For the first time in two years, The War on Drugs brought their annual Christmas concert back to their hometown of Philadelphia. The band packed out the famous 250-capacity club Johnny Brenda’s for a night of originals, covers, and special guests with any proceeds from the night going to the Philadelphia Public School System. The show took place last night (December 20) and featured appearances from Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) and Matt Lowell (Lo Moon) who aided the band in running through a few covers and songs from The War on Drugs’ discography.
Lowell was the first to appear during last night’s two-set show. The Lo Moon band member joined Adam Granduciel and the rest of the band in “Victim” from The War on Drugs’ 2022 album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore before the full ensemble launched into a cover of “Strange Boat” by The Waterboys. The rest of the first set consisted of more songs from the band’s latest album along with a few deep cuts.
Set two is when the band brought out Craig Finn, who appeared right at the top of the set to help the band cover Finn’s own “Blankets”. Finn stayed on stage for two more songs which included covers of “Play It All Night Long” by Warren Zevon and the group’s take on “Walk On”, originally performed by John Hiatt. Much like Set 1, the second half of the night consisted of a mix of originals from the band’s discography and closed with Finn joining The War on Drugs again in covering “Against The Wind” by Bob Seger.
Check out the full setlist and videos from last night’s performance below:
