Located at 38th and Ludlow, the Blockley Pourhouse is one of the newest additions to the campus bar scene. The bar is also half venue — according to the Blockley’s website, the room is organized so that the stage is the “focal point of the room." Acts play in front of the bar, with room for a small dance floor in between. On the sides of the room, there are tables that offer sub-par (but not terrible) views. The sound system is, for the most part, excellent.
Last Saturday night, the Blockley Pourhouse hosted an “evening of afro-beat funkiness” for a fairly sizable crowd. The first band, Boston-based Spiritual Rez, played to a crowd that seemed reluctant to get up and dance, no matter how often vocalist/guitarist Toft Willingham (somewhat annoyingly) asked them to. Still, the band busted out their reggae stylings with a lot of energy and instrumentation.
The second band, Philly/West Chester’s Bodega, offered a slightly more experimental edge. Their grooves, like Spiritual Rez, were funky and instrumentally impressive, although they tinged their afro-beat structures with 80s electronic loops. Initially, this combination was exciting and effective, and some of their jams nearly felt cathartic. As the concert wore on, though, Bodega’s pulsing electronics became more and more dull. Though the musical structures were complex, the songs simply didn’t move enough.
By the final band, Vermont/Brooklyn/Boston’s Rubblebucket, the crowd became significantly more excited and was breaking it down on the cement dance floor. And for good reason: Rubblebucket clearly took the cake. Melding afrobeat, funk, soul and psychedelic rock instrumentation with weird indie vocals and some sick dance moves, the band’s show was perfect. They jammed, waded into the crowd, stopped mid-show to lead the audience in a stretching exercise and played a song called “Came From a Woman” for someone’s birthday. On top of this showmanship, their grooves, wholly original yet reminiscent of genre-melding indie buzz bands such as the Dirty Projectors, straddled the line between beautiful and insanely fun.
Look for them to be a Pitchfork.com favorite in a couple of years. For now, at least, they’re one of ours. And as for Blockley, it's getting there.
