Picking Up the Pace

Langhorne Slim, Billy Gibbons, Jason Isbell, WCK Trio, and Ben Arnold were bookended by The Reality Check Experiment Zapp Tests leading to my highest total of concerts at this point of the year

Last year in 2025, I made it to the highest total of concerts in a calendar year with 189. 2026 is shaping up to be another banner year as I’m well above the pace I had in 2025 at this point and slightly ahead of the pace I had in the famed “Road to 300” year. I’m not sure I can keep up the pace but I sure will try.

The Reality Check Experiment 2/14/2026 Zapp Factory

Zapp Test 69.0 was a milestone the band had been looking forward to at the Zapp Factory and it did not disappoint. Before getting to The Reality Check Experiment (TRCE), we had the chance to check out TRCE bassist Matt Pantos switch up the instrument and take lead of a quartet that included additional guitar, bass and drums. I didn’t get the name of each of them but they are typically in the crowd of other TRCE shows I’ve seen so far so I will get them eventually.

It was pleasant to see Matt take guitar solos and lead vocals on songs played during their 45 minute set including “Scarlet Begonias”. Matt’s such a talent, I feel he’s just scratching the surface in his musicianship and look forward to years down the road to see how much he’s developed. For now, it’s raw but with lots of promise.

When TRCE took their turn during set 1 of Zapp Test 69.0, they opened with “Can’t Unstuck” a TRCE original which was reprised multiple times in the first and second sets. The remainder of the opening set alternated between cover and TRCE original but all holding true to the 69.0 theme or “Love” given it was Valentine’s Day as well.

I’ve had “If a 6 was a 9” on my Phish wishlist since they covered it on their last Halloween run (Sci-Fi Soldier). I ended up getting it on TRCE show #3. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has always been one of my deeper cut songs off Abbey Road and it sounded great and fit the theme. I was in front of guitarist Josh while he was performing and it looked like he was singing it directly to me until I turned and realized it was his girlfriend recording it. What I didn’t have on my bingo card was Jason Mraz’ “I’m Yours”.

Second set opened with Pink Floyd’s “Young Lust” with a little “Whole Lotta Love” to follow before transitioning into their own track “Mamacita”. It was sometime during “Mamacita” that the band threw candy out into the crowd and brought out a poop emoji pinata. I actually took the first swing at it and knocked it off the stick. Eventually it opened up with candy and liquor bottles stashed inside now on the floor.

photo by Dave Avidan

After using a stick to break up the pinata, TRCE moved into Phish’s “Meatstick” with Clay demonstrating how to do the dance on the steps at one point. I didn’t capture any footage of this but it was great!

They teased “Mike’s Song” before playing it but it didn’t have anything it transitioned into to close the set. We were left “Safe & Sound” before one more reprise of “Can’t Unstuck” to closed the second set.

The encore featured a punk version of “Laloo” to open followed by the Gizzard-ish “Destruction of Doom” to close the evening.

I challenged Martin and Quinn in foosball and while partnered with Matt, we didn’t get a single shot on net and we were dominated. Back to the Bridesburg Boys & Girls Club for training!

Langhorne Slim 2/15/2026 Ardmore Music Hall

This would be the sixth time catching Langhorne Slim but the first time seeing him with his band performing his own material since the last WXPN Free at Noon of my 40s on 7/17/2015. I got there early and grabbed my normal spot upstairs on the rail. Laney Jones & the Spirits from Nashville, TN opened the show with an energetic set of songs from her latest self titled album.

Laney busted out a cover of The Pixies “Where is My Mind?” near the end of her set before hopping into the crowd and going back to her table at the merch table. She was a lot of fun and a big surprise. I’ll keep an eye on her next she’s around town.

Langhorne Slim wasn’t playing with the The Law but a new band consisting of Malachi DeLorenzo on drums, Jeff Ratner on bass, Casey McAllister on keys and Mat Davidson on guitar.

Along with the new band, he had a new album as well called “The Dreamin’ Kind”. He played 11 songs off “The Dreamin’ Kind”. “Rock & Roll” and “Dream Come True” were my favorite off the new album performed.

There were a few moments when Langhorne Slim (aka Sean Scolnick) left the stage and performed his songs at various points within the audience, on top of the downstairs bar or the raised seated section.

There was a short solo acoustic only portion of the set and it was during this part of the show where Langhorne Slim welcomed a couple (Ally & Eugene) to the stage who requested to hear a song they were dancing to at their wedding called “Sea of Love”. He also played “What the Fuck is Going On” and “Song for Silver”, a song for his son which I heard debuted at Sing Us Home a few years ago.

Outside of “The Dreamin’ Kind” songs, Langhorne played a few songs from the rest of his catalog including “House of My Soul”, “Changes”, and “Cinderella” before opening the encore with “The Way We Move” - his most well known song. The rest of the band left the stage and he closed with “We the People (Fuck the Man)” which turned into part sing along with the crowd.

Langhorne Slim leaves it all out on the stage. He’s one of the more enjoyable acts to see live and I wanted him to play Ardmore Music Hall last year as a wish list and it happened!

Billy Gibbons & the BFG Band 2/16/2026 City Winery NYC

My Dad had seen ZZ Top with Billy Gibbons almost every single time they played Philadelphia. I had never caught them live and they were on my list. Then Dusty Hill passed away and my chances of seeing ZZ Top had evaporated.

Billy Gibbons is still playing as a trio now but with the BFG Band featuring Chris Layton on drums and Mike Flanagan on bass/keys. He didn’t play Philadelphia the weeks proceeding this show. He played The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, DE and Atlantic City, NJ but I couldn’t make either of those shows.

I had not been to the new location of City Winery in New York prior to this show. I was at the old site to see Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes and RZA & Friends between 2016-2017. This site was much bigger and close to where they moved The Whitney. Next time I come to a show up here I’m gonna have to make a stop there.

During the close to 2 hour set, Billy Gibbons played a ton of ZZ Top songs including “Cheap Sunglasses”, “Gimme All Your Lovin”, “Just Got Paid” and “La Grange” which all sounded great. There weren’t any songs I wanted to hear that he skipped playing.

He spent a portion of the middle of the set focusing on various blues numbers and telling stories. Before playing “Foxy Lady” he told the story how Jimi taught him some tricks on the song and that they couldn’t do a 40 minute set opening for him without playing “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze”. He also played a Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac song with “Rattlesnake Shake” which I know my Dad would have dug.

There was a VIP meet and greet so the show was over by 930pm. I looked at other shows starting at 10pm close by but I decided to call it a night and take the easy ride home and get there before midnight.

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit 2/17/2026 The Met

Last time Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit came around The Met in 2024, I missed the chance to get a ticket and went to go see This is the Kit at World Cafe Live instead. I still saw Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at the Solid Sound Festival later that year anyway. This time around I jumped on the ticket early buying a ticket in the same area I got a My Morning Jacket ticket for last year.

The show was going to be without an opener as this would be “An Evening with Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit”. An announcement at about 810pm stated that the performance would be “no photos and videos”.

For the most part, I adhered to this but couldn’t help myself when I saw others “breaking the rules”.

Opening with “Miles” and getting the gong at the end by Will Johnson was special. I’ll see Will in a few months at Johnny Brenda’s singing Jason Molina songs with Magnolia Electric Company. It’s one of the dark horses for small club show of the year for sure.

The 2 hour plus show featured songs through Jason’s catalog including 2 Drive By Truckers songs with “Danko/Manuel” and “Decoration Day”. I’ve been waiting to see him play “Danko/Manuel” with this band and it finally happened! He also played “Maybe It’s Time” which he wrote for the movie “A Star Is Born” and dedicated it to Philadelphia - and Bradley Cooper I assume.

Jason told a story about his first trip to Philly from the South and it was on New Years Day. He was drunk and helping out with a Mummer’s group. I would love to hear more about this story!

The songs I was looking forward to hearing were from “Foxes in the Snow” and the full band version of “True Believer” and “Bury Me” were outstanding. I don’t know how Jason sings “Cover Me Up” after singing “True Believer”.

One of the more surprising omissions in the setlist was “Cast Iron Skillet”. They were selling banners of the song lyric and I bought one thinking its a lock but it didn’t happen.

The reason “Cast Iron Skillet” was skipped was likely due to The Rolling Stones “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” in the encore which stretched out into a jam. I made the move to get the setlist from the sound guy as Jason said his goodbyes.

I had only ever gotten one other Jason Isbell setlist and it was from 2/27/2009 at his first WXPN Free at Noon. The funny thing about that setlist is that I grabbed it and put it inside the CD and didn’t find it again until 2021 when I re-opened the CD case.

Winderman Colman Kimock 2/19/2026 Johnny Brenda’s

If you’ve been reading my ‘stack review, you’ll know that Jonathan Colman pops up A-LOT. Between Muscle Tough, Dungeon Crawls, Funk N Bowls and now the Winderman Colman Kimock Trio (WCK Trio), the chances of seeing him play in the Philly area are good.

I had caught WCK Trio at the end of January open for Tom Hamilton Jr at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ but now they were in their home area and playing a record release show for their latest album “Out of the Blue”. It was my 4th time seeing them and the 3rd time this year but only 2nd as trio (others had guitarists play along)

It was a last minute day of show ticket for me. I wasn’t planning on going but jumped on it at the last minute and I’m happy I did. I only caught the last 3 songs of Air is Human who opened the show but they sounded good and the crowd was definitely into them.

When it came time for WCK Trio to take the stage, they took the time to play a brand new song which I really dug called “Bikini”. After playing the title track “Out of the Blue” from the new album, Eli Winderman went into a song which he discovered along with his wife at a Making Time show: Edie Brickell’s “What I Am”. A Johnny Kimock original called “Mother’s Song” was played by WCK Trio and it sounded like another original WCK Trio song, if I didn’t know it was Johnny’s song.

At the last WCK Trio show, I finally got their “Help on the Way / Slipknot” cover and they played it again at Johnny Brenda’s except this time they went into my all time favorite Allman Brothers Band songs “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”. It was HOT!

“Comments” is definitely my favorite original off the new album and they played it near the end of the set along with another new one called “Spell 2 Speak”.

They weren’t going to leave us without an encore and they played Phish’s “Car, Trucks, & Buses” to close the show before giving us another original in the encore (I believe it was at least - not on the setlist).

Ben Arnold 2/20/2026 WXPN Free at Noon

Local musician Ben Arnold has been a staple in the Philly music community for some time now. He was joined by a big band of local musicians called “The 48 Hour Orchestra” for WXPN Free at Noon #1020 (my 279th). It was the 5th time Ben Arnold has played Free at Noon and the 2nd time I’ve caught him at Free at Noon (other was with U.S. Rails in 2015).

The 48 Hour Orchestra featured Justin DiFebbo on keys, Eric Sayles on guitar, Phil D’Agostino on bass, Matt Muir on drums, Ali Wadsworth on vocals, David Kershner on trumpet, Jim Verdeur on sax

Ben put out a new album called “XI” and played six of those songs during his set. “Catch the Lightning” stood out to me the most as it was the first time I had heard any of these songs live or on the air.

The Reality Check Experiment 2/20/2026

I got to the Zapp Factory later than expected and missed most of the Matt Pantos Quartet opening the show. It was a slightly different band set up with a keyboard player instead of another guitar player. I was bummed but I’m sure I’ll get another chance at Matt’s Quartets.

Zapp Test 69.0 was just one week earlier and focused on “love” and Valentine’s Day, but Zapp Test 70.0 had a different focus. It was Howard’s birthday and he had some input on what he wanted to hear for sure.

The TRCE opened with a few of their own songs with “Insane > In & Out > Avatar > In & Out” before moving to their 70s section of the set. They played The Doors “L.A. Woman”, The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” and Led Zepplin’s “Rock & Roll” during the middle portion of set 1. After a small “Free Bird” tease, the band played “Vic the Rasta Man” and the NOT A TOOL song “Feed”.

We didn’t know what was in store for the 2nd set but it was filled with tasty jams off TRCE originals. Between “The Melting Pot” and “Never Ending End” we were treated to some great music. None of it was 70s’ based but it was tasty nonetheless. There were a few points where I felt “Estimated Prophet” could drop here or “Sneakin Sally Through the Alley” could be played but neither came about. I asked about it afterwards and they said they didn’t purposely tease it. We’ll have to go back to the tapes!

The encore was surely gonna be special according to Howard and TRCE came back after a short break and played Ween’s “Voodoo Lady”. It had a 70s feel for sure. I had passed another Zapp Test and I am definitely looking forward to the next one. In the meantime, TRCE will be opening for Solar Circuit in April. I’ll have to add that to my list of shows.