Don't Call It A Comeback: The Walkmen Return to Philly

I remember hearing The Walkmen years ago with a couple of friends who were already into them. I think there was an unspoken competition to see who could find the next cool band or record. I liked what I was hearing, but it wasn’t until their second album, Bows + Arrows that I became a fan. I’m not ashamed to admit I was a little slow on the uptake, and I never had the opportunity to see them live (I’d seem singer/frontman Hamilton Leithauser a few times in DC, though, even with Paul Maroon on guitar one time) that is until this past week in Philadelphia at the Union Transfer for the third of three sold out shows.

Leithauser, Maroon, Walter Martin (bass/keys), Peter Bauer (keys/guitar), and Matt Barrick (drums) started out living in Washington, DC, moved to New York City, and spent time in Philadelphia – all places where the band has been putting together multi-date stops at venues The Walkmen cut their teeth in during their first time around. And I purposefully don’t say reunited, since the band never really broke up.

After hearing that the band had scheduled several shows through the Spring, that same friend who years ago turned me on to The Walkmen got us tickets for the last date on their Philly stop. And after a blistering set by LA-based band, Liily, The Walkmen hit the stage to a completely packed house.

“We’re from New York City, but a bunch of us did live in Philadelphia for a long time,” Hamilton Leithauser told the crowd. “So it’s a little bit of a hometown gig for us… We had no idea after 10 years if anybody would remember who the hell we were so it’s kind of amazing you come out to these shows.” But the band didn’t have to worry for long. As the crowd gathered at Union Transfer, I had the chance to talk hear from some fans who traveled 10 hours via car from Canada to see this band perform due to the limited run of stops on the current tour. And this wasn’t an isolated thing, fans seem to have been making the effort to catch as many stops along the way as they can.

*Fans traveled from Canada just to catch The Walkmen on their tour*

If there were any worries about how this band – who had, playfully, stated in interviews that they don’t rehearse – hit the stage and sounded terrific. Whatever osmotic magic they have been brewing seemed to be doing the trick because from the opening lines of “Dónde Está la Playa” the band was tight. Leithauser swung from one side of the stage to the other with an energy this crowd missed seeing. I have to say, seeing The Walkmen made me marvel at how these five elements make such a perfect combination. There is nothing like a Walkmen song. You know it even before the first words are sung. Matt Barrick’s drumming on their popular song, “The Rat;” Paul Maroon’s guitar work that is so distinctive you know who it is when you hear those tones. The keyboards and bass of Bauer and Martin create such a sonic blueprint that it’s nothing like what came out of New York when they started, and in 2023 it’s like nothing else.

After playing “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone,” from their first record Leithauser told the crowd, “That one’s from the old, old days. We used to do that one at Khyber Pass. Is that still around?” To which the crowd both said, “Yes!” and “No!” since the venue no longer puts on shows but is still around. “We once were playing at Khyber Pass and [NBA legend] Jerry Stackhouse walked in,” Leithauser joked, “and he caught about two seconds of it and immediately walked back out.”

The official video of “The Rat” by The Walkmen on YouTube:

There wasn’t a song I was hoping to hear that they didn’t play. They even played the Philadelphia band Mazarin’s song “Another One Goes By” as Leithauser mentioned that Mazarin songwriter, Quentin Stolzfus was in the audience.

After a great cap to their set with “Heaven,” the band came back for an encore that ended with one of my favorites and one of the first songs they ever wrote together, according to Hamilton Leithauser, “We’ve Been Had,” a song that, to me at least, feels like playfully drunken lullaby and probably the one song that sticks in my head long after that last note is played. And while we filed out of Union Transfer that night that was the song that was on repeat in my head.

With this brilliant return to the stage, The Walkmen capped off their run in Philadelphia with more shows ahead, including in Chicago and at DC’s 9:30 Club later in the month. It’s a show not to miss!

The setlist included:

Dónde Está la Playa
On the Water
In the New Year
The Rat
No Christmas While I’m Talking
Little House of Savages
138th Street
New Years Eve
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
Blue as Your Blood
Angela Surf City
Another One Goes By (Mazarin cover)
Juveniles
Four Provinces
Red Moon
Canadian Girl
All Hands and the Cook
Heaven