EGPhest X

For one afternoon each year, somewhere between a birthday party, a songwriters’ summit, and an elaborate sociological experiment, the Bay Area music community gathers to perform the songs of E.G. Phillips.
What began in 2016 as a modest gathering of friends has since evolved into a (mostly) annual tradition in which an assortment of musicians, storytellers, charmers, jazz refugees, folk revivalists, and other interested parties reinterpret selections from the increasingly labyrinthine E.G. Phillips songbook.
This year marks the tenth installment of the festivities at the beloved Bazaar Cafe, where audiences will once again encounter an afternoon of noir ballads, speculative Americana, historical misadventures, romantic catastrophes, maritime melancholy — as well as waterfowl party favors and cake.
Over the years, EGPhest has become less a conventional concert than a yearly convocation — a chance to hear songs transformed through wildly different voices, styles, and sensibilities, while briefly convincing ourselves that art, friendship, and slightly overcomplicated lyrics may still have a place in modern civic life.
Art by Kate Isenberg