I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2021] Control Top

I saw Control Top open for Ted Leo a couple of years ago and they were amazing.

I have been wanting to see them again live.  They’ve had a few shows cancelled and there was no real plan for them to play again in 2021, but then they were asked to play Philly Music Fest and I grabbed tickets right away.

Control Top is a trio of bassist/singer Ali Carter, guitarist Al Creedon and drummer Alex Lichtenauer.  They play a mix of raging screaming songs and somewhat more mellow raging songs.

Carter’s hair was dyed silver and looked pretty great.  She played a perfect combination of looking very nice and then raging really intensely.  It was great being up close and watching her expression change as she went from verse to angry chorus.

But for me the amazing draw was watching Creedon wail on guitar.  The sounds he creates are amazing and he’s so busy while he’s playing it’s never always clear how he’s making the sounds he’s making.

Carter told us that she was pretty psyched to be playing live music again and it sounds like they’re heading to the studio for a new record.

I took some great close up pictures but for some reason my camera wouldn’t load to my computer.  And, worse yet, now I can’t adjust my video posts on Instagram so none of them are center-able.  So there’s no good documentation of this show.

The one bad thing about the show was that the band’s music came from their amps alone (I think).  So I was right in front of Ali’s bass amp which meant I couldn’t hear the guitars all that well (I was right in front of the drums, though and could hear them just fine.  I tried to move around a bit but it was already getting crowded, so I stayed put.  The plus side was that when Ali jumped into the crowd during “Covert Contracts” (something she does every show), she was right next tom e singing.  In fact when she stomped through the crowd, I had to jump so that I wouldn’t get tangled in her microphone cord (that’s pretty cool).

SETLIST