Black Eyes / Morgan Garrett / Ibah Baskette & The Wandering Talisman Ensemble
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St.
Philadephia
May 1, 2026
Did you know there’s a free-improvised music meet-up every Wednesday at The Rotunda in West Philly? When folks like R5 or Bowerbird aren’t organizing concerts there, the venue also functions as a “community-gathering place that is fueled by the belief that art is a catalyst for social change and that the arts can lead to the formation of meaningful partnerships” with events “including live music, film, spoken word, theater, art, dance, education, youth programs, arts incubation, and various experimental genres” for all ages. Last night’s show, welcoming the return of DC’s Black Eyes to Philly, kicked off with a group of musicians who regularly convene as part of that weekly improvised-music meet-up. Sometimes it’s as few as three people, sometimes it swells into the dozens; it’s often a healthy mix of professional gigging musicians, steeped in jazz, playing alongside beginners and novices. Crucially, all are welcome. I marveled at the immediately-felt difference between Ibah Baskette’s sextet and most groups I see: The Wandering Talisman Ensemble was a multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-gender group, spread out wide across the stage, making a totally unscripted racket. Compare that to bands made up strictly of peers, or part of a clique, or – I shudder to say – people in the same industry. Yikes! I was hyped to see it: freely improvised music — goofy scatting, loose drumming, deep bass and hand drums and flighty saxophones and percussion and funky, scratched-out Wah-Wah electric guitar — operating as punky, funky, democratic, unpretentious community music. It was nothing if not spirited, and Baskette repeatedly broke the fourth wall, checking in on the crowd, addressing the dancers and hip-swivelers up front, breaking into monologues about loving The Rotunda and the “underground culture” of punk rock.
The Ensemble was a fitting opener for Black Eyes, the recently-reactivated DC band connected with Dischord Records, what with its unwavering history of activism and civic-minded and community-oriented approach to music (the rare internationally-renowned label that has and still only ever releases records from artists in their city). Live, the band – Dan Caldas and Mike Kanin on drums, Daniel Martin-McCormick on guitar, vocals, percussion and electronics, Hugh McElroy on bass and vocals, Jacob Long on saxophone, bass, and percussion – was an absolute revelation. The two drummers faced each other, McElroy and Martin-McCormick flanking them, and Long in the middle, switching instruments. That DC sound – elements of punk and dub, delivered in a heady, heavy, grooving blend – got the crowd dancing, sweaty and unfettered; the energy was unparalleled and cathartic, whether the musicians were caught up in delirious interplay (drummers Dan Caldas and Mike Kanin in tightly-wound lockstep, one pounding a cowbell while the other blew a whistle) or off in their own invigorating world (the guitarist Daniel Martin-McCormick moving smoothly between stations, table-top effects pedals live-mixing and processing his bandmates, or alternating between striking a rack tom and his guitar’s strings with the same drum stick). There’s an ethos to this music that is undying; looking around at the all-ages crew spread out across the room, I couldn’t help but feel the much-needed spirit of Revolution Summer alive in full force. The Wandering Talisman Ensemble’s bassist Ryan Ficano (a pal who sometimes plays with me, full disclosure) told me after their set that he hadn’t been playing upright lately and his hand cramped up almost immediately — I thought, maybe that’s the universe’s funny way of saying, “Play different! BE different! And most of all, be you, where you’re at right now.” What’s more fundamentally punk than that?
