STS9 at Fillmore Philadelphia 11/11
Words: Sean Sabo | Photos: Jeff Scott
Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) took to the Fillmore stage this past Friday for their first show in over a year in Philadelphia and were greeted by cheers and love by an audience ready to groove and dance late into a chilly November night. The opening salvo of “You Don’t Say” > “March” > “Monkey Music” easily set the pace for the whole evening in the ability for the band to connect with the audience and get said groove going. “To The World” was next up and transitioned into a tantalizing “Kaya” that amped up the dancing again. The lights, working through purples, greens, and reds, complemented the playing to a T.
Hunter Brown (guitar) and Alana Rocklin (bass) then anchored a very solid “Poseidon” that brought the beat down low and quiet before David Phipps (keys) jammed it back up to end the song with a raucous reprise. The lights were then turned up to 11 for a very eye-popping “Awesome” that worked into “The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature” where Zach Velmer (drums) really worked out and went wild for the ending. The first set ended with a very chill “Circus” and helped to provide the transition into a breather for everyone on the dance floor after nearly 75 minutes of great music.
Hunter Brown (guitar) and Alana Rocklin (bass) then anchored a very solid “Poseidon” that brought the beat down low and quiet before David Phipps (keys) jammed it back up to end the song with a raucous reprise. The lights were then turned up to 11 for a very eye-popping “Awesome” that worked into “The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature” where Zach Velmer (drums) really worked out and went wild for the ending. The first set ended with a very chill “Circus” and helped to provide the transition into a breather for everyone on the dance floor after nearly 75 minutes of great music.
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Set two began with Alana beating out the lines for “Moonsocket” and the tune transformed into a really solid full-band jam in the middle before they moved on to “So It Goes.” This was the only moment of the night where I wasn’t feeling the tune as much, which can happen when a band plays a slower and more thoughtful song. Certainly after a roaring start of the set, it felt like too much of a slow-down right away again. Thankfully, the band then worked into a hard-rocking “EHM” to get the crowd back into the dancing. Stand alone versions of “Hi-Key”, “Scheme”, and a no-huddle move into “Frequencies 2-3” followed with “Scheme” in particular probably being the highlight of the night along with “Awesome”. The vocal samples (from Freestyles “Don’t Stop the Rock”) were very on point, telling everyone to “move your body from left to right”.
Out of This World” began the two-song end to the second set and was really grooving thanks again to Zach and Jeffree Lerner (percussion). The song was one of the two they played that night from their new album “The Universe Inside” released earlier in the fall. The song then transitioned into “Rent”, a staple of the last couple of years. Again the lights were very tight and only amped up the band's tight jamming all the more to finish out another amazing 75 minutes of music before the wait for the encore.
And what an encore it was, clocking in at nearly 20 minutes more of additional tunes. “Give & Take”, the other song from “The Universe Inside”, started off the encore after some revving up of the crowd by Zach. As the band themselves puts it, this song “is about the things that bind us to one another: friends, family, life and death.” The final two of songs that finished up the encore were “We’ll Meet In Our Dreams” and “Oil & Water”. It got very spacey and trippy, something akin to a sci-fi feeling even, during these songs. The reprise of “We’ll Meet in Our Dreams” ended the show with another stunning light show array before the band members walked off the stage and left the crowd looking forward another visit from the band in the 215 area.
Out of This World” began the two-song end to the second set and was really grooving thanks again to Zach and Jeffree Lerner (percussion). The song was one of the two they played that night from their new album “The Universe Inside” released earlier in the fall. The song then transitioned into “Rent”, a staple of the last couple of years. Again the lights were very tight and only amped up the band's tight jamming all the more to finish out another amazing 75 minutes of music before the wait for the encore.
And what an encore it was, clocking in at nearly 20 minutes more of additional tunes. “Give & Take”, the other song from “The Universe Inside”, started off the encore after some revving up of the crowd by Zach. As the band themselves puts it, this song “is about the things that bind us to one another: friends, family, life and death.” The final two of songs that finished up the encore were “We’ll Meet In Our Dreams” and “Oil & Water”. It got very spacey and trippy, something akin to a sci-fi feeling even, during these songs. The reprise of “We’ll Meet in Our Dreams” ended the show with another stunning light show array before the band members walked off the stage and left the crowd looking forward another visit from the band in the 215 area.
Set I:
You Don’t Say, March, Monkey Music, To The World, Kaya, Poseidon, Awesome, The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature, Circus
Set II:
Moonsocket, So It Goes, EHM, Hi-Key, Scheme, Frequencies 2-3, Out of This World, Rent
Encore:
Give & Take, We’ll Meet In Our Dreams, Oil & Water, We’ll Meet In Our Dreams
You Don’t Say, March, Monkey Music, To The World, Kaya, Poseidon, Awesome, The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature, Circus
Set II:
Moonsocket, So It Goes, EHM, Hi-Key, Scheme, Frequencies 2-3, Out of This World, Rent
Encore:
Give & Take, We’ll Meet In Our Dreams, Oil & Water, We’ll Meet In Our Dreams
Full show video from The Fillmore 11/11/2016 captured by Jmar
