Photos by Kyle Meyers
After having toured as support for MJ Lenderman, Real Estate and Kurt Vile, Philadelphia-based country rock outfit Florry played a ripping set at Comet Ping Pong as the last stop of their headlining summer tour. The seven-piece were supporting their latest, critically acclaimed effort, last year’s The Holey Bible.
I walked into Comet in the middle of the first opener’s set, Baltimore band Workers Comp, to a half-full room littered with cowboy hats and cutoff button downs. In between the two openers, a pedal steel appeared on stage, which gave me a crazy high. Maybe I should go to more country shows. By the start of the second opener four of those cowboy hats were suddenly up on stage. The lead singer was wearing these incredible alligator pointed-toe boots that matched his and his bandmates’ bolos and intricately embroidered western shirts.
Heaven Forbid, the self-proclaimed “token local act” (or “livin’ la vida local” as per the frontman), played a tight set with all four members dressed to impress. They’re in a completely different sphere than the local music that I usually gravitate towards. This was the first D.C. band I’ve heard that has no obvious punk influences in their sound. The songs moved with a predictable twang and consistent, easy-to-clap-along-to percussion. The pedal steel danced alongside the lead vocals while the drums held it down, watching over the band like a protective chaperone. On their set closer, “Lonesome DC Cowboy,” all five band members hopped on vocals and Comet felt more like a honky-tonk dive bar than a DIY pizza restaurant/venue.
Most of their songs ended with long, dramatic jams big enough to make the drunk guy who bugged me in the bathroom line want to conduct the band with his floppy arms. Between the warm stage lights, the full cowboy outfits, the dad in a trucker hat that read “Pedal Steel and Sex Appeal” and the couple slow dancing in the front, it felt like we were in a music video. I kept waiting for a line dance to kick off or a tumble weed to roll by.
Florry frontwoman Francie Medosch’s vocals brightened the room the moment she started singing. Even amidst seven busy instruments at once her androgynous, charmingly nasal voice broke clearly through the noise. She always sang grinning through a tight squint. Sometimes she even sounded a little Mick Jagger-ish, like on the verses of “Hot Weather.”
Their lineup of folk instruments gave each song so much texture. There were moments where the fiddle and the pedal steel were talking with each other and songs where the drummer took the lead with his sharp cymbals and distinct fills. When the acoustic guitarist hopped on vocals alongside Medosch, their voices made space for each other without exactly blending together (not too unlike when Karly Hartzman does backup for MJ Lenderman).
Mid-set, a string on the acoustic guitar broke and one of the guys from Workers Comp beelined backstage to get a replacement. One of the guys from Heaven Forbid helped him restring it. Meanwhile, Florry lightly argued about changing the setlist because it “wouldn’t make sense to do it without acoustic.” The band went back and forth on what to play, and miraculously no one yelled out “Freebird!” Their friendly bickering took long enough that the guitar was back and tuned for their originally planned setlist.
They came back from the quick interlude with a dancy track highlighting the electric and acoustic guitars and a mandolin. The band often turned their backs to the audience in order to intently watch the drummer, making their set so tight even when the string players each did their own chaotic thing.
The back-half of the set included an unreleased track, “Movies,” flash appearances from a tambourine (oh yeah) and a cowbell (fitting), as well as a cover of John Prine’s “I Had a Dream.” The repetitiveness of that song worked nicely with Florry, proving that East-Coasters can do country. The bassist was wearing a shirt that proclaimed “It’s a great day to be Philadelphian.” They make all these different pieces work together, reminiscent of how Black Country, New Road accomplishes their sound, delivering a full-bodied country sound that’s uniquely theirs.
Florry was on full display that night. Touring their best album yet, the band were completely in their element on stage, giving their all for anyone who was in the room – be it already cowboy hat-wearing fans or those of us now looking for more.
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