Having grown up in a city that hosted not one, but two massive, all-day Live Aid events, we feel a bit of a wuss calling a mere four-hour concert a test of endurance, but by the end of last night's show at the World Cafe the audience was exhausted, the wait staff were in their coats, and the audience - what half was left - was drooping. All around us, we could hear fellow concert-goers echoing our sentiments, "Wait, who did they say were coming on next? Are we ever going to get to go home?" In fact, the only people who seemed to be full of vim and vigor when the show ended were the musicians - and we feel as though they'd have kept on forever if it were not for the curfew. You could tell they were having a good time.

Mind you, we heard no complaints about the quality of the show. In fact, at the swag table afterwards, we heard more than one person wishing they could afford to pick up CDs from all the artists (Phillyist would have liked to have come home with 3 or 4 ourselves - alas it was cash only. Thank goodness for iTunes). Hotel Cafe offered an interesting mix of musical styles and strong performances - a sort of grab bag of singer/songwriter types; it's just that there were so many of them. According to performer Kevin Devine (a sort of angry-young-man-with-a-guitar-type), there were "about a million" of them performing. Singer/songwriter Josh Radin (note: see interview with Josh Radin after the cut) later claimed during his set that there were a much more realistic "42." According to the flyer on the tour website, there are 25 musicians involved in the tour. Phillyist counted 7 acts at the show last night, so we're assuming the 42 includes the rotating roster for the whole tour, as well as the extremely talented "backline" of musicians who made up the house band during last night's show. (We were especially impressed by the Professor - who played numerous instruments, including the accordion, clarinet, keyboard, and smoky trumpet - and the poor percussionist, who we don't believe left the stage at all once the show started, but who rocked it out for the full four hours.)

But it might as well have been a million. They just kept coming. Phillyist loves the idea of the annual Hotel Cafe tour: a large group of musicians who love to play together tour the country - no opening or headling act - each act being given as much weight as the other (and we also love that it's part of the Red campaign, which means proceeds were going to a good cause).

Naturally, with that many performances, we're not going to sit here and tell you about all of them. Instead, we're going to mention the few that really stood out for us, and who we think are worth keeping an ear out for:

• With his gravelly voice, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and retro-jazz/rock fusion, Jim Bianco comes dangerously close to being a Saturday Night Live-style musical parody, and Phillyist nearly dismissed him as such after the first verse of his first song. However, it quickly became clear to us that Bianco may have a sense of humor, but he is also a tremendous talent with a sound that is both original and familiar, who manages to infuse a surprising depth of passion beneath the posturing and dirty lyrics.
• Cary Brothers, the self-dubbed "Godfather of the Hotel Cafe Tour" (the tour format was apparently his idea), was clearly an audience favorite - and for good reason. The man can sing. With his long-hair and jeff cap he reminded Phillyist all night of Gallagher - and he sang with such power we're pretty certain his voice could smash more than a few watermelons.
• In contrast, Josh Radin's unassuming performance did not fill the room, but rather drew the room to him with a quiet intensity and focus on lovelorn lyrics.

Josh Radin was kind enough to take a few minutes before showtime to chat with Phillyist. You can read more with him after the cut:

Much like he performs, Radin speaks with a direct sincerity, a shy grin, and a seeming loss of what to do with his hands if they're not holding a guitar.

Also, in defense of just how dorky Phillyist comes off during this Q&A (and we're leaving out all the times we said "Awesome" in response to one of his answers), we must admit Radin is also very adorable, which, unfortunately, is just the sort of thing that turns us into uber dorks. Thankfully, he was too much a gentleman to make fun of us to our faces. (Yes, don't worry, we completely plan to keep our day job.)

I read on your MySpace page how you don't like to list your influences, and I respect that, but you did say something about the importance of words and music. Are there other artists you think are doing that currently?
Doing what? Putting words to music?

Yes, putting words to music (mental face palm); treating the words as importantly as the music.
Currently? I don't think there are too many that treat the lyrics as importantly as the music, but there are definitely a lot of great lyricists out there, and every time I find one I think, 'sweet."

Can you recommend any?
I love M. Ward; I think his lyrics are great. Hmm. Guys right now? People right now? I don't know. Just in terms of influences, lyrical influences, I'd say Dylan and Nick Drake and Paul Simon and Elliot Smith. There are guys I kind of really look up to, and I guess I developed a sound similar to them just because it seeped into my brain cells.

Have you had a chance to see Philly at all while you've been here?
I've been here many times.

Any favorite places here since you've been here before?
Pat's. Every time we roll in, I'm like, "Where are we going? We're going to Pat's."

I noticed that you have a blog on your website, and a MySpace page, and an Eventful link, so I was curious how you find the Internet for interacting with your fans. Do you think that that's been a help to you?
Oh, it's been a huge help. Especially MySpace & iTunes. That's where everyone found me. I didn't do radio, I wasn't touring. I had just started, and got a few songs on some TV shows and people would look up on the Internet what song it was and would just go download it off iTunes. That's kind of how it all started.

Speaking of TV shows, what has it been like working with Zach Braff? I know he used some of your songs and he directed your video.
It's been great; he's been so supportive. He just loves the music. He doesn't get anything out of it except just wanting people to hear it. That's so cool.

And I think he's got great taste in music. He's become sort of a taste-maker for a generation of kids. It's almost like he says, "This is good," and kids will go buy it.

Personally, Phillyist doesn't use Zach Braff as an arbiter of musical taste (then again, we're a little old to be called a "kid"), but we know what we like, and Josh Radin is definitely on that list.

Photo of Joshua Radin from his MySpace page