A Philly Review

            Personally, I am not a big city person, but of the big American cities that I have not been too, Philly has been at the top of my list, and finally, I had the chance, and they gave the exact welcome you would expect.

            I left work at noon, and I headed down there, so I got to the outskirts of Philly around four, just in time for traffic to start, and the second I got to the outskirts of the city, I hit it. It was slow going, but it was moving. Close to the start of the traffic, I was going slow, and there was a semi next to me, and I was slowly moving up to the car in front of me, and the guy behind me honked, because I was not right up on the car in front of me. There was no one cutting in front of me, and there was no way to get around me, but because I was not riding the car in front of me, like he was riding my ass, he was mad and flailing his hands. He scooted his car further left, closer to the median, so that he could be right in my sideview mirror.

            I did not move over for a while. When I did move over to the right lane, it was because I thought I had the chance to get ahead, and of course that lane slowed down immediately, so when the guy went past me, he shoed me away with his hand. He refused to move his lane, and I had the chance to cut back over while he was riding someone else’s bumper, and I ended up in front of him, and I watched him in my rearview mirror ride other people but never move. By the time I got off, he was so far behind me that I could not see him. If I had road rage, he would have set it off. I wanted to shoe him when I passed him, but instead I looked over, and I did not even get an acknowledgement.

            The reason that Philly was on the top of my list was because I wanted to get a Philly Cheesesteak. If I travel to a big city, it is either for pizza, like Chicago or New York, or for beer like when I went to Vermont for Heady Topper. So when I left work, I had my GPS set for Geno’s Steaks. Thankfully, the two main Philly cheesesteak places are across the street from each other.

            It took me like ten minutes to find parking when I got there, but once I did, I walked up to the ordering window at Geno’s, and I ordered my Philly with onions and whiz. Their menu was small, so it was easy to find what I wanted. Within minutes, it was ready. The restaurant, if you could call it that, was neon lit with an ordering window and table seating around the outside no inside seating, so on this cold day, I got my Philly, and I went and sat at one of the tables on the side of the building that seemed to be most protected from the wind, and I was the only one willing to sit outside and eat it.

            The 40-degree cold was not too bad by itself, but the wind made it feel chillier, but this was a signature food, and it deserved to be eaten with immediacy. The sandwich was close to a foot long, and it was packed with chopped steak, cheese whiz, and onions. The juices from the steak and whiz puddled up on the wax paper that it was served upon, and as I neared the end, I started to dip the sandwich in the juice. Since I left my water in the car, and I did not order a drink, this was key to finishing the sandwich, and I would say that it was delicious and an absolute pleasure to devour.

            Across the street was Pat’s, and previously, I thought Geno’s menu was simple, but Pat’s was even simpler. It seemed like the only choice was the Philly, whether you wanted whiz or not, and whether you wanted onions or not. I, of course, got it with whiz and onions. When I unraveled it from the wax paper, it was messier, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Although as I worked through this sandwich, that was also about a foot long, it started to get really dry at the end, and it was not oozing steak and whiz juice like my previous sandwich, so I ambled over to the condiment stand, because, again, this was outside only seating, and I added some hot sauce to the final bites.

            Genos’s sandwich was far superior to me than Pat’s. They were both good sandwiches no doubt, but the added juiciness to Geno’s gave it the edge. It was all around more flavorful, but I think the two aspects of flavor and juiciness are correlated. I do think even Geno’s could have had a little more juice. At the end of the day, it was worth the trip, and I would gladly stuff my face with back-to-back cheesesteaks again, but ultimately, the Chicago Beef sandwiche dipped in au jus is superior sandwich option.

            Now, what tipped the scales and finally got me to Philly was that The Wombats were coming for a concert. Since high school, I have always heavily listened to their music. I remember in college running so early in the morning for crew that it was still dark and listening to “Greek Tragedy” and “Give Me A Try” under the stars in the darker parts of campus. It was exhilarating and pace improving. Then their album Black Flamingo came out in 2018, and I spent countless hours doing homework listening to that on repeat. Even now I remember a couple of years ago running from my apartment and listening to “Jump into the Fog” in the fog of Onondaga Lake during the predawn hours. So they have been present in my life for years, and they have always added to my energy when exercising or studying.

            Then this year, they came out with their new album Oh The Ocean. This album consists of twelve songs, and I fell in love with the first six. I do not know how many times I listened to them in the first half of the year, but it was a lot, but when I originally looked at their tour dates, it was just Europe and Australia (they are a British band). Eventually after checking repeatedly, I saw that they were going to do an American tour, and of the cities that they were visiting locally, the one that I wanted to visit the most was Philly.

            When I walked into the concert, it was like right at 7:30, and the opener was already mid-song. They were called Red Rum Club, and I immediately fell in love. The singer was wearing tight black jeans and a sleeveless dark blue v neck, and he had a command of the stage, and on top of that, they had a trumpet player, who ripped! I felt like I was in the right place.

            Their songs were so catchy. It helped that in most of the songs, they repeated the chorus over and over, like more than usual, so by the end of the song I was usually singing the words and vibing with it. I was caught of guard by the inclusion of the trumpet in every song at first, but it fit in seamlessly. Honestly more bands should try to incorporate different instruments in their band. It might make them stand out more. Bands are too stuck on the guitar, bass, and drums order. Since the concert, I have listened to Red Rum Club every day, and their songs have been stuck in my head. “Would You Rather Be Lonely”, “Vibrate”, “American Nights & British Mornings”, and “Eleanor” are my favorites, and they just had a new album come out as well that I enjoyed.

            The second band was called Only the Poets. They were good as well, but they were no Red Rum Club. Only The Poets had the whiny punk sound to them, and I do not mean that derogatorily, Blink 182 has that sound sometimes too, and I love them. The lead singer was an excellent dancer, and it looked like he was having a lot of fun up there, but I have not gone back and listened to their songs, but amazingly enough, they have not even released their first album yet.

            The venue was mostly an open floor, and then there was a balcony that had seating, but that was extra. My ticket was less than $50 for one of my favorite bands to stand on the floor. For the first two openers, I was just five people deep off to the side. Then when the second opener was done, I saw a gap, and I scooted into the middle only four people deep now. The only problem was that while I was sitting there waiting for 30 minutes before The Wombats took the stage, I suddenly had the urge to pee, but I knew if I did, I would lose my spot because I was there alone, so I held it.

            After what felt like an eternity, they came out. The difference in quality between the openers and The Wombats was immediately noticeable. Although the singer of The Wombats was much more reserved in his stage manner than the previous two. He mostly just stood there in front of his microphone playing his guitar, but the bassists made up for his lack of movement by hopping around all over the stage.

            When the lead singer came out, he was wearing Eagle’s green pants, and initially I thought that maybe he was doing that because we were in Philly, but every time he changed his guitars out, they were also largely green, so it might have just been a coincidence, because he did seem a little confused when the crowd started cheering, “E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!” after they finally score their first touchdown.

            The Wombats did a good job of mixing their old songs in with their new ones. I was surprised that they played a couple of old ones that I was not familiar with, but the ones from their new album that they played were my favorite ones, so that was perfect.

            The new album has a heavy focus on social anxiety with songs like “I’m sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come,” “I Can’t Say No,” and “My Head Is Not My Friend.” Some of them come across as more depressing, but they are still upbeat, so it is easy to get into them. I did look at their setlist online, and one song that it says they played at other shows that skipped at our show was “I Love America, And She Hates Me.” This is a song about gun violence, but if you do not know this, and you are attending a show in America, this could be off putting.

            The next morning, I woke up and used the gym to work out before going on a run. On the hotel website, they advertised being close to the Liberty Bell, so I ran there. It was honestly kind of lame. I could see it through the glass, because it is in a museum type thing, but it was dark. So I continued on with no plan in mind.

Then I remembered that I saw a massive bridge the night before on my way to the concert, and I was already headed in that direction. I just wanted to take a picture of it, but where the route spit me out, I was under it with no real path to get a good picture of it, so I followed the bridge to its beginning because I was getting close to being done with my run, and that was when I found out that it has a walkway on it!

 So I ran up to the top of it, because I love massive bridges. I stopped at the top to take a picture, and it was scary how shaky it was. While running, it felt normal, but when stopped, it felt like it was swaying. I do not know if it was the wind or the flow of traffic, but that was wild. It was marvelous though. A true beauty, it bridged Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and it was painted bright blue. It was strung with wires holding it up, and it had two massive towers to hold it up over the river that flowed beneath it. Plus it gave me a good view of the Philly skyline as I ran back down.

            Overall, this was a great day trip. The food was delicious, and the small concert venue was perfect. I loved hearing the new bands as well, and that is probably the thing I will take away from the trip the most. That new music is something that I can listen to regularly, whereas the taste of the Philly will fade. I enjoyed Philly, and I will definitely come back and spend a whole day exploring more of downtown next time!