Electric Factory

When Esperanza Spalding bested Justin Bieber for Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards, the upset was greeted by outraged tweets from Bieber's preteen constituency, shocked fanfare from the jaded jazz community, and confused stares from almost everyone else. If the crowd that gathered at the Electric Factory on Sunday night was any indication, far fewer people are asking, "Who is Esperanza Spalding?" these days. That's due in part to a series of very high-profile gigs.

On Friday night, Erykah Badu, who wore her elaborate orange turban and surrounded herself with Eastern accoutrements, ankhs and burning incense, looked like a cross between an ancient Egyptian goddess and Afrocentric interplanetary traveler of the future. She sang like an angel. In an Electric Factory packed with people of melanin, Badu, throughout her loping, stylistically liberated (and liberating) set maximized the potential of her minimalist setup - drums, bass, keyboards, and three singers - by focusing her energies inward.

Like Shania, Celine and Whitney, matchbox twenty is emblematic of the tidal bland-out of contemporary Top 40 - a zone where all the songs sound the same, all the sentiments are paper-thin, and every coo and growl is a market-researched contrivance. Together, this crew constitutes what is probably the most popular genre today: music for people who don't like music too much. Despite not having released an album since 1996's 10 million-selling Yourself or Someone Like You, matchbox twenty remains modern-rock radio wallpaper.

JAY-Z WILL join Mayor Nutter atop the Art Museum steps at 10:30 Monday morning to announce a multiday concert festival on Labor Day weekend called Made in America. The New York Times reported Sunday night that the Budweiser Made in America festival will feature 28 bands over two nights, Sept. 1 and 2, in Fairmount Park. The location of Monday morning's announcement could indicate the Parkway. A portion of proceeds are to benefit the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

The old adage "you can't go home again" could be proved false by concert promoters Larry Magid and Adam Spivak when the new music venue dubbed the "re-opened" Electric Factory opens tonight at 7th and Willow streets. Female blues- and folk-tinged rockers June Rich, hard-edged Solution A.D. and bone-crunching Dandelion, plus Strapping Fieldhands and the Headlong Dance Theater, are booked for the all-local-act opening. And there's a lot more diversity where that came from - including important imports like the New Orleans jam band knockouts the Radiators on Sunday, edgy Sonic Youth next Wednesday, Pittsburgh's heartland rocker Joe Grushecky with his unbilled special guest Bruce Springsteen on Oct. 19 (an instant sellout)

Even in a holiday season, or maybe especially then, you can have too much of a good thing. Five guys named "moe. " proved this Tuesday night to a capacity crowd of folks in their 20s at the Electric Factory. Measured in minutes, the band played 66, rested 41, played 99, rested 2, and played 20 more. And that after opener Antigone Rising filled 50 minutes with hard-rock cliches. No live recording ever really captures the incarnate moe. For $20, you could have bought Tuesday's show, well-rendered on three compact discs, on your way out the door.

Amy Ray wants to put one thing straight: "No causes," she says. "The only cause is towards us. " So don't go to the Electric Factory on Wednesday expecting to raise your awareness, pledge your support or register to vote; the Suffragette Sessions Tour doesn't benefit this or spotlight that. "No," Ray says, "it's basically just performance the whole time. " She and fellow Indigo Girl Emily Saliers conceived of the SST five years ago while sharing a stage with Siouxsie Sioux and Ferron.

The last time Morrissey showed up in Philadelphia with a band in tow was 1992 - a lifetime ago in the fast-paced, fickle world of alternative rock. At the Electric Factory on Friday night, it was as if The Boy With the Thorn in His Side never left. The capacity crowd greeted the 38-year-old singer with screams, flowers, and British flags as he took the stage in a cloud of fog with a photo of two boys fighting as a backdrop. Looking more like a stylish professor in a simple white shirt and black pants, the Mozzer was bathed in a white spotlight, which he would gaze up at for effect.

JAY-Z WILL join Mayor Nutter atop the Art Museum steps at 10:30 Monday morning to announce a multiday concert festival on Labor Day weekend called Made in America. The New York Times reported Sunday night that the Budweiser Made in America festival will feature 28 bands over two nights, Sept. 1 and 2, in Fairmount Park. The location of Monday morning's announcement could indicate the Parkway. A portion of proceeds are to benefit the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

When Esperanza Spalding bested Justin Bieber for Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards, the upset was greeted by outraged tweets from Bieber's preteen constituency, shocked fanfare from the jaded jazz community, and confused stares from almost everyone else. If the crowd that gathered at the Electric Factory on Sunday night was any indication, far fewer people are asking, "Who is Esperanza Spalding?" these days. That's due in part to a series of very high-profile gigs.

Music The Campus Consciousness Tour starring J. Cole and Big K.R.I.T. Though one can't be completely certain as to how conscious of university status, matriculation, or curriculum vitae either rapper is, don't doubt the entertainment factor of having J. Cole and Big K.R.I.T. together. The sturdy Def Jam rapper K.R.I.T., a highly regarded producer as well as a fierce-flowing MC, dropped both his major-label album Live From the Underground and his new mix tape, 4Eva N a Day, within the last year, and the mouth from Mississippi thrills throughout both Southern-fried recordings.

It's not the image nor the label one often associates with dedicated doctors. But on Sunday afternoon, "Rockin' Docs" will be rockin' out at the Electric Factory, complete with special effects and pretty impressive music sets offered by five bands. The unusual element: Most of the rockers are area physicians. For Drs. Jeremy Jaffe and Ken Einhorn, founders of Rockin' Docs for Diabetes Cure, this second annual event has deep personal significance. Their event's purpose is to raise both awareness and funds for Type 1 (juvenile diabetes)

MUSIC Lady of Mystery Matching her haunted, tremulous voice to darkly poetic, dramatic songs of the country-rock persuasion, Megan Reilly casts an enchanting spell. There's some sonic kinship to Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris, though Reilly seems more forceful and spirit-shaking. It's an impression enhanced on her new album ("The Well") by the rocking/tremulous guitarists James Mastro and Lenny Kaye and, in her mellower mode, by a fingerpicking/singing John Wesley Harding, whom Reilly's opening for Friday night.

OPETH LEAD SINGER and guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt is not afraid to show off his influences. "Heritage," the title track of the Swedish metal band's 10th studio album, is an homage to jazz pianist Jan Johansson, a fellow Swede. "Slither" is Akerfeldt's tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio. Opeth plays Monday night at the Electric Factory, along with Atlanta-based Mastodon and opener Ghost, also from Sweden. "The Heritage Hunter Tour," which opened last week in Boston, is named after Mastodon's "The Hunter" and "Heritage.

PAM TEBOW , mom of Broncos QB Tim Tebow , will be the keynote speaker at the Options for Women fundraiser March 20 at the Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza. The organization denies that it exists to pressure women against abortion, but a woman representing abortionclinicvigil.com emailed friends and supporters of the website asking them to attend the invitation-only benefit. "We prayer warriors rely very much on being able to offer women alternatives so they can Choose Life!" said the email, a copy of which we saw. Options offers pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, encourages adoption and claims to help women after they have their babies.

YOU DON'T SEE Dice Raw with the Roots on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ," but the North Philly rapper/producer/songwriter played an integral part of the hometown hip-hop heroes' newest release, "Undun. " Dice Raw, born Karl Jenkins , sings on "Lighthouse" and "One Time," two fan favorites on "Undun," and co-wrote and sings or raps on several other songs from the record. A longtime collaborator of the Roots, Dice's contributions to "Undun" and 2010's "How I Got Over" seem to be bringing him the attention he deserves.

Sunday Long suffering Well, it should be about time to plan that World Series parade . . . what? Oh, yeah. It's so easy to forget. It seems like it was, gee, last summer that our town was in a dream state when it came to sports. Of course, there's still the Union in the soccer playoffs (let's go, Le Toux!). But otherwise it's back to normal for local aficionados of athletic endeavors. On the bright side, the latest disappointment provides plenty of new material for Bruce Graham's ongoing epic The Philly Fan , starring Tom McCarthy as the eponymous hero, using updated examples of the difficulty of being same.

While Jay-Z and Kanye West grabbed Tuesday's headlines for their Watch the Throne collaboration reaching number one at iTunes in 23 countries, another hot pairing was selling out the Electric Factory with its incendiary blend of hip-hop and dancehall: Nas and Damian Marley. The duo released their joint effort, the daring Distant Relatives , in May 2010, and have since worked on other projects (Nas appeared at June's picnic with the Roots, while Marley has been busy with Mick Jagger's Super Heavy)