4333 and WXPN Welcomes: Spirit of the Beehive, Halloween, and Fib
Spruce Street Harbor Park
301 S Christopher Columbus Blvd.
July 24th, 2026
Philadelphia
The first ever show I saw at Spruce St. Harbor Park — before there was a pavilion, beer garden or outdoor stage — was Spirit of the Beehive. Buy me two Long Islands if I’m wrong, but I believe it was after the release of You Are Arrived (But You’ve Been Cheated), which would make their return to the waterfront a decade in the making. It was a sweetheart of a show; I distinctly remember watching two babies dance together while they played. I know I often make remarks about the passage of time in these things, but being in a band for a long time is fucking hard, dude. Around the time of this first performance at the banks of the Delaware River, Spirit was still promoting tours through Facebook, often described locally as a “haze of freaky verb,” or something along those lines. Between then and now, only two of the original members have remained in the band, vocalist/guitarist Zack Schwartz and vocalist/bassist Rivka Ravede.
On Friday night, Spirit of the Beehive made a long-awaited return to Philadelphia to play their inimitable surrealist rock to a massive crowd in the latest installment of the 4333 Collective’s summer series, this time in collaboration with WXPN; Spirit’s lineup rounded out by full-time guitarist/vocalist Corey Wichlin and drummer Zack Robbins. When the band dropped their first album in 2014, the classic self-titled through local goldmine Ranch Records, they were an off-kilter indie band with dream rock tendencies. The dream aspect still remains, having been expanded by heavy sampling and field recordings, vocal processing, stop/start transitions, and mid-song tempo changes, but they absolutely hit different now. To put it simply, they’re weirder and more complex than they’ve ever been. The trick, of course, is that Spirit of the Beehive also synthesizes all of this into consistently enjoyable listens.
The emergence of these techniques from Spirit date back to around 2017, molding the listening experience into a sort of mixtape feel, both live and on record. In 2026, Spirit of the Beehive treats this as the baseline of their performance, deeply locked in on choices that are impossible for an audience to anticipate no matter how many times you see them live. Listening to their effortlessly executed experimentation has shifted what hearing them feels like from taking a little too much Benadryl, to a full soundtrack of the kinds of dreams you’d have when you eat a jerk chicken burrito 30 minutes before falling asleep. During their performance of the unforgettably named, “I Suck The Devil’s Cock,” instruments were exchanged mid-song and samples were set on extended loops following the most unsettling and catchy opening melody of any song I’ve heard this decade.
Openers Fib and Halloween were apt choices, providing elements of influence that Spirit has provided throughout their decade-plus long career. And, don’t you love it when there’s the occasional southerly breeze to keep everyone cool and comfortable? Schwartz drew cheers when he mentioned the recent news of Lebron James joining our Sixers, and the beer line stretched damn near all the way to the stage. Toward the end of their set, Spirit blessed us with two new songs, one of which saw Schwartz, Ravede, and Wichlin singing in unison. Perhaps not a first for this band, but the way they did it this time really did something to me, their voices truly blend well together. It’ll be exciting when that track drops.
