No one told Joe Keithley about the pope. The legendary Canadian singer, best known by his stage name “Joey Shithead” as the leader of hardcore punk pioneers D.O.A., recently got his 1978-birthed band back together, and, to the delight of aging punks everywhere, they’re headed through Canada and the Northeast U.S. this fall with a stop in Philadelphia.

D.O.A. is playing a show at Kung Fu Necktie (125 N. Front St.), on September 25, the night before Pope Francis’ arrival in Philadelphia. Assuming projections are correct, they’ll be driving their van into a city either unprepared — or over prepared — for the Holy Father’s visit.

D.O.A. and numerous other artists in Philadelphia that weekend are in for a unique, likely unpredictable situation when they arrive. It’s not clear if any of these pre-scheduled acts are at all aware of what they’re in store for when they get within, say, 25 miles of Philadelphia.

“Wow!” wrote Keithley on August 6, after I emailed him about his show and the pope’s visit in late September. “Is Kung Fu Necktie near the ‘verboten’ zone?”

Not in it, I responded. But close.

Worse yet, after I sent sent Keithley some links to local news stories about the way Philadelphia’s government is handling the Papal visit, he noted that while in Philadelphia, he’s actually rooming at a friend’s place close to where the pope is staying. “So we will get the security check all day long!” he added.

According to the latest details on the Papal visit, a traffic box and security perimeter will be established, enclosing Center City. Spring Garden Street will be the farthest street to the northeast cars where will be allowed, although the perimeter will extend further at Ridge Avenue, hitting Girard and extending to the Schuylkill River to the Northwest.

Cars will be allowed out, but they won’t be allowed in. Trash pickup will be suspended that weekend beginning Thursday and only a handful of SEPTA stations will be open.

That Philadelphia Brewing Company will be introducing its new brew, “Holy Wooder,” is just about the only not-stressful news that’s greeted Philadelphians and the anywhere between zero and 2 million people are expected to show up for the affair.

But for members of D.O.A. or a number of other out-of-town acts that will be coming into the city as part of larger tours, the threat of a couple million more visitors in a dense city of 1.5 million isn’t exactly a chance to attract new fans.

Earlier in August, the band Ghost, a Swedish black metal band, canceled a sold-out show at Union Transfer due to the pope in Philly weekend — specifically because of the traffic restrictions.

“We wish to inform you that due to Frankie’s visit next month in Philadelphia, we received a letter informing us that Ghost fans would not be able to use public transportation or park their cars near Union Transfer,” the band put out in a statement. “Concession is sometimes hard, but our quest to topple a church will be won!”

Their show has been rescheduled for Tuesday, September 29.

Other Center City venues, like Milkboy at 12th and Chestnut streets, have blank spaces on their calendars throughout the weekend. The Electric Factory doesn’t have anything going on that weekend; neither does The Trocadero in Chinatown.

But in Fishtown, for many of our small, independent music venues it’s business as usual.

“We will have shows that weekend unless someone from the city tells us otherwise,” says Chris Ward, the promotions manager at Johnny Brenda’s

The Cairo Gang are playing Johnny Brenda’s the night of the pope’s Mass on the Ben Franklin Parkway. They are still planning on coming into town, likely sound-checking from the second-floor stage around the time the pope blesses the city from the Art Museum steps.

“I can’t imagine how we would plan around the Pope’s visit, as we are not religious and could definitely give a fuck for Catholics in the administrative sense,” says Emmett Kelly, leader of the Cairo Gang. “I guess that is wrong. We will plan for there being an insane amount of traffic getting in and out of Philly… Since when does rock and roll care about the pope? We will dedicate a song to him though.”

Getting around the city once your here is one thing — actually crossing the Philly/not Philly border is another.

Along with all the additional people, transportation authorities expect somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 additional vehicles in the city. Center City will be shut down to out-of-town traffic, 676 will be completely closed to motor vehicles along with the Ben Franklin Bridge.

That means one of the only ways actually into the city will be I-95 South — although the exits between Girard and Washington will be closed off. There’s likely to be a lot of people transferring into Philly via the Riverwards that weekend, as Allegheny and Girard will likely be the closest open exists to Center City. Parking and walking to see the pope will be difficult for the out-of-shape among us and bicycling will likely be the best way to get around.

Traffic engineer Sam Schwartz told USA Today earlier this month to expect “traffic jams that weekend.” He similarly noted that anyone within 25 miles of Philadelphia should avoid driving that weekend.

Then there’s the locals. Will they show up to these venues?

Probably. According to the Facebook event pages, Sunday’s Johnny Brenda’s performance shows 99 people going and 17 “maybes.”

Ninety-two are expected at the D.O.A. show as this story goes to press. So, what’s an old punk to do amid crippling traffic, security zones, and check points? “It’s still full steam ahead,” Joe Keithley, of D.O.A., says, noting of the security zones: “It will be just like when we were in Serbia a month ago.