[ATTENDED: July 13, 2022] Home is Where
I saw Foxing three years ago without knowing much about them. Their live show blew me away. So when it was announced that they were playing Philly again, I had a choice. Go to the Bikini Kill show that I’ve had tickets to for years or go to the Kevin Devine show which I had gotten tickets for just in case it sold out, or blow off them both and go to Foxing.
Well, Bikini Kill was postponed (again) and Kevin Devine was a solo show (which is good, but I’ve seen him solo twice already), so I decided to go to Foxing without having a ticket. Traffic was light, I got free parking (well, technically it cost 68 cents) and bought a ticket in cash with no handling fees!
I went downstairs and was kind of surprised at how young the audience was. I was also surprised by how well people seem to know the opening band Home is Where who hail from Florida.
The band is a four piece: josiah gardella – drums ; trace george – guitar ; brandon macdonald – tantrum, harmonica, singing saw ; connor “fat slaps” o’brien – bass.
I draw your attention to brandon’s list. Because Tantrum is right. Brandon screams with abandon (and melody, too). Their songs are catchy and weird, and might be a bit more “acceptable” if Brandon were a more conventional singer. But there’s something about this tall, skinny singer with wild red curly hair flopping around that makes them all the more compelling.
“Skin Meadow” opened the show and it was frenetic and wild with Macdonald dancing around in a dervish. Things only settled down when, to my utter delight a singing saw solo at the end of the song (as it says in brandon’s list).
Brandon also plays harmonica which opened the folky “long distance conjoined twins.” This song had a folky attitude because Trace George had switched to acoustic guitar. But Brandon’s vocalizing didn’t change and the screams of “hey samantha” were constant.
Crashing drums and fast played acoustic guitars were also present in “the scientific classification of stingrays” (great weird titles from this band).
The final song seemed to be a lot of screaming. Like just screaming. It was more insanity–fun and just batshit.
I enjoyed them a lot–they were great fun and I’d love to see them open for someone else.
This setlist is from another show on the tour and may not be right.
- Skin Meadow
- long distance conjoined twins ∉
- the scientific classification of stingrays ∉
- Floral Organs
- assisted harakiri ∉
- every day feels like 9/11
- sewn together from the membrane of the great sea cucumber ∉
> our mouths to smile (2019)
∉ i became birds (2020)
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