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For nearly fourteen years I was able to keep up this daily blog of books and music.

About a year ago I got a promotion and that changed everything.  I no longer had the time to post everything I wanted to.  Heck, I didn’t even seem to have the time to read all the short stories I wanted to.  Amusingly (or not), just before this new position, I had gotten a print subscription to the New Yorker.  This now means that I (like many others) have a two-foot stack of New Yorker magazines that I haven’t even looked at yet.

For a few weeks I was limiting myself to only the concerts that I went to because that was a little easier to write about.  Although back in the good old days, I used to include photo and links, and I pretty much have neither now. And I’m several shows behind as well.

So I’m still reading books and I think I may try to post some thoughts about them from time to time.  I’d also like to think I have time to write about my concerts, but even those are proving to be challenging.

So let’s consider the blog on hiatus more or less, with occasional posts about things I’ve read or listened to.

The good thing is that I like the new position and wouldn’t change it for the world. I guess I never realized how much down time my old position gave me!

[CANCELLED: June 29, 2025] Paul Simon: A Quiet Celebration

Last year, my wife and I had tickets to see Paul Simon at The Academy of Music–a small space and we had very good, close seats (I could have gotten closer tickets, but we weren’t sure we wanted to get TOO close).  We have seen just about everyone that we really want to (I have a list of bands that I still want to see but it gets shorter all the time).  But one person on her bucket list was Paul Simon.

So when he announced this Quiet Celebration tour, I grabbed tickets immediately.  Then two days before our show, Paul announced that he would have to cancel the shows because of terrible back pain.  He was going to have surgery and hoped to get back on tour.

As it turns out, he was able to make the next night of his tour (which was about a week later).  So he only missed two shows and ours was one of them.  He never rescheduled that location, but instead, did another round of the tour.  The Philly show was at the Mann Center (a very different venue from The Academy of Music (and it turned out a rainy night).

But we didn’t get tickets for the Mann in part because I didn’t think it would be easy, but mainly because it was my son’s birthday.  So instead, we got tickets to the show in Bethel Woods, a 2 and a half hour drive away.

We got a room for the night and were excited to check out the area.  Especially when I learned that the venue was on the site of Woodstock.  And there’s a museum dedicated to the 1969 event.  I was three months old when Woodstock happened and my parents were as far from hippies as you could get, so there was no love for this event in my house growing up.

However, I understand its cultural significance as well as the musical significance.  And while I’m not someone who thinks it was the most amazing thing to ever happen, I still like the music and thought the museum would be cool.  The museum is pretty cool.  I enjoyed the memorabilia, in particular the woman who wrote down the music she saw and her thoughts about them–I’d love to see everything she wrote.  It was also fascinating to see that no one really had an idea of what each band played–they had to look at various documents to ensure the playlists.  But there’s even discrepancies in the museum itself.  One sign says The Who played 24 songs, but the other sign lists 21 songs.

So the museum was a little underwhelming, but because we were there when we were, we were able to buy one of these limited edition posters, which is pretty cool.

So the weather that morning was unreasonably hot (day 3 of a 5 day heat wave).  But on the way to the venue it started raining (and thundering).  I was first concerned that they might cancel the show from the heat (Paul Simon is old, after all) and then I was worried that they would cancel it because of lightning.  Either way would have been too much for us to bear, I fear.  But the rain stopped and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and it was quite lovely.

But they delayed the opening of the gates for some 20 minutes and the line was INSANE, so we hung out in the (air conditioned) museum until just before 8.

The walk from the entrance to the venue is REALLY long.  Like, holy cow you have to walk a long way–easily ten minutes with the crowds.  But Paul didn’t go on until 8 and we found our seats and waited.   One complaint is that we brought refillable water bottles but there were no places to fill them.  I suppose if we were earlier, we could have spotted them, but they assured us that the show would start at exactly 8 and it was like 5 of as we got near our seats.

But soon enough, the lights dimmed and the band came out. Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 26, 2026] Weird Nightmare

I first heard about Weird Nightmare on the radio.  WXPN played one of their songs, saying the guy behind the band, Alex Edkins, was the former lead singer in Metz. I really enjoyed Metz and was bummed that I only had one chance to see them before they went on hiatus.  Metz is super noisy, so I was really curious what this new “radio friendly” song would sound like.  And it was great–super catchy with a cool fuzzy guitar solo and a Dinosaur Jr sound.

It became one of my favorite songs of the year so far.  And when this show was announced I grabbed a ticket immediately.  Later on, I had the choice between this show and The Breeders (who I loved in the 90s) and I chose  this one.  I don’t know how the Breedersd were (probably pretty good), but I really loved being in this small venue right up against the stage.

I assumed that Weird Nightmare had one album out and they would play the whole album.  Turns out this is their second album and they played songs from both releases.

They opened with Headful of Rain a bouncy, catchy song that totally belied the background of Metz!  I’m not sure who the live band was, although on record Loel Campbell is on drums and Roddy Kuester is on bass.  I have no reason to think anyone else is playing with him.  Campbell sang great backing vocals on the first song and then his unnamed rhythm guitarist sang fantastic harmonies with Campbell on most of the rest of the set. Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 26, 2026] Golden Apples

I had not heard of Golden Apples before this show and yet I recognized one of the songs on new the album when I listened to it.

Golden Apples is the output of Russell Edling.  The blurb on bandcamp says his partner Mimi Gallagher is a bandmate (I’m amusing she played guitar and sang as well).  There was also a bassist, keyboardist and a drummer who I know I’ve seen with another band, but I never got her name.

I got to Northern Liberties 30 minutes early but didn’t find parking until 5 of.  I speed walked to the venue and walked in just as the band hit their first note.  Ortlieb’s can hold about 75 people, and it wasn’t crowded when I first walked in, so I had a great view of the band.

The songs were simple and catchy with the two guitars playing off of each other.  The bass sounded great in the room, by the way.

I enjoyed the simple but catchy guitar riff of followed by the totally rocking High School. During this song, Russell stepped off the stage (it’s about 6 inches high) and played his solo among the crowd (which was empty up front). Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 24, 2026] Spoon 

This was my fourth time seeing Spoon, a band I’ve never been a huge fan of.  That sounds worse than I mean.  I’ve liked them for years and I like many many of their songs, they were just not one of the bands that I got really into.  And yet, I will see them all the time when they play because their live show is so good.

I can’t believe it’s been four years since they last came to Philly.  That time, they cancelled and rescheduled a concert in 19 days (and even had new T-shirts printed with the new dates!).

My wife came along with me for The Beths (which she loved) and was indifferent to Spoon.  She had seen them with me at the PNC Bank Center in Holmdel when they opened for Beck seven years ago.  I told her that they would be better and more fun in this setting and she agreed they were (at PNC they played when it was still light out).

Spoon was headlining, but they still played a shortened set.

I assumed that this tour was an opportunity to play the two new songs that they’d released not too long ago (and which WXPN loves).  But amazingly, they didn’t play either one!

Chateau Blues and Guess I’m Fallin In Love are great songs and would have been so much fun to hear live.  But instead, they opened with a song from their debut album, one I hadn’t heard yet.  If I thought The Beths’ crowd was excited, they had nothing on the Spoon fans, who went crazy for this old song.

We were nearest to Alex Fischel, who is so much fun to watch.  So much so, that singer Britt Daniel spends a lot of time watching him too.  It’s odd that Britt introduced Alex and drummer Jim Eno but not bassist Ben Trokan or multi-player Gerardo Larios.

I told my wife that she’d know a few of the songs because they do get a bit of airplay.  She knew (and really enjoyed) The Hardest Cut.

Spoon songs soun distinctly Spoon so even if you don’t know a song you’ll feel comfortable with it.   But my wife recognized I Turn My Camera On.  And I was psyched to hear My Mathematical Mind and The Way We Get By (the woman behind me–who screamed a lot–was also happy to hear that one and sang along for a bit, but not too much, thankfully).

Then they played two songs I hadn’t seen them play before–2 deep cuts from their second album.  They followed that with the amazing The Underdog.  Such a fun song.  It’s got horns on the record but the live version doesn’t miss them.

Britt is a really fun frontman–he points and smiles at people, he really engages with the audience.  I’ve no idea if he’s a nice guy or a cocky jerk, but he definitely enjoys himself on stage.  It’s pretty amazing that this is my fourth time seeing them and they played five (older) songs that I hadn’t seen them play before. And one brand new song Lose Control that hasn’t been released as a single yet. Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 25, 2026] Comedy Bang! Bang!

I enjoyed Comedy Bang! Bang! when it was on TV (2012-2016).  I know I didn’t see all of the episodes.  I mostly saw the ones with Reggie Watts (and a few with Weird Al).  I didn’t know it was a podcast because I don’t really listen to podcasts.  But I was shocked to find out that it had been a podcast since 2009–I didn’t even think podcasts existed for that long.

Since I didn’t know this had been a podcast, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect at this show.  I knew Paul F. Tompkins would be there (which is 90% of why I wanted to go).  And when we were talking to someone before the show, he told us it was a live taping of the podcast with special guests.  I assumed that the special guests would be local comedians–completely forgetting that the show is a parody of talk shows.

And so, we were given a sibling, a theater critic and a foreign exchange student as the guests.

But first was the balcony report.  (which had the audience going crazy chanting TBR!  It was then that we realized that people there knew this show way better than we did.

So I had gotten us seats in the middle.  But they were tight and crowded, so we snuck to the back where there were comfy open seats–note to self if you eve go back to the Miller, unless you need a close up of the stage, choose the back couple of rows.  And this way we kind of felt like the outsiders we were. Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 23, 2026] The Beths

I love The Beths and I’m thrilled that my wife does too.  This was her third (my fourth) time seeing them.  And the previous time was only six months ago (do they ever go back to New Zealand?)

This was a double headline show, which I tend to think sucks for everyone.  The bands don’t play a full 90 minutes (or more) and the fans don’t get a full show from either of the bands that they like.  But sometimes it works out okay.  We were hoping the show wouldn;t run too late as we were both pretty tired.  So, the fact that Spoon kept it pretty short was ok.

But honestly we would have loved a bit more of The Beths!

After Squirrel Flower, we moved up fairly close to the stage.  Then a nice tall man (from Matawan) told us to go in front of him. Which was so thoughtful.  Although if he did that for everyone, he’s be in the back row.

The couple in front of us was interesting.  She was a huge Beths fan and he…stood sideways for the whole show.  He faced he partner.  I looked at his shoes and indeed they were pointing to the side.  And he turned his neck for the entire show to see the band.  Why would anyone do that?

The tall guy next to me was totally into it, drumming along, make hand motions and singing (quietly) everything.  This was a pretty dedicated fan base–surely everyone there saw them in December too.

Because they weren’t full headlining, they kept things relatively tightly paced.  The show started like the last one with the fantastic Straight Line was a Lie which got everyone bouncing.  They followed it with the really fun No Joy which is especially fun because at two points song the song, Jonathan Pearce on guitar and Benjamin Sinclair on bass stomp on a little stomp rocket thing and penny whistles fly into the arm which the catch an proceed to play.

It was interesting that they played some songs that they didn’t play six months ago.  Like they played Knees Deep from Expert…  It’s a fun bouncy song (because they all are, right?).  Then they jumped back to Future Me, one of many songs that have wonderful backing vocals from Jonathan, Benjamin and drummer Tristan Deck.

Things shifted gears dramatically when Liz said she was going to sing the next song by herself.  She told us it was about her relationship with her mother, so it was clearly Mother, Pray for Me.  The thing I didn’t know about the song (or her) was that her mother is a devout Catholic Indonesian woman.  Liz was born in Jakarta and moved to Auckland at age four.  That made some of the lyrics even more meaningful.  This song is a surprise because it’s not poppy and punky, it is slow and beautiful.  And I am really surprised that she played it during this shortened set.  It stops all 0f the energy and, thankfully, the crowd is rapt.  It must be a very meaningful song for her to bare herself like this.

When it was over and she thanked everyone for being quiet (except two people who whooped?), Jonathan told us about a club in New Zealand that is right across from their studio and it’s about to close that very night.  They were trying to raise money for it and said that all profits from merch would go to the venue.  But they needed $150,000 by midnight.  And holy shit, they raised it (well, the club did, not The Beths alone–but “Auckland indie band The Beths were one of the almost 3000 donors, sending $9633.38 from the band and “the people of Philadelphia””.)  It was a pretty lengthy chat which meant that they didn’t get to do their usually fun introductory banter.  Although TRistan did give a plug for Ben’s wonderful blog breakfast and travel updates.com.

They touched on their previous album a couple of times with Best Left (not to be confused with Best Laid Plans) with that echoing pulsing guitar intro (some things are best left….to rot).  And then only one song from Jump Rope Gazers (the wonderful title track)–this is why a double headline show isn’t as much fun, only ten songs?

I was delighted that they played Metal, the recently ubiquitous single that is so much fun.  The melancholy Til My Heart Stops was followed by the similarly melancholy (but somehow bouncy and poppy) Little Death.

They ended the set with Expert in a Dying Field, another super fun and catchy song.  I felt that they had enough time to squeeze in the amazing I’m Not Getting Excited (it’s only like 2 minutes long) but they were done (and Ben says they removed all of their gear in 9 minutes).  It was a great set, marred only by the fact that I wished it was 45 minutes longer.

2025 2025 2023 2022
Straight Line Was a Lie ⇒ [2] Straight Line Was a Lie ⇒ Future Me Hates Me ¶ [2] I’m Not Getting Excited Ω
No Joy ⇒ [2]  No Joy ⇒ Knees Deep ⊗ Not Running  ¶
Knees Deep ⊗ [2] Silence is Golden ⊗ [2] Out of Sight Ω [2] Great No One 
Happy Unhappy  ¶ [2] Future Me Hates Me ¶ [3] A Passing Rain ⊗ A Real Thing [new]
Mother, Pray for Me ⇒ [2] Metal ⇒ Not Running ¶ [2] Happy Unhappy 
Best Left ⊗ [2] Til My Heart Stops ⇒ Best Left ⊗ Out of Sight Ω
Jump Rope Gazers Ω [4] Mother, Pray for Me ⇒ Dying to Believe Ω [2] Acrid Ω
Metal ⇒ [2] Your Side ⊗ I Want to Listen ⊗  Jump Rope Gazers Ω
Til My Heart Stops ⇒ [2] Uptown Girl  ¶ [2] Head in the Clouds ⊗ Uptown Girl 
Little Death  ¶ [4] Mosquitoes ⇒ Jump Rope Gazers Ω [2] When You Know You Know ¢/⊗
Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ [3] Ark of the Covenant ⇒ I Told You That I Was Afraid ⊗ Mars, the God of War Ω
Jump Rope Gazers Ω [3] When You Know You Know ⊗ [2] Whatever  ¶
Best Laid Plans ⇒ I’m Not Getting Excited Ω [2] Little Death 
Little Death  ¶ [3] You Wouldn’t Like Me ¶ Future Me Hates Me 
I’m Not Getting Excited Ω [3] Silence is Golden ⊗ River Run: Lvl 1 
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Hugh Martin cover) Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ Dying to Believe Ω
Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ [2] encore
encore You Are a Beam of Light Ω
Roundabout ⇒ [Roundabout replaced Take since roundabouts / traffic circles came up earlier in the show.  First time as closer.] Little Death ¶ [2]

⇒ Straight Line Was a Lie (2025) (played everything from it except Take)
⊗ Expert in a Dying Field (2022)
Ω Jump Rope Gazers (2020)
¶ Future Me Hates Me (2018)
¢ Demos 2014-2020

[ATTENDED: June 23, 2026] Squirrel Flower

I saw Squirrel Flower open for Soccer Mommy back in 2021.  At the time I wrote that I found her solo stuff kind of dull, but then she brought a band out for the second half of her set and I liked the songs a lot more.

About mid way through I felt like they sounded like a slightly grungier version of Cowboy Junkies.  It was still a little slow for me but I enjoyed a few songs.

Despite enjoying a couple of songs, I didn’t feel compelled to see her again, especially since she was going on at 7.  So we left a little earlier than I would for an 8PM show and we arrived with Squirrel Flower starting her final song.  It was, like the others, very slow.  Here’s one thing I noted last time:

In an interview, she says that “Hurt a Fly” is her first ever Squirrel Flower song with key changes (!).

I believe it.  She did change her vocal note at some point in the song but it was mostly forgettable.  So I’m glad we didnt stand through 40 minutes of her.

 

Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 21, 2026] The Sadies

I was vaguely aware of The Sadies. I was mostly aware of them because their singer Dallas Good died suddenly and the entire Canadian music scene was upset about it.  I assumed The Sadies were done, but, as Dallas’ brother and the band’s new singer and guitarist said, this show and every show that we play for the rest of our lives is dedicated to my younger brother.

That’s pretty devastating.  But it was clear that The Sadies put everything into their shows.

So The Sadies’ songs fall into two categories–a kind of country & western (as opposed to country) song with a heavy dose of surf rock sprinkled all over the song.  And hugely enjoyable instrumentals that showcase Travis Good’s fantastic guitar playing.

What that means is that most of their songs sound basically the same.  And yet, they played for almost 50 minutes and I not only was I never bored, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Which is pretty impressive given that they are a three-piece with a simple drum kit (played expertly by Mike Belitsky) and an upright bass (played by Sean Dean).  An upright bass doesn’t lend for a lot of fast improv.

So most of the embellishments came from Travis.  Dallas’ voice was a bit softer, while Travis’ has a darker edge to it, which makes some of these dark songs sound even darker. In a song like Oak Ridges his voice also goes deeper. Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 21, 2026] Kurt Vile & The Violators

My wife has become a huge fan of Kurt Vile in the last few years, so any chance to see him, we’ll take.  She had never been to The Stone Pony before and as a Jersey native, she really ought to have been there at least once.  This was my third time there and I really haven’t enjoyed the vibe at any of the shows.

And tonight’s was weird too.  The Stone Pony is a weird venue–it’s very wide and very shallow.  It may also slope down away from the stage (It probably doesn’t but it feels that way).  After checking out the beach for a few minutes we headed inside and saw that it was pretty crowded.  We found our spot and then realized the guys in front of us were really drunk.  They moved soon after Kurt started (and eventually the one guy fell over and the had to be removed).  But then a very tall woman who was near us suddenly wound up in front of us.  Which sucked.

After a few songs behind her, I had to move a few feet over to be able to see.  Halfway through when the drunk guy fell over and had to leave I was able to get back to my wife and we enjoyed the show together.

So this tour was for his new album Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me.  And yet he opened with two songs not on the album.  All subsequent show, he jumped right to the new album.  So I’m not sure why we got Jesus Fever (which no one else did, but no complaints, it’s a great song) and Hey, Like A Child was earlier in the seton this tour.

I was pretty fascinated to see just how many people knew the words to all of his songs.  He was pretty excited to play The Stone Pony (his first time) so maybe he gave us an extra song or two.

And then it was on to the new album.  Red Room Dub is a delightful instrumental (is this is first instrumental, I don’t know), but he put words to it (no idea what they were though).  Zoom 97 is slow, chill song with the fun line “jump n my whip (yeah!)”  His backing band is always so solid–they never show off, they just keep things going as they need to.  Continue Reading »

[ATTENDED: June 17, 2026] Wilco

This was my third time seeing Wilco.  I’ve been trying to see them again since 2021 but for some reason it never worked out.  In fact, I’ve been trying to see them a lot since 2016, but it never worked out until tonight.

SteelStacks outside is a fun venue and I grabbed a ticket for my wife and I.  The last time I saw Wilco it was a co-headlining tour with Sleater-Kinney, so their set was short.

But this time, it was just them, so they did two sets (although, somehow they played fewer songs than when I saw them ten years ago).

We arrived at SteelStacks wih plenty of time, but were kind of herded into the grassy area.  I didn’t even realize that they had a merch table.  I probably would have bough the poster (see below) so it’s probably for the best that I didn’t know about it.

This was my wife’s first time seeing them and I knew she’d enjoy the show, both for the songwriting and for the wildness (because Wilco may be dad-rock, but they absolutely crush thing live).

Wilco has been around forever, so they have a million songs to choose from.   It’s possible that you’re not going to hear your favorite song at any of their sets, but it’s pretty likely that you’re going to hear a bunch of your favorites–and some unexpected deep cuts.

I’m not a massive Wilco fan.  I enjoy most of their stuff, although I haven’t really listened to the two latest albums.  And, yea, I really start at around Summerteeth, but I could easily make an ideal setlist and this show covered most of it.

We got off to a great start with Handshake Drugs and If I Ever Was a Child.  Jeff was playing acoustic guitar and we were in front of Nels Cline (with a clear view of Glenn Kotche on drums).  They played a few newer songs that I didn’t know.  I was intrigued by the lyrics to Cruel Country, especially since the first line is cleanly stated–I love my country.  It’s hard to feel that way, but I guess it’s nice to be reminded that we could feel that way again.

It’s always interesting seeing what the crowd gets excited by.  I was really pleased to hear Evicted (I love that guitar melody); there was a huge reaction for I’m Always in Love, but an even huger reaction for Hummingbird.

I’d often wondered if Pat Sansone ever felt like Nels Cline gets all of the love (I didn’t realize they joined in the same year).  But at this show Pat had some absolutely stellar, showoffy guitar solos.  In fact, there were two extended jams in which he and Nels played off of each other.  It was really fun and the songs they chose to do them in were totally rocking so it just felt like a fantastic jam session.

Bassist John Stirratt has been with Wilco since the beginning and for this show, he sang a song that he wrote (and sang on) on the debut album.  The song was It’s Just That Simple, which I didn’t recognize, but it was fun to see Jeff on bass. Continue Reading »