atmosphere which was reinforced by The War on Drugs leader Adam Granduciel casually sitting behind the merch table writing out the evening’s set list while flipping through a book. Tin Horses, the side project of Purling Hiss’ bassist Kiel Everett, took the stage first. The four-piece impressively tore through tunes from their debut American Radiance while band mates, friends and fans cheered and sometimes lovingly heckled them. Caveman provided a really nice surprise for the Philly crowd demonstrating their ability to gracefully blend indie pop sensibilities with moments of experimental noisy shoegaze with song from their buzz-worthy self-released album CoCo Beware. They are also continuing on tour opening for The War on Drugs making the package deal well worth its ticket price. The War on Drugs played a fine set with their relatively new lineup interpreting the songs laid down by Granduciel on Slave Ambient. It was a thrill to hear the new tracks live, and since this was the tour opener, we’re definitely looking forward to the band’s return to Philly after they’ve had more time on the road experimenting on stage with the latest batch of songs. They also threw in some older favorites like “Arms Like Boulders,” “Taking the Farm,” and "Buenos Aires Beach" that you could tell were quite comfortable to the band. Though the lighting seemed to purposely dim as the night went on, we’re still happy to share with you some of our photos from the wonderful evening of music HERE.