Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for August, 2022

Jake Xerxes Fussell (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 25, 2022) [THE DECEMBERISTS]

Posted in Brigid Mae Power, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Philadelphia, PA, Suede, The Decemberists, The Met Philadelphia on August 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 25, 2022] Jake Xerxes Fussell

The Decemberists are one of our favorite bands and yet we have seen them very few times.  We were supposed to see them on their last tour but they cancelled our show because Colin lost his voice.

Then last year’s show was postponed for COVID.

Finally it was rescheduled.  Originally the support was from Brigid Mae Power who I don’t know.  But at some point she backed out and the new support came from Jake Xerxes Fussell who I also had never heard of.

For whatever reason, we arrived pretty late and decided to get merch since the line was short. We walked in half way through Fussell’s set.  It was just him and his electric guitar

So, Jake Xerxes Fussell is a guitarist who sings traditional folk songs.  No, that’s not exactly right.  He songs untraditional folks songs–songs that were literally sung by the folk, most of which were never recorded until a chronicler like Folkways came along.

The first song we heard was also the first song he played on his recent Tiny Desk Concert and this is how they described it:

Jake Xerxes Fussell’s Tiny Desk (home) concert opens with the eyebrow raising lyric, “I’ve got fresh fish this morning, ladies. They are gilded with gold and you may find a diamond in their mouths.” It was originally sung by a fishmonger in Florida and captured in a field recording. Coming from Fussell, it sounds as lived-in as his worn Telecaster looks. It’s immediate, but somehow out-of-time. Fussell found the tune at the Library of Congress, part of his process of collecting and curating traditional, public domain folk songs, and reinterpreting them through his own lens.

His voice is deep and old-sounding.  He fills these songs with the appropriate feeling that the original singer intended.   His guitar playing was quite good as well.

He won over the audience pretty easily, too.   If I had been there to see him or, more importantly, if I wasn’t super excited for The Decemberists, I would have enjoyed his set a lot more.  As it was I enjoyed the set quite a bit, but I really wanted to hear the main band.

I’m not sure I’d listen to his records, but I would enjoy seeing him live.

Read Full Post »

Shannen Moser (McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Haddon Heights, NJ, August 24, 2022) [KATHLEEN EDWARDS]

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Haddon Heights, NJ, Kathleen Edwards, McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Philadelphia, PA, Shannen Moser, Summer Concert Series on August 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 24, 2022] Shannen Moser

It’s funny how some artists wind up as opening acts quite often.  Shannen Moser has been listed as an opening act for several band that I was interested in seeing.  She’s also been on two Champagne Jams from The Front Bottoms.  This is only my second time seeing her though and I’m not sure when she was announced as the opener for Kathleen Edwards, because I didn’t find out until a couple of days beforehand.

Shannen is from Berks County, PA.  She plays a simple kind of open-tuned guitar (such that a capo is all you need to make a chord sound good).  Some of her songs have a finger-picking section as well.

Her lyrics are personal and often pointed.

She received a nice round of applause for saying that she played with Bernie Sanders a few days earlier at his Rally with Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia to fight back against corporate greed. (more…)

Read Full Post »

David Gray–White Ladder: The 20th Anniversary Tour (The Mann Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, August 18, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in David Gray, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA on August 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 18, 2022] David Gray [rescheduled from to August 20, 2020 and August 18, 2021]

I was never 100% sure that we’d be going to this show.  My wife and I like the album, but it’s a big difference liking the album and going to see the band live.  Turns out this much-postponed show was right during our vacation.  Sorry David.

~~~~~~

My August was filling up pretty quickly so I assumed I wouldn’t be going to this show anyhow, but now that it’s in 2022.  Maybe…?

~~~

David Gray is pretty uncool–definitely “old person” music.  However, White Ladder is a pretty solid album.  When he announced this show, I asked S. is she might want to go.  We both had the same reaction.  Maybe… if it’s convenient.  Well, the Mann Center is anything but convenient, so there’s no way we were going.

I really shouldn’t even post it here, but since I’m including anything I even considered going to, here it is.

Read Full Post »

Elvis Costello and the Imposters (Xcite Center, Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA, August 12, 2022)

Posted in Bensalem, PA, Elvis Costello, Nicole Atkins, Parx Casino, Xcite Center on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 12, 2022] Elvis Costello and the Imposters 

For a number of years now I’ve wanted to see Elvis Costello.  His 1985 greatest hits album The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions is one of my favorite albums of all time.  In addition to those sixteen songs, he has a dozen more songs that I like a ton as well.  He’s also written a million songs that I don’t know, but I’ve heard he always puts on a good show.  And with his new touring band The Imposters (very funny) I figured an evening with the band would be a good time.

I had wanted to see him back in 2013 when he played Morristown.  I don’t recall why I didn’t go (too expensive?) For that tour he played over 30 songs from throughout his career.

Plus, it was at Parx casino–not as far as Philly and comfy seats!

For this tour, Elvis had been playing with Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets opening.  But there was no opening act for this show.  Which promised a bigger show, I thought.  But I was wrong.

I assumed we’d get a greatest hits show with lots of songs from A Boy Called If (which I didn’t know, but if single “Magnificent Hurt” was anything to go by, it would all be good rocking fun.  After all the tour was called A Boy Called If and Other Favourites. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Franz Ferdinand / Vundabar (The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, August 12, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Franz Ferdinand, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, Vundabar on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 12, 2022] Guster / Allison Ponthier

I really enjoyed Franz Ferdinand’s first album.  Liked their second and then kind of forgot about them.  They made a (really good) album with Sparks that put them back on my radar.

This Greatest Hits tour would have been the ideal way to see them.

However, we had tickets to see Elvis Costello–a guy I’ve wanted to see for a pretty long time.

UPDATE: It’s a shame the Elvis show was so meh.

I could have seen Vundabar back in June when they did a headlining tour.

Although, by the time I knew who Vundabar was and was interested in seeing them because of their ubiquitous (in my house) old song “Alien Blues” I was way too late.

I was also a little surprised to find out that their music doesn’t really sound like “Alien Blues”–that song is a bit more frenetic and weird than their most recent album anyway.  Although most live reviews I’ve read say they are terrific live.

They’ve got quite the buzz, so I’m sure they’ll be back.

Read Full Post »

Guster (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, August 10, 2022)

Posted in Guster, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on August 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 10, 2022] Guster [rescheduled from January 14, 2021, I guess]

Back in January, Guster was supposed to play the Wellmont (after postponing a seated acoustic show in 2020).

This show seems to have been the rescheduled show–does it even matter at this point?

The show sold out and we had pretty good seats.  Seats? For a  Guster show?  The seats thing proved to be the real downfall honestly because I was seated behind a freaking behemoth of a guy.  The entire row was full of normal sized people and this hulking dude who clearly did not care about Guster. What a travesty that was.

The guys came out to raucous applause and they opened with “Careful.”  Surprisingly, this was only the third time we’d seen them play this.  By the way, this was our ninth Guster show, we are definitely getting into territory where if they play anything we haven’t seen before we will be surprised.

Ryan was wearing one of his new wild fruit suits and looked wonderful. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Laura Stevenson (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, August 10, 2022) [GUSTER]

Posted in Ben Kweller, Guster, Laura Stevenson, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on August 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 10, 2022] Laura Stevenson [rescheduled from January 14, 2021, I guess]

Back in January, Guster was supposed to play the Wellmont (after postponing a seated acoustic show in 2020).  Ben Kweller was supposed to open that show, which would have ben pretty fun as I don’t really know him very well, but I know he is tangentially related to Guster.

For this new show, Laura Stevenson was the opening act.

I only new Laura a little–from a Tiny Desk concert many many years ago, which I enjoyed.

I assumed she’d be fun–Guster tends to have good opening acts.

But we had a terrible time getting to the show and parking for some reason. Usually it’s not a problem parking in Montclair, but this show (which was sold out–good for Guster, but bad for us, I guess), made Montclair really crowded.

It seemed to take a long time to get in. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Phish: Summer Tour 2022 (Atlantic City Beach, Atlantic City, NJ, August 7, 2022) [night 3 of 3]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Kasvot Växt, Phish on August 7, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2022] Phish

I was pretty tired for this show and not really looking to the long day ahead.  But I had pretty much assured myself that this would be my last Phish show, so I’d be sure to enjoy it.

I entered through the gate under the stage which was weird and kind of fun and I wound up right by Paige again.  I was also cutting it pretty close to the start (parking this time in a garage not too far away from the stage–an excellent choice).

They came out pretty soon after and played a ripping “Wolfman’s Brother” a song on my “Gotta See List.”  So that was a good sign.  And it was an unexpectedly long jam.  There was some watery funky bass and riffs and peaks from Trey and dirty watery sounds from Page and Mike as well.  A great start.

And then they jumped right into “Tube.”  Tube is one of those wonderfully mythic live song that is so much fun to hear.  Between these two songs they’d jammed almost thirty minutes already.

They followed it up with a mellow song I didn’t recognize (even though I love Farmhouse), the ballad “Mountains of the Mist.”  At this point I was getting annoyed by the people around me (so many smokers!) so I had to move.

They moved onto a bouncy version of Ocelet, a song I’ve wanted to hear live for a long time (two on my gotta see list already!).   This one seemed delicate and almost tiptoe-like as it danced around the sand until it took off for some good jamming with some nice peaks

Sadly, that would be the end of my checklist for the night.

And yet that would be okay because the songs they played were just some of my all time big thumbs up yesses. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Phish: Summer Tour 2022 (Atlantic City Beach, Atlantic City, NJ, August 6, 2022) [night 2 of 3] [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Kasvot Växt, Phish on August 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 6, 2022] Phish

I simply don’t think I have it in me to drive to Atlantic City three days in a row.  And I’m not going to get a hotel room.  So I tend to blow of the middle of three shows there.

Here’s what I missed

The Setlist

Set 1: 46 Days > The Moma Dance, Olivia’s Pool > My Soul, 555 > NICU > Bathtub Gin, Heavy Rotation > Character Zero, Moonage Daydream

Set 2: No Men In No Man’s Land > Tweezer, Set Your Soul Free > Simple > Backwards Down the Number Line > Golgi Apparatus > Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: A Life Beyond The Dream, Tweezer Reprise

Overall, a decent mix of songs.  There were two that I’ve seen a bunch and only one on my Must See list.  So it was probably a good decision to bail.

The six, five and four timers club (bolded songs were played tonight so my number would be one up)

  1. Mike’s Song [6]
  2. Weekapaug Groove [6]
  3. Split open and Melt [5]
  4. You Enjoy Myself [5]
  5. Suzy Greenberg [5]
  6. Wilson [5]
  7. Roggae
  8. 46 Days
  9. Slave to the Traffic Light
  10. Everything’s Right
  11. More
  12. Carini
  13. I am Hydrogen

I have selected the 36 or so songs that I want to hear live (the ones on the bottom are the rest of the Kasvot Voxt album and it would be cool to get the whole thing, but not essential).  These are in order of frequency of play (“Possum” is their second most frequently played song and I have not yet heard it live), which means likelihood I’ll hear them I guess.

  1. Possum [548]  (Weekapaug Groove has been played 497 times and I’ve heard it 5 times)
  2. Golgi Apparatus [469]   would have been nice to hear that one.
  3. Cavern [467]
  4. Foam [349]
  5. Lizards [325]  (Split Open and Melt has been played 332 times and I have seen it 5 times)
  6. Maze [326]
  7. Sample in a Jar [298] [saw it TREY SOLO]
  8. Fee [283]    (Slave to the Traffic Light has been played 272 time and I have seen it 4 times)
  9. It’s Ice [243]
  10. Silent in the Morning [185]
  11. Punch You in the Eye [161]
  12. Prince Caspian [165]
  13. Twist [160]
  14. Scent of a Mule [137]
  15. Guyute [132]
  16. Heavy Things [95] [TAB played it]
  17. Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan [79]
  18. Farmhouse [82] [TREY played it]
  19. Joy [52]
  20. A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing [43]   (Everything’s Right has been played 42 times and i have seen it 4 times)
  21. Pebbles and Marbles [27]
  22. Weigh [44]
  23. Big Black Furry Creatures from Mars [131]
  24. Kung [38]
  25. Fuck Your Face [18]
  26. Mexican Cousin [15]
  27. Ass Handed [17]
  28. Colonel Forbin/Mockingbird
  29. *Stray Dog [Kasvot Växt] [4]
  30. *Everything is Hollow [Kasvot Växt] [3]
  31. *We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains [Kasvot Växt] [9]
  32. *Play By Play [Kasvot Växt] [3]

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Phish: Summer Tour 2022 (Atlantic City Beach, Atlantic City, NJ, August 5, 2022) [night 1 of 3]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Kasvot Växt, Phish on August 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 5, 2022] Phish

I saw phish earlier this summer and wasn’t sure if I was up for another Atlantic City run.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle all three nights, so I decided to do Friday and Sunday.  I also decided that this might be my final Phish shows, these being numbers fourteen and fifteen.

I decided to drive to Atlantic City straight from work on Friday night.  It saved a little grief, although not a lot of time.  I also wound up arriving fairly early, but apparently nowhere near early enough to get the famous Atlantic City posters (people started lining up for them at 2PM).   I parked in the Bass Pro Shops, which I pre-paid for, but I think that it would have been free because the store was closed.  Or something.  It was confusing.

So I wandered around A/C for a bit and enjoyed being plenty early.  The mood was good and I managed to walk all the way through the people set up with blankets and got a walked pretty close to the Paige side of the stage.

One of the bad things as far as Phish for me is that I have never really gotten close to the band–never gotten GA tickets.  So I thought it would be cool to be close (even with so many other people around).

Well, I enjoyed the view and the breeze and was soon rewarded with one my favorite songs “Chalk Dust Torture.”  It was quickly followed by a second favorite “Wilson.”

When Phish plays the shore, they play thematically appropriate songs like “Sand,” a slinky slow grooving song.  Although they had jammed Chalk Dust, this one they stetched out over ten minutes with a grooving mellow jam that seamlessly bounced back to the rugged raw melody of the song before segueing into “Plasma.”  “Plasma” had a bouncy ebullient jam with lots of swirling grooving keys behind Trey’s solos.

This led into a “Theme from the Bottom” a song I really like–many parts, weird melodies and it’s thematically appropriate.  Even though they had just played it at the Mann center back in July. Now I was under the impression that Phish almost never played the same song more than once in a tour.  I know that’s not true.  It may have been true for some tours in the past, but is no longer the case, with some songs getting multiple plays in a tour, but still I was really quite surprised that they played a song  that I heard last month.

This one had a lot of piano and kept a happy vibe as by this time my feet were in the ocean and things were very chill.  It segued into a bouncy “Back on the Train.”  There was a good long solo with so me nice high peaks.

Phish shows, especially at the Mann and Atlantic City are very strange for me because I can actually move around. Usually I am planted in my spot and the only moving I do is to schooch up or move back away from obnoxious people.  So to have the huge amount of freedom that the shore affords is a little unnerving to me.   It’s also my fourteenth Phish show and I’ve given up on the idea of “watching” the band and have accepted that Phish shows are more about the experience.  So yes, sometimes you’re walking away and looking at the water or the sky or the people dancing or whatever.

Then I got my first experience of the title track of their new album “Sigma Oasis.”.  I really like the album and I like this song quiet a bit.  I never expected it to run for over 21 minutes (the 6th longest Phish song I’ve seen them play).  A 20 minute jam on the beach is an interesting thing because you can really wander around and enjoy the sights and everything.  But you still want to get into the vibe and the lights.  I think that the air of COVID has made my usual hesitancy about strangers even more pronounced at events like this, so I’m even more standoffish than usual.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »