I’ll be wrapping up the Concerts Under the Stars series with the final show of the season, The Old 97’s!
Concerts Under the Stars is a ticketed event - please visit the event website to purchase tickets and to learn more about the event. Here is the lowdown:
About Concerts Under The Stars
🅿️ Paid, Guaranteed, On-Site Parking & Limited ADA Parking is available in the Township Building Lot, and Free Parking is available a short walk from the venue at the corner of Ross Rd & Henderson Rd (See below for more details)
🍺 Beer Garden with panoramic views of the stage and surrounding park
🍺 Local Craft Brews & Cocktails (*No outside alcoholic beverages will be permitted)
🍟 Food Trucks
🪑 Blankets and chairs are allowed in designated “seated” areas
🎟️ All shows in this series are all-ages (21+ to drink)
🎫 Attendees 13 and older must purchase a ticket for entry for all ticketed shows
🆓 Kids 12 and younger may attend for free and do not require a ticket!
♿️ The Upper Merion Township Park is accessible with ramps from the upper parking lot down to the lower concert grounds, as well as ADA bathrooms.
Doors: 5 PM / Show: 6 PM
About Old 97's
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify
Formed in Dallas, Texas, Old 97’s first emerged in the early ’90s with an adrenaline pumping blend of rock and roll swagger, punk snarl, and old-school twang that quickly brought them into the national spotlight. Conventional wisdom places the band at the forefront of a musical movement that would come to be known as “alternative country,” but, as the New York Times so succinctly put it, their sound always “leaned more toward the Clash than the Carter Family.” Fueled by breakneck tempos, distorted guitars, and wry storytelling, the foursome built a reputation for high-energy albums and even higher energy shows, earning themselves performances everywhere from Conan and Letterman to Bonnaroo and Lollaplooza alongside countless rave reviews. NPR lauded the group as a “pioneering force,” while Rolling Stone hailed their music’s “whiskey-wrecked nihilism and slow-burn heartbreak,” and The New Yorker praised their songwriting as “blistered, blasted, and brilliant.” On top of his prodigious output with Old 97’s, Miller simultaneously established himself as a prolific solo artist, as well, releasing eight studio albums under his own name that garnered similarly wide-ranging acclaim and landed in a slew of prominent film and television soundtracks. A gifted writer beyond his music, Miller also contributed essays and short stories to The Atlantic, Salon, McSweeney’s, and Sports Illustrated among others, and in 2019, he released his debut book, a collection of poetry for children, via Little, Brown and Company.
While part of Old 97’s charm has always been the air of playful invulnerability they exude onstage every night, reality began catching up with the band in 2017. The night before a television appearance in support of the group’s most recent album, ‘Graveyard Whistling,’ Peeples collapsed in a hotel parking lot, falling backwards and cracking his skull on a concrete abutment. He spent weeks in the ICU and was forced to miss the first leg of tour. Bethea, meanwhile, began to notice a loss of feeling in the fingers of his right hand. As his condition continued to deteriorate on the road, the numbness spread to his leg, and he was eventually forced to undergo spinal surgery in order to regain full motor control. Miller, for his part, found himself at more of an existential crossroads, questioning attitudes and behaviors he’d long taken for granted. Yes, he was a rock and roll star (whatever that means nowadays), but he was also a father and a husband, and he decided it was long since time to get sober.
“Back when we were in our 20’s, we put ourselves through these terrible trials because we thought we could survive anything,” says Miller. “But over the last few years, it started becoming clear that we’re human.”
Rather than slow things down, the band decided to embrace their mortality as all the more reason to seize the day. Life is short—a lesson that was hammered home on the group’s first day of recording in Nashville, when a series of deadly tornadoes ripped through town—and ‘Twelfth’ is the sound of Old 97’s recommitting themselves to making the most of every moment they’ve got left. Addictive opener “The Dropouts” sets the stage, taking stock of the band’s journey from its very first days, when they cut their teeth playing the bars of Deep Ellum in exchange for pitchers of beer and pizza. Like much of the record to come, it’s a nostalgic look back on simpler times, but it smartly avoids looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, instead recognizing that change is neither inherently good nor bad, only inevitable.