Feat. Empath (Phila, PA) and The Serfs

Subterranean is a new event series featuring national and local bands, DJs, and performances in the Contemporary Arts Center’s Black Box performance space and lower level gallery. Whether a member or paying patron, all are welcome to attend this Final Friday event.

Time: 9pm-12am

Admission: $10 presale/ $15 day-of-show. MEMBERS FREE. Discount code provided via email.

Become a member now starting at $5/ month!

All-ages

Proof of vaccination or recent negative test (48 hrs or less) required to enter.

ID check at registration. 

EMPATH (Philadelphia, PA)

Empath goes far beyond the sound of birds faintly chirping. They’re a band that writes songs like communing with nature, bringing all their fuzzed and tripped out idiosyncrasies into harmony. Empath began in 2016 when Garrett Koloski, Emily “Jem” Shanahan, and Catherine Elicson moved into a house in West Philadelphia together, with Randall Coon joining shortly after. Even with the simple vision to shred, there’s a natural sensitivity in the way Empath communicates. Between the contrast of Elicson’s lush, almost delicate vocals, Koloski’s boisterous drumming, and the half-harmonious wash of guitar and Shanahan and Coon’s synths, Empath equips us with a healthy dose of emotional repose.

The noise punk band broke onto the national scene with the release of Liberating Guilt and Fear EP with renowned DIY Philly punk label Get Better Records in 2018 which drew praise from Pitchfork, NPR, FADER, Rolling Stone and more, being compared to acts such as Broken Social Scene, Sonic Youth, Times New Viking, New Age and Priests. The lead single “The Eye” was deemed “Best New Track” by Pitchfork and Empath was tagged as a rising artist in the US indie music scene.

After cultivating great success at the grass roots level Empath is ready to take the next step into their meteoritic rise with indie taste-maker Fat Possum Records. With the new global support of Fat Possum Records, Empath will be reissuing both Active Listening: Night on Earth LP and Liberating Guilt and Fear EP as a special edition dual-release with Get Better Records and taking to the road both in North America and overseas!

https://youtu.be/IePaMCOAgkM

Empath: 'Visitor' Album Review - Paste (pastemagazine.com)

The 45 Most Anticipated Albums of 2022: The Weeknd, Mitski, Big Thief, Charli XCX, and More | Pitchfork

Catherine Elicson (Empath) and Jake Portrait (UMO) on Creating Visitor (talkhouse.com)

The Serfs (Cincinnati, OH)

Emerging like a missile from some surreptitious silo in southwestern Ohio, The Serfs are a deliberately nebulous and incidentally industrialist gang of dance-floor hymners-- perturbed and tranced-out troubadours whose sound and musical ideology seems to be a causal manifestation of their immediate environments--hard-wired and hypnotic synthesized melodies propel alongside churning and scraping percussion of every metallic tonality--with temperamental and eremitic words and voices dictating the forlorn venture. Like their Ohio predecessors, The Serfs seem askew from the art that surrounds them, and proud of it.