Moments after doors open, Taylor Kelly is walking around the upstairs venue at Johnny Brenda’s, writing her setlist in purple marker and conversing with show staff. It’s a sleepy Sunday evening in Fishtown, Philadelphia as the sunlight in the windows of the bar fades. The neighborhood is quiet, even for a Sunday night. The summer months have carried many Philadelphians out to shore points for the weekends, leaving the bars, restaurants and other businesses quiet. Joe’s Steaks, the cheesesteak joint across the street from Johnny Brenda’s only has a handful of people seated for a late dinner and Garage, one of the largest bars in the area, and JB’s closest rival business has more staff than patrons inside their doors.
Inside the venue, a crowd begins to grow as a Sunday night of Soul and R&B starts. Taylor Kelly is headlining this show, with two acts set to open for her, one traveling from as far as Chicago to play to Taylor’s fans.
As the acts take the stage, Taylor takes her place in the crowd, watching each of the talented acts win over the others in attendance. At 9:45 PM, the final opener concludes their set with a complex neo-jazz/ soul number that leaves jaws on the floor. Watching until the last minute, Taylor heads to the green room to prepare.
The house lights dim and the stage turns Kelly green. The band launches into the opening measures of the newest single, ‘Take Me’. Taylor bursts through the side stage doors and makes her way to the microphone just in time to deliver the opening lines of the first verse. The stage production and instrumentation here is different from the album, the sound is fuller and more dense, like a sonic blanket that covers the entire venue. Taylor’s outfit – green pants, white boots, sunglasses and a white button down top that she purchased in Tokyo because the character printed on it reminds her of the Philly Phanatic – is a sartorial statement that falls in line with her musical and stage identity: She’s comfortable being different than others and somehow, remarkably unpretentious in her appeal as an artist.
Taylor’s voice is modulated through an effects box that makes it sound as though there are a dozen of her on that stage, creating an ethereal drone that vibrates the floor in her lower register and an otherworldly roar as she slides into the upper half of it.
Promoting her latest EP The Spins, just a few days after it’s dropped, Taylor plays two songs from the project and then, without the slightest warning, launches into a medley of Beyoncé songs. In the medley her voice is unadorned, shocking in both its power and similarity to the Queen herself.
At the conclusion of the Medley, Taylor takes a break from signing to address the crowd. “About ten years ago, I was ‘Tayoncé’ in a Beyoncé cover band.” She hunches over, panting into the mic between sentences. “Of course, that was back when I didn’t look like this after singing two of her songs.”
In between songs she shouts out her bandmates, collaborators, venue staff and a woman she met in Tokyo who lives in New Jersey and came to the show just to dance to Taylor’s music. She also tells jokes, pokes fun at herself, talks about her journey with mental health and speaks of building community. During her songs, she dances in her own unique way, there’s some David Byrne, Talking Heads DNA in her moves, but also something completely individual. When her band jams or solos, Taylor kneels on the ground, literally moving out of the way so that the spotlight can shine on the instrumentalists.
Each song is its own soundscape, starting out relatively large and growing into something massive that seems to coat the walls in different textures. Each number charting a different course to an eventual crescendo that the audience can’t help but dance to.
Taylor informs the audience that this will be her last song and there’s a collective murmur of disappointment. She finishes her final chorus, and flaps her arms like wings a few times before leaping down the stairs and disappearing into the green room as the band plays on in one final jam that rings throughout the venue. A few seconds later, Taylor’s back on the side of the stage, returned to her original form, watching her own band play as a fan.
“That’s how we get ahead, by building a community of artists, not by stomping on each other’s necks.” Taylor says to the audience between songs “Because, if we don’t do it with other people, then what’s the point?”
Check out Taylor Kelly on The Philly Soul Now 2024 Playlist and follow her on Instagram @taylorkellymusic3.0.