[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Speedy Ortiz
I really enjoyed Speedy Ortiz’ Foil Deer. Sadie Dupuis has a great sense of melody (in a delightful alt-90s rock package) combined with excellent lyrics. Check out this great blurb about Dupuis’ lyrics:
It’s very strange (“Or not strange at all! Hi!” says feminism) that most of the music we funnel into little girls’ ears——even music written by former little girls——is about how women are petty, pretty garbage whose only valuable function is to hold perfectly still in men’s boudoirs and wait for intercourse. “I wanted to make songs that were the opposite of ‘Genie in A Bottle’ or ‘The Boy Is Mine,’” Sadie Dupuis says of Slugger, her new solo album under the name Sad13. “Songs that put affirmative consent at the heart of the subject matter and emphasize friendship among women and try to deescalate the toxic jealousy and ownership that are often centered in romantic pop songs.” What!? Songs for women that actually champion women’s autonomy, reflect women’s desires, listen to women when they talk, and let women be funny and normal and cool, like women actually are? – Lindy West
When Speedy Ortiz released their new album, they did a mini tour of…ice cram parlors.
As The Key noted:
It was a little suspicious, previously, that Speedy Ortiz’s only tour appearance in Philly would be at Little Baby’s Ice Cream in West Philly to scoop a new flavor, “Twerp Verse Dessert Burst Sundae,” and not to perform.
Then they announced a proper tour, which included a headlining spot at PhilaMOCA. Amazingly, four days after our show, they were going to open for Dinosaur Jr and Foo Fighters at Fenway Park! I don’t know how many people arrived early enough to see them, but I have to assume thy were seen by more than the 150 capacity crowd at PhilaMOCA. And yet Sadie said she was more excited about our show than that one. And it seemed like it.
Before the shows even began, Sadie was hanging out at the merch table. We chatted, she sold me a copy of Twerp Verse and even signed it for me. She was super nice.
I was in the same place as I was for Two Inch Astronaut–almost uncomfortably close to Sadie as she played and sang. 
I was tempted to help them set up their gear.
I was also fascinated to see that she doesn’t use a pick, rather she uses her long fingernails as a pick. I also loved that the head of her guitar says Sad13 (the name of her solo project). Wish I’d gotten a better picture of it.
I was also delighted to see that Audrey Audrey Zee Whitesides was playing bass for them. I had seen Audrey play with Mal Blum + The Blums AND Jessica Lea Mayfield on the same night at Boot & Saddle. I follow Audrey on Instagram and I was excited to see notice that Audrey was touring with Speedy–at both our show and Fenway!
The guys in the band were Andy Molholt on guitar and keys and Mike Falcome on drums.
I had expected this to be a showcase for the album. Somehow I had missed that this was going to be a social-media-based-request show (so no requests were taken that evening). After playing the first three tracks off Verse (“Lean in When I Suffer” is the catchiest thing ever), they played all kinds of requests including deep cuts (“Taylor Swift,” “Silver Spring”) and fan favorites (“Raising The Skate,” “The Graduates”) and, Sadie was happy to note, some new songs, too.
Opening with Twerp’s lead off song, the great riffing “Buck Me Off” I was really excited to hear “Raising the Skate” from Foil Deer–it was the first song of their’s that I’d ever heard and it was fun to hear it live, just feet away from the band.
After another song from Foil, they went back to 2012 for “Silver Spring” and “Plough,” two songs I didn’t know, but which sounded great.
Then it was back to Twerp for a few more songs. I told myself to stop taking pictures–I was so close I felt really conspicuous.
I loved hearing “Taylor Swift” an old song that I didn’t know before, although “You Hate the Title” was even better.
They played two more songs from Twerp (that’s 8 of 11 total) and then Sadie acknowledged that they were pretty close to curfew.
She assured us that they could play those last two songs in the time allotted and they played a blistering version of “Swell Content” (which is just over 90 seconds long anyway).
Andy was off to the left for most of the show, either playing some cool guitar sounds or making interesting effects with the synth. I couldn’t see him most of the time because it was dark in his corner. But for “Dvrk Wvrld” he crouched down right in the light for a clear photo at last, It was a wild and chaotic set ender–they had just enough time to cram in some wildness before curfew.
And that was that. It was great fun and a cool opportunity to say I saw them just before they played to a huge baseball stadium.
Setlist
Buck Me Off ⇓
Lean In When I Suffer ⇓
Lucky 88 ⇓
Raising The Skate €
The Graduates €
Silver Spring ⊗
Plough ♠
Alone With Girls ⇓
I’m Blessed ⇓
Taylor Swift [single]
You Hate The Title ⇓
Moving In ⇓
Villain ⇓
Swell Content €
Dvrk Wvrld €
⇓ Twerp Verse 2018
€ from Foil Deer 2015
♠ from Major Arcana 2013
⊗ from Sports EP 2012
[single] from 2012
You can read another review of the show here.
I Just Read About That... 
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