The Walkmen at Johnny Brenda's

I went up to Philly yesterday for a friend's Christmas party, but I managed to also get tickets to a special holiday show put on by one of my favorite bands, The Walkmen, at a small club called Johnny Brenda's in Fishtown.
Opening up was a local Pa. musician, Brother JT. He had a blues rock sound and his voice reminded me of a less hoarse M. Ward. It was ok - a lot of energy, but the guitar playing in the solos was kind of sloppy.

As ever, The Walkmen were pretty amazing live. The venue was really nice and intimate, and the crowd was really feeling the love for the band. I saw them play in Philly in May at TLA, but last night's show was way better. The sound was also much improved from the other venue. This show was apparently set up by the now disbanded Mazarin, who are friends with The Walkmen.
The band played a great set of songs from their last couple records (no Pussycats stuff though) and I think some new tunes that sounded nice. This time, they had 3 ladies on horns through several songs (instead of just "Louisiana").
I was also really happy they played their holiday single, "Christmas Party" with one of the guys from Mazarin reading the spoken part of the song off paper plates. They also did a rocked out version of "White Christmas".