Browsing Between The Beats

Gun Outfit, Scena, Emily Robb, Sam Silbert
Beautiful World Syndicate
1619 Passyunk Ave.
Philadelphia
Feb. 16, 2026

One thing I’d hoped to get out of writing for Midbrow was not only getting out to more shows, but getting to ones held at places I never seem to have time or opportunity to get to. With how many scenes and performances that are happening on top of one another at any given time in this city, no one person could ever attend everything. There’s always something happening. You just gotta keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground. The record store Beautiful World Syndicate is a short bike ride for me, and I’ve been able to be outside with only one jacket on lately, so it felt like a no-brainer to show up on a Monday night even though I knew nothing about any of these acts playing there.

I pulled up two songs from the end of Sam Silbert’s set, just long enough to get a sense of the croony folk they were playing with a backing band which seems to be called The Circle of Fire. In person, Silbert’s sultry voice straight up had me thinking about my favorite indie-folk singer Nate Lacy of the Mimicking Birds and also, for some reason, Toni Braxton when she softly sings in lower registers. Silbert sings with a similar softness, which shipped the assembly of sound seekers to a state of serenity. Keep in mind, reader, I’m mentally ill. Thankfully, Silbert has a live recording of the performance up on Bandcamp which rules because the set was over before I could get a video. On these tracks, the similarity to Toby Leaman is undeniable, but I don’t want to seem like I will just compare everyone to Dr. Dog.

Live at Beautiful World by Sam Silbert

Though it doesn’t take too much, by the time Silbert was done, Beautiful World was packed. I checked the store’s rap and jazz collections while waiting for the next band, the highlight being Cardi B’s first mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1. Perfect album art and quite a few bangers, I highly recommend. While I’m studying the Cardi record, R5 promoter and the evenings sound guy Jeff Ziga has on The African Beat, a record that drum legend Art Blakey did with the Afro-Drum Ensemble. Really transcendent shit and perfect between-act music.

Love, The Mystery Of

Cardi B - Foreva

Scena, who sort of reminded me of Alabama 3 but without the funky drums, was next. This isn’t to say that there weren’t drums; on a couple of songs the live band, consisting of bass and guitar, was accompanied by a backing track with drums and more guitar. On those songs, though, the drums were more so there as a metronome, and not something to dance to. I’m not positive what kind of music this is. Indie? Sure, but maybe heavily influenced by goth and post-punk, while somehow also not prioritizing percussion at all. The bass playing, repetitive and steady, basically did that job. It supported the often sporadic guitar playing so consistently that time seemed to stand still during as they played. It was hypnotic.

Alabama 3 - Woke Up This Morning

Emily Robb was next, a local guitar wizard whose cranked overdriven tone and complete rejection of drum accompaniment left me feeling like there was an emerging theme with this gig. Robb’s style resulted in sheets of layering with a loop pedal, while she played twangy and feedback-drenched leads over top that were very easy to lose oneself in. Indeed, it seemed as though Robb herself was entering her own fugue state while playing. At times, there were touches of early blues style strumming, but for the most part, Robb plays a style reminiscent of New Jersey’s Delicate Steve. From the looks of her Bandcamp descriptions, she has no qualms with the noise-rock identifier, which really got nailed down when she started playing with a bow. If I were to take my comparisons one step further, I’d say that Robb kind of plays guitar the way Lightning Bolt’s Brian Gibson plays bass.

Soundtrack to The Space Between Attack and Decay | Emily Robb

Delicate Steve – Butterfly (Official Video)

Brian Gibson (Lightning Bolt) Adam Bosse (Fred Cracklin) Dakota Gill (Dialog Talk) trio live

With Gun Outfit, the show ended much the same way it began. The Olympia quartet gave longtime fans a satisfying set of their folky indie rock that included songs from different points throughout their nearly 20 year career. As someone who had never before heard the infectious groove of “Landscape Painter,” before this night, I was surprised by just how fucking pleasant this music is. I felt my mood genuinely uplifted which made it all the more interesting when I learned their touring bassist and longtime collaborator Henry Barnes is the same Henry Barnes who was also a longtime collaborator with Man is the Bastard and the creative force behind Amps For Christ.

Both bands are decidedly on the opposite end of the spectrum when comparing the sonic extremity of the music to a band like Gun Outfit. More simply put, Man is the Bastard is a seminal powerviolence band, and Henry Barnes is a pioneer of extreme music. In this way, Gun Outfit is a little like Richmond, VA outfit Pygmy Lush, who also have punk-rock ties and material that they slowly let soften; the music not the ties. Watching Barnes play jaunty, attention-grabbing basslines on his gorgeous (I believe) handmade short-scale bass was a treat for me, as it’s always nice to see someone exist in many musical contexts. It’s a tried and true path to serenity.