Stiff Curls, Lo-Fives, The Intelligence
The Last Drop Coffee Shop
1300 Pine St.
Philadelphia
August 19, 2026
Last Drop coffee shop, situated across from Dirty Franks near downtown, has an older feel to it. It's laid back, dark and comfortable like coffee shops were back in the '90s. Downstairs is an intimate, very tiny venue. I was there this past week for a show featuring three bands with extensive music backgrounds who have been refining what they do for some time now. Being in such close proximity with the musicians gave the performances an immediacy that felt shared by everyone down there watching.
First up was Stiff Curls, which is made up of Eva Killinger and Ashley Burrows. Both have extensive musical experience that traces around a loosely associated subculture of experimental and underground musicians here in Philly. Eva, the songwriting force behind the Curls, first stepped out into the nebula of Philly DIY by drumming for the well loved Spacin', having no previous experience with the kit. Since then, she has brought a fixated raw creativity to projects like Full Size, The Kensington Strangelers, and, notably, The Long Hots, where she sang lead vocals for the first time. She took a cue from her previous stint with Full Size to hone and refine a minimalistic aesthetic, fully embracing repetitive grooves and simple melodies to create a brooding palate of midnight haunters. The music coming from this narrow palate forces the expression away from a wide horizon to a deep vertical plunge.
The drum machine and little red Casio keyboard Eva plays pulled stylistically from the likes of industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire and paired with sparse, alluring reverbed melodies and a gothic air. Although I made out some of the lyrical content, the spare openness of the melodies created an abstracted sound. You only ended up hearing simple words or phrases, forcing you to sit with the weight of them, finding yourself stuck and haunted with the memory of the melody many hours after the show. Ashley's bass made for perfect accompaniment, pulsing and locked in groove with the drum machine or sliding in with a distorted rattle that circled nicely inside the bare song structure. The performance from the duo, with Eva singing eyes closed and Ashley entranced swaying and dancing as she faced her amp, had a lulling, mysterious quality that made everyone in the room feel temporarily transported.
The duality of the Curls was repeated with the next group, Ex-Locals. Sarah and Zack of the band Lo-Fives put aside the larger structure of a full band to explore something more intimate and abstract. The duo played with eyes locked, partly facing one another, gauging and responding in turn to each others' moves. Both sang exactly when the other sang, both singing the same words and melody; both played only when the other played. This rigid coupling acted as a folded Rorschach test, allowing for open-ended tunes that were abstracted enough to mold to the listener. Stylistically, they could potentially fit in at very different shows, and, if forced to come up with a genre, I'd lean only to something vague like 'abstract-pop.' The songs seemed to reflect little pieces of daily life or observations, but worded cleverly and with a bent twords humor. Sarah, like Eva, doesn't have any formal training on drums and brings a primitivistic energy to the kit. Through her concentration on an instrument newer to her, her attack brought a kind of determined verve that really added to the songs. The songs have an uncanny familiar ring to them, but they really don't sound like anyone else playing in Philly right now.
Lars Finberg, hailing from the Seattle area, played last. For many years, he has played on and off under the name The Intelligence. His pedigree extends to West Coast bands as diverse as The Osees, A Frames, Puberty and too many others to try and name or uncover here. His songs brought forward a sophisticated mix of keyboard tunes, soul inflected vocals, and pockets of funk, all with a very abstracted electronic edge and measured amounts of dissonance. He delivered many of his vocals in musically sparse sections of songs, letting you hear hints of how well he can really sing. Lars coupled this with much louder electronic beats and piano flare. The dissonant sections, unlike in heavier genres, were used during quiet, more contemplative moments. In general, Lars seemed inclined to lay open his song structures fairly bare, letting us clearly see his unique craftsmanship sitting with itself.
