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Archive for October, 2021

Sydney Sprague (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, October 24, 2021) [THE FRONT BOTTOMS]

Posted in Blink 182, oso oso, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom, Sydney Sprague, The Front Bottoms on October 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 24, 2021] Sydney Sprague

I have come to really hate the Starland Ballroom.  I can’t believe how long it takes them to get people inside.  One shouldn’t arrive fifteen minutes before show time and miss the opening band’s first two songs.

And that’s what happened with Sydney Sprague.  The people behind me were particularly looking forward to her too, particularly the song she opened her set with.  So I felt bad for them.

I hadn’t heard of Sprague, but she was getting some good press and I was looking forward to her set.

After missing the first two songs, I pushed my way in to an intensely crowded Starland Ballroom.  It was hard to find a good spot, but by the time I settled, Sprague was steadily rocking along.  Her songs were really good–rocking and catchy.

In fact I think her live set was more rocking and intense than her album. (more…)

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Tigers Jaw (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA October 22, 2021)

Posted in Kississippi, Philadelphia, PA, Tigers Jaw, Total Rubbish, Union Transfer on October 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2021] Tigers Jaw

I had planned to check out Tigers Jaw at a small club in New Hope, but the show kept getting cancelled.  All I really knew about them was a Tiny Desk Concert they did that I really liked.  There were two of them and they wrote catchy poppy punk songs.

Little did I know they’ve had tumultuous line up changes since their early days in Scranton, PA.

Back in 2014 3/5 of the band left, leaving only Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins.  Their 2017 album, Spin was recorded as a duo.  But for I Won’t Care How You Remember Me, they added the touring bassist and drummer the band to record the album.

And for the tour, they added two more members.  So this show proved to be a lot bigger, louder and dancier than I expected.

(more…)

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Spoon/Nicole Atkins (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, October 24, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Nicole Atkins, Spoon, White Eagle Hall on October 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 24, 2021] Spoon/Nicole Atkins

I’ve seen Spoon twice and they put on a great show.

Nicole Atkins is a singer who has put out several singles that sound very different from each other and which I like.

But this show was the same night as The Front Bottoms and there was no way I was missing THAT show.

I’ve heard this show was very good.

But my show was amazing!

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Kississippi (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2021) [TIGERS JAW]

Posted in Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Kississippi, Philadelphia, PA, Tigers Jaw, Total Rubbish, Union Transfer on October 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2021] Kississippi

Kississippi has one of my favorite band names of recent years.  I wasn’t even sure if I liked them, I just knew I liked the name.

And here they were opening for Tigers Jaw (something of a musical mismatch because they tend to play a bit more synth poppy compared to Tigers Jaw’s heavier sound).

Kississippi is the solo project of Philadelphian Zoe Allaire Reynolds.  She’s released a few albums and EPs, but for this show, she was mostly touring her latest album Mood Ring which is a bit more upbeat than her previous releases.

I didn’t catch any of the band member names, but her bassist was outstanding.  They had a great sound coupled with a great look [I have since learned their name is Alyssa Milman (they/them)].  Zoe herself was a fun front woman.  I especially enjoyed the “YMCA” type of dance she made for “We’re So In Tune” (you can imagine it, I’m sure). (more…)

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Total Rubbish (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2021) [TIGERS JAW]

Posted in Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Kississippi, Philadelphia, PA, Tigers Jaw, Total Rubbish, Union Transfer on October 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2021] Total Rubbish

I had planned to check out Tigers Jaw at a small club in New Hope, but the show kept getting cancelled.  All I really knew about them was a Tiny Desk Concert they did that I really liked.  There were two of them and they wrote catchy poppy punk songs.  Their opening act was supposed to be Kayleigh Goldsworthy who is more or less a folk singer.  So I assumed that’s what kind of show this would be.

The opening band at Union Transfer was Total Rubbish, a new band based in Philly.  They have one EP out called Triple Negative.

The four young women took the stage and proceeded to play some great noisy grungey shoegazey rock.  It was hard to tell exactly what the dynamic should be because they weren’t mixed all that great.  The vocals were kind of buried (or maybe I was too close to the stage).  (more…)

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard / Leah Senior (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, October 23, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in Australia, Coronavirus, Franklin Music Hall, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine on October 23, 2021| 1 Comment »

[POSTPONED: October 23, 2021] King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard / Leah Senior [rescheduled from May 22 and then October 22, 2020; moved to October 22, 2022]

indexOn May 24, King Gizzard announced that they were pushing back this tour for another year.  It seemed surprising since everyone else is filling in tour dates this fall, but they made a valid point

We’ve made the (very hard) decision to reschedule our USA/CAN tour once again.

This was an extraordinarily tough decision to make but I hope y’all can understand the complexities that come with a giant tour of the States and Canada with a 6 piece band and a 6 person crew from Australia during a pandemic.

We’ve tried our hardest to reschedule as many of these shows as possible at the same venues. That means your ticket will still be valid if you want to go.

For our NY show, we’re unfortunately going to be canceling it, you will be given a full refund and will have to buy a new ticket at the new venue. Sorry! It’s bigger though so everyone should be able to get tickets. Exciting news on that and other new shows coming soon! 🙂

If you’d like a refund contact your local venue as soon as you can to arrange.

Thanks to every gizzhead for your ongoing support and love. We will get back on the road as soon as we can.

Love king gizz Xoxox

I was bummed when KGATLW had to postpone a show in May. I mean, come on, Coronavirus, would certainly be over by May, right?  Well, now it’s October and things are still crazy.  I really hope they can do this again next year.

Of course, knowing them, they’ll have three more albums out by then.

I have become a huge fan of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (are there any other kinds of fans of them?) since I first heard about them a few years ago.

I’m sad that I missed them on the tour just before the first time I saw them (at a smaller venue when newbies like me hadn’t heard of them yet), but I have seen them twice since.

In both cases, the band overcame somewhat unpleasant (to me) situations (obnoxious capacity crowds and unreasonable heat) to change my mind from swearing I’d never bother seeing them again (before the show), to hoping they’d come back really soon (after the show).

I’m not at all surprised that this show was postponed and they have already rescheduled the new date.  So we’re all good.  I just hope the damned air-conditioner works next time.

The last time I saw KGATLW, the two opening bands were kind of doom/psychedelic–perfect matches for KGATLW’s more recent sound.  This year’s opener is a singer named Leah Senior.

Leah Senior did the narration on KGATLW’s Murder of the Universe album.  But her music is a completely other thing.  She sings gentle folk songs with delicate guitar playing and her beautiful soft voice.

I can;t imagine how well she would go over with a rowdy KGATLW crowd and I also wonder if that means that KGATLW would play their more mellow stuff?  Nah.

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Lucy Dacus (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2021)

Posted in Bartees Strange, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2021] Lucy Dacus

Lucy Dacus announced that she’d be playing Philly on the birthday of someone in my family.  Clearly I wasn’t going to go to the show.

That sold out pretty quickly and she announced another show the next night.   I grabbed tickets immediately.

I’ve seen Lucy two and a half times already (she played Newport Folk Festival but we only saw a couple of songs).

The only problem was that I didn’t know her new album very well yet.  The songs I knew I liked, but I hadn’t really dived into the rest of it.  And this set was heavy on the Home Video. (more…)

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Bartees Strange (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, October 21, 2021) [LUCY DACUS]

Posted in Bartees Strange, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, Shamir, Union Transfer on October 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2021] Bartees Strange

Lucy Dacus announced that she’d be playing Philly on the birthday of someone in my family.  Clearly I wasn’t going to go to the show.  Shamir was opening that show.

That sold out pretty quickly and she announced another show the next night.  For some reason Shamir wasn’t going to open, but instead it would be Bartees Strange.  I have really loved Bartees Strange’s album and his Tiny Desk Home Concert was great.  So I was really excited to see him–I’m sure I’ll see Shamir again some day.

Bartees started the night with a solo rendition of “Far.”  It was good, and showed off his voice, but I was a little concerned that he was going to be by himself.

But I needn’t have worried, as the band barreled out for a rocking “Mustang.”  It got us all moving and showed off how great his band is. (more…)

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Terry Pratchett–Men at Arms (1992) [Discworld #15] [Watch #2]

Posted in Anachronisms, Angua von Überwald, Carrot Ironfoundersson, Cuddy, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Death, Detritus, Discworld, Dwarfs, Fred Colon, Funny (ha ha), Guns, Lady Sybil Ramkin, Lord Vetinari, Magic, Nobby Nobbs, Samuel Vimes, Terry Pratchett, The Librarian, The Watch, Vampires, Violence, Werewolves, Wizards on October 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: Fall 2021] Men at Arms

The Watch is back and it’s getting bigger.

And they are going to have to deal with another person who is trying to oust Patrician Vetinari.  This time the person in question is Edward D’eath a high ranking member of the Assassins Guild. D’eath has been doing genealogical research and he believes that Corporal Carrot might be the rightful heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork–the throne which even Lord Vetinari won’t sit on (but won’t remove either).

Meanwhile, Captain Sam Vimes is about to be married to Lady Sybil Ramkin (I can’t believe that the Vimes /Lady Sybil relationship was settled after just one book!)

Sam is delighted with Sybil, but he hates just about everything else about the upcoming marriage.  He hates that Sybil is one of the richest women in Ankh-Morpork.  He hates hobnobbing with the other rich people in the city (Sybil is really very different from everyone else, which is why he loves her). He is even rather uncomfortable with just how rich Sybil is.  There’s a very spot-on argument about how rich people even save money when they buy expensive things.  For instance, the average cop can’t afford to buy expensive shoes that last.  So instead he has to buy cheap shoed that wear out quickly.  Then he has to buy another pair.  And then another pair.  Three $20 pairs that don’t last as long as one $50 pair.

The worst thing for Sam is that he really doesn’t want to give up being a cop.  Well, maybe he kind of does, but it’s all he knows.  And he knows that he’ll miss it.  Even if things are changing around him. (more…)

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The Mountain Goats (The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in John Darnielle, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Mountain Goats on October 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 19, 2021] The Mountain Goats

I’ve enjoyed a lot of The Mountain Goats’ music and I’d like to see them live, but their timing always seems to be terrible.

In addition to the several times that the John Darnielle solo show was postponed in Bethlehem, this show was added as part of a new tour following the cancellation of previous dates around the country.

This show happened to line up with two other shows that I wanted to go to that night.

Coincidentally, both of those other shows were cancelled, but by then, it was too late t even think about adding a new show to my week.

So, some day I’ll see them preferably in a place smaller than the Fillmore, as well).

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