Dave Cope and the Sass
Dawson St. Pub
100 Dawson St.
Philadelphia
May 10, 2024
Shadows of cigarette smoke cha-cha’d alongside smooth-moving middle-agers on the makeshift dance floor of Dawson Street pub — as Dave Cope and the Sass performed modern twists on ’50s pop, rock and roll.
The intergenerational show brought personality to a mid and late 20th century-inspired setlist, while celebrating new albums put out by both Cope’s band and his opener, John Paul Smith.
A pal and I pulled up to the pub around 9:30 last Friday, parking at the top of an unlit residential hill in Manayunk. We walked down the mysteriously dark path leading to the bar, and, upon opening the doors, were hit with golden lights shining down on a packed room oriented towards a velvet-suited man at a keyboard.
“Are we in Twin Peaks or something?” my friend who tagged along questioned. The man on stage, boasting flowing brown bangs and a horseshoe mustache, looked like an artificial morphing of George Harrison and Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka. As his practiced nasality and pristine piano chops floated over us, we were taken to another decade — or a fusion of musical years.
At first, I thought Smith was simply playing covers of oldies I didn’t know as part of an involved Beatles-meet-Elton John impersonation, before realizing he was playing originals from his latest album, “John Smith’s Voyages.” I later found the artist’s website, featuring a quote from a fan — who said his music “sounds like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury had a love child.”
The performance was so uncanny that the vision before me began to feel like a hallucination of the past rather than the reality of the present. But it successfully set the scene for Dave Cope’s crew further transform and transport the room.
Cope, who leads the band “Dave Cope and the Sass,” took the impressions trophy a step further, his sound shifting from each song to channel Steve Miller, Nick Drake, Paul McCartney, Glen Tillbrook, David Byrne, and more. But at no point did I mistake him for a cover band — not merely because of the range of his influences, but because of the outstanding clarity of his individual voice.
Nostalgia poured through plenty of the tracks, like “All Alright,” which lyrically describes the existential comfort of returning to old-time radio rockers, while, in meta fashion, releasing a new-kind of ‘60s Californian-inspired upbeat song.
Much of the album is dedicated to bringing retro, feel-good music back to the forefront. And the recorded tracks show off some intricate instrumentalism, overlaid recordings of crashing waves, and sitar-adjacent sounds in line with the Eastern experimentalism of George Harrison. It also contains somber hues.
Before singing one song that particularly stuck out to me — called “Crooked Picture” — Cope noted that the album is dedicated to his brother, Ian, who passed away last fall. His background vocalist stepped back as Cope crooned about a framed picture on his living room wall. “Everyday I straighten it out,” he sang, “and every night it slips again,” the “crooked picture hanging ‘til the day I die.”
A simple yet nuanced examination of human imperfection and weakness, the song shone a light on the refined nature of Cope’s voice. It started to read as humbly godlike, never wavering or losing pitch while jumping from ocean-like depths to sun-streaked high notes. He never sang to show off, but rather to relay universally resonant truths while remembering the specific artists who no doubt inspired him to tell them.
The title song of his album, “Hidden from the World,” synopsized the night.
“I sing songs for you that you have never heard before, I take you to the place,” Cope sang, before getting to the pleading and pushing refrain: “And you will see a part of me that’s hidden from the world.”
The show felt like an opportunity to see a real artist in an up-close and personal light, all while experiencing a momentary reality forged inside a pub that seemed to stand alone on the moody Friday night. That collective inner world was not created solely by Cope, but by each of the bandmates who made up the “Sass.”
While Cope’s eyes and scruffy hair stayed shaded by an oversized Phillies baseball cap, the other members of the crew brought a psychedelic joy that got audience members out of their chairs. Background vocalist Sarah Biemuller tossed her head back and forth playfully in a colorful mini dress, her own angelically deep voice perfectly complimenting Cope’s sound while holding true in its own right (The pair, by the way, are engaged to be married. Their chemistry imbued a fulfilling romanticism into a night of no-guilt attachment to times past and future.)
Meanwhile, Lucas Rinz (last seen by the Review Crew playing live karaoke at this other Philly pub) bopped back on forth on bass with a goofy grin big enough to trigger a smile from even the grinchiest ne’er-do’well. Fred Berman brought palpable energy and expertise to the drums while Justin Mazer stood tucked away in the back corner, somehow shredding soft lead guitar lines that reverberated effectively into the forefront at just the right times.
Towards the end of the first set, a group of older patrons came in from drinking just outside the bar, letting in the sweet smell of cigarette smoke as one older man began sliding and swaying across the floor in front of the band (not captured on video out of a respect for living in the moment). As the token Gen-Zer in the audience, I basked in the casual calm radiating from the pub’s regulars, who appeared energized not just from flowing beer but from the familiar yet new music put out by a group of all ages musicians.
As I walked back to the car, I (who, by the way, actually dislike the Beatles) felt a loss of warmth I knew would be difficult to replicate outside of that space.
NEXT
Fans of Dave Cope and the Sass can hear him play next on May 31st during a live set at Fergie’s Pub — and even sing alongside the group as they back live karaoke later that night. Listen to the band’s latest album in full here.
