THE DEAD SOUTH
The Dead South, Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA. 2/16/24.
I was really excited to see the Dead South coming to Philly as they’ve been one of my favorite bands for years. Right when you arrived at the venue you could see the stage set up as an old western town, a very cool way to decorate the stage. The show opened up with Jake Vaadeland from Saskatchewan Canada who made you feel like you hopped in a time machine back to Elvis times. A cool moment in his set was when they did a word from their sponsor Diet Pepsi and then sang a song about Diet Pepsi which everyone got a real kick out of. The next opener for the show was The Hooten Haller a blues rock n’ roll band from Missouri that brought a lot of energy to their set. When it was time for the Dead South to come out everyone got real loud to welcome them to Philadelphia. They instantly knew how to connect with the audience by yelling “Go Birds” early in their set. They played some songs off their new album and said “if you’ve never heard these before that’s why”. It wasn’t before long they started playing the hits everyone knew because you could see lots of people in the crowd dancing and singing along. In the back of the venue there was a group of about 12 people doing the doesey-doe. The highlight of the set was when they played their all time hit of “In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company” getting a roar of applause every time the Bass player would start singing. They told everyone they were at their last song when they got to “Honey You” and that you could leave after the song and have beers with your friends or they could come back out and play a couple more songs. They encored and closed the night with “Broken Cowboy” and “Banjo Odyssey” two fan favorites. It was an amazing night for everyone in attendance.
Shot and Written by Jonah van Bemmelen.
