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Archive for February, 2024

Militarie Gun / Pool Kids / Spiritual Cramp / Spaced (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, February 14, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in First Unitarian Church, Militarie Gun, Philadelphia, PA, Pool Kids, Spaced, Spiritual Cramp on February 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 14, 2024] Militarie Gun / Pool Kids / Spiritual Cramp / Spaced

I found out a bout this show a few days ago because Pool Kids was playing it. I wasn’t going to go to the Church, so it didn’t really matter who was playing.

I’ve heard of Militarie Gun, who are apparently a post-hardcore supergroup (made up of bands I’ve never heard of) that draws major inspiration from the melodic post-hardcore of the ’90s as well as more alternative-leaning acts.  They formed in 2020, so haven’t been around as long as I assumed for how much I’ve heard their name bandied about.

Their new EP has duets from Bully and Mannequin Pussy.

I feel like I should like them, but I’m not sure yet.

The whole reason I would have gone to this show was for Pool Kids.  I’ve seen them twice and they are amazing live.  They’re one of my favorite bands right now and I’d definitely want to see them again (although preferably as a headliner).

I hadn’t heard of Spiritual Cramp and given the other bands on this tour, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  They’re kind of all over the place genre-wise, which is kind of fun.  They seem to veer punk but are more new wave.  And this little bit from a Pitchfork review seems really apt:

Spiritual Cramp are among a wave of bands, including Militarie Gun and Turnstile, who emerged from hardcore backgrounds and broadened their palettes to include softer, artsier flourishes. [Like] when the Clash realized the natural alliances between punk and reggae, filtered through a hard-sashwaying garage rock lens. Spiritual Cramp integrate dub, spiky guitars, and oi-like crowd-starters, all with a kitschy wink rather than flatly imitating their predecessors. The music is ecstatic rather than enraged, semi-ridiculous rather than self-serious.

I’ve listened to a bunch of their songs and the latest one sounded like The Hives, so they can please (or upset) everyone.  I’ll bet they are really fun live.

Spaced is (despite the visuals of their albums) a hardcore band with a pretty traditional hardcore vibe.  They are from Buffalo.  The big difference for me is that the singer is female and her growling angry voice adds a new tone to the somewhat overdone format of growling angry men.  I liked what I heard

Lexi Reyngoudt – vocals
Joe Morganti – guitar
Donny Arthur – guitar
John Vaughan – bass
Dan McCormick – drums

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Kazu Kibuishi–Amulet: Book Nine: Waverider (2024)

Posted in Aliens, Alternate Reality, Children's Books, Completed Series, Death, Dystopia, Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Kazu Kibuishi, Mystery, Outer Space, Robots, Supernatural, Superstitions, Technology on February 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: February 2, 2024] Amulet: Waverider

It has been SIX YEARS since the previous book came out.  This has been a hotly anticipated release around our house as I got my wife into it and she has gotten a bunch of her students into it.  It’s crazy to think that the students who were reading the books in fifth grade are now in high school.

This book follows Emily as she combats the evil Ikol.  I had assumed that Ikol was the inverse of Loki, but later in the book he explains that it is an acronym–the Intelligent Kinematic Operations Laboratory (the place he was born).

But Emily’s plan is to undo all of the wicked things that Ikol has done to the citizens of this world.  Mostly that involves getting people to look inside of themselves and see their true nature.

Meanwhile Trellis and the elves are heading bac into their own territory.  They are smuggled in as sick prisoners suffering from (I love this) Empathitis.  When they get to the castle, it turns out that Gabilan is in power.  He expects a fight from Trellis, but Trellis says no, he is there to serve the rightfully appointed king.  Everyone is shocked. (more…)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Red-Headed League” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

Posted in Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle, Banks, Fraud, Mystery, Robbery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on February 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 4, 2024] “The Red-Headed League”

The third story in this collection is one that I have heard of and that I know is significant in the canon.  But I didn’t know anything about it, which made reading it even more fun.

Like most stories, it starts with Watson coming over to Holmes’ place while he’s just meeting with a client.  He says he’s quite puzzled by this one.

Jabez Wilson is a man with red hair.  He owns a pawn shop and is not terribly busy these days.  He has a man working for him and the only way he can keep the man is because he accepts half pay.  The employee brought to Wilson’s attention an ad in the paper about the red-headed league.

The league has an endowment and they are looking for a new member to replace one who has left.  For 100 pounds a month, all you need to do is work for a few hours a week.  The line for interviews is very long, but Wilson has the perfect flame-red hair that gets him the gig.  His job is to copy the encyclopedia every day from 10-2.  He is not permitted to leave during those hours and he cannot miss a day or the gig is forfeited.

Pretty weird. (more…)

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Scott Thompson as Buddy Cole in King (City Winery Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, February 10, 2024)

Posted in City Winery Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, Scott Thompson, The Kids in the Hall on February 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 10, 2024] Scott Thompson as Buddy Cole in King

The last time Scott Thompson came to Philly I missed the whole event, so I was really excited to see that he was back in town.  I don’t really know how to keep up with comedians.  Is there a songkick for comedy?

Well, somehow I saw this announcement and I immediately grabbed a ticket.

The crazy thing about this show for me is that I was already going to a show in the day–a matinee with Nels Cline.  I was really excited to go to a matinee show and be home at night.  Whoops.  But two shows in a day isn’t too exhausting if they are both seated and they are each around 90 minutes.

I’ve always loved Scott Thompson and his Buddy Cole character is hilariously inappropriate.

I’d never been to City Winery before.  It’s a weird setup if you’re solo. I wound up sitting in the fourth of four seats that were already claimed by a family of three.  I arrived plenty early and ate a delicious meal before they showed up.  But wow, the table was the size of two tray tables.  It was really cozy.  And this family was not chatty.  With me or with themselves.  Awkward.  The other problem is that I had my back to the stage, so I had to turn in a weird way to see.  But whatever.

Scott was hilarious.

I had forgotten how much Buddy is, as Scott put it “an offensive stereotype.”

He started off by referencing the “Amazon Debacle.”  I don’t really know what happened, but several times he talked about cancelling Amazon.

Ah, well, here’s some context from Brooklyn magazine.

Buddy was supposed to have a bigger role in The Kids in the Hall revival, but Amazon didn’t like his take on the LGBTQI+ community. So Thompson used the snub as fodder and turned his frustration (and unused material) into a new show for Buddy. He’s bringing his show “King” to New York this weekend.

But the Buddy stories are fantastic.  He was there at Stonewall and hung out with Marsha P. Johnson.  The story is funny and at one point he says, I have to look this up because this part is new.

He was hanging out with Margaret Atwood and Dustin Hoffman at the first Burning Man.  He was on a ship sailing towards the Middle East.

And who is he going to offend?  Everyone!

He even made a Polish joke!  (If homophobia and racism are coming back, then so should Polish jokes).  Hilarious.

He began the night by talking about circumcision, of course. And how the popularization of circumcision in America was the fault of those who were too lazy to teach their kids how to clean themselves.  He cites Kellogg as being pro-circumcision (maybe true) but it works for the perfect punchline set up about Corn Flakes–why do you think there’s a cock on the box?

He talks about going to a bris and being visible upset by what is happening.  Someone at the ritual says the baby won’t remember any of it.  Buddy noted that pedophiles say the same thing.

He talked about transgender children (so much more chic than a sissy).  He has a funny bit about pronouns, a friend called Gratitude goes by ze/zir.  He said, if you say “ze” and I’m Canadian, I should say “zed.”  They were not amused.  Their friend has a friend called Circle of Fear who also identifies as irritating.

He talks about the #metoo movement and how its a good thing we don’t still call # a pound sign or else we’d say poundmetoo.

The end of the show revealed the origin of the title of the show King.

He ended the night with an encore performance of his first ever monologue as Buddy from The Kids in the Hall.

It was pretty crazy being in the same room as Buddy Cole.  He interacted a lot with the people in the front seats (including drinking their champagne), but I was happy being a little far back.  It was a really fun night.  And it ended early enough that I was home at a reasonable hour too!

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Nels Cline’s Consentrik Quartet (Solar Myth, Philadelphia PA, February 10, 2024, 3PM matinee)

Posted in Nels Cline, Nels Cline’s Consentrik Quartet, Philadelphia, PA, Solar Myth on February 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 10, 2024] Nels Cline’s Consentrik Quartet

I was excited about this show for a couple of reasons.  I love Nels Cline’s work in Wilco, but I never get to ficus on him because there’s so much else to see in Wilco.  Plus, this was a 3PM matinee show!  I could go to a show and see a great band and be home for dinner!

Well, then Scott Thompson announced a show that evening, so I guess I would be very busy on this Saturday.

I was also excited because I had never been to Solar Myth before, but I’d heard it was a great venue.  Well, little did I realize that Solar Myth is Boot and Saddle!  The venue has been remodeled into more of a coffee shop 9although they do serve wine as well).  They sell jazz records, the bathrooms are less weird and there’s even more room by the door to the venue.

Best of all though is that they didn’t change anything in the performance room.  Our show was seated and I feel like most shows there are seated.  But honestly that just gives you much better sight lines.

So the Consentrik Quartet was introduced by someone from Ars Nova, the non-profit arts company that puts on a lit of experimental shows in New York and Philly.  They bought Boot & Saddle and basically turned it into an experimental jazz club.  Which sounds dire, but this show was packed (all three shows at Solar Myth had sold out).  he told us that contributions to Solar Myth helped Nels Cline get a grant to make music during the pandemic.  So tickets to this show were basically there to keep music like this going.  Pretty cool.

The Consentrik Quartet consists of Nels Cline (Guitar), Ingrid Laubock (saxophone), Chris Lightcap (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums).  The music was 100% experimental jazz, with some parts that were catchy and swinging and other parts that were noisy and skronking with wild sax soloing and crazy chords from Nels.

Each musician was excellent.  Chris Lightcap had the least work to do aside from holding everything together as it spiraled in all directions.  His bass was grounding and perfect, sometimes bowed with occasional runs of his own, but mostly just perfectly placed upright bass notes. (more…)

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An Evening With Band of Horses (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, February 8, 2024)

Posted in Band of Horses, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on February 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 8, 2024] An Evening With Band of Horses

My wife and I saw Band of Horses three times in three years.  But we hadn’t seen them in eight years!  I couldn’t believe it had been so long because the previous show (the first headlining show we’d seen) was so good, so impactful, that we think of it as one of the best shows we’ve seen.

This show promised to be even better because it was going to be an evening with the band–no opening act!

The first set was acoustic.

Ben Bridwell came out and sang St. Augustine solo.  It was lovely.  He had lost his voice about a week ago and I wasn’t sure how good he would sound, but he sounded perfect.

He then invited out Brett Nash to play guitar with him and sing “Part One.”  The harmonies were wonderful.

Then the rest of the band came out.  Creighton Barrett played a small drum kit, Ryan Monroe sat at a grand piano and Matt Gentling played upright bass.

Here the harmonies became outstanding.

Visually the set was charming with each guy in his own little area.  Each one had a lamp and there were candle all over the stage.

Despite the set being acoustic, it wasn’t specifically quiet or mellow.  Indeed, some of the songs were jaunty and rocking but in a fun folk rock way.  (more…)

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Mannequin Pussy: Free at Noon (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, February 9, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Free at Noon, Mannequin Pussy, Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live on February 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 9, 2024] Mannequin Pussy

I have a ticket to see Mannequin Pussy in May and was in no way expecting then to do a Free at Noon in February.  But I was pretty excited to see them in such a small intimate setting.

Then life got in the way.  We were up late the night before seeing Band of Horses and then I had a very late morning getting to work, which made leaving work for a few hours to see a concert harder than it might actually seem.

I did get to listen live on the radio and the band sounded amazing.  I’m really looking forward to seeing them in May.  And I’m looking forward to when they release the live stream of the show.

There’s a great write-up about the set here.

SETLIST

  • I Don’t Know You
  • Nothing Like
  • Sometimes
  • Loud Bark
  • I Got Heaven
  • Romantic
  • Of Her
  • Aching

 

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DJ Shadow /Holly (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, February 8, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in DJ Shadow, Holly, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on February 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 8, 2024] DJ Shadow / Holly

I really liked DJ Shadow’s debut album.  I also bought his remix album.  And then promptly assumed he stopped doing music (or something).  So, essentially I hadn’t thought about him in some 25 years.

He hasn’t released all that much over the years, but his previous album was well received.

I wasn’t sure if I necessarily wanted to see him live.  I mean a DJ… how interesting can that be.  But I was curious to see him do his thing and I’d heard that his live shows were good.

So I bought a ticket.

And then Band of Horses announced a show for the same night.  My wife and I love Band of Horses and there was no way I was passing them up to see a DJ that I wasn’t all that sure about.

So, no DJ Shadow for me.  Maybe I’d see him next time he comes around.  We’ll see. (more…)

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Kevin McDonald: Stories from “The Kids in the Hall” (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2024)

Posted in Kevin McDonald, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Scott Thompson, The Kids in the Hall on February 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 7, 2024] Kevin McDonald

I was so excited to hear about  this show as soon as it was announced.  When Scott Thompson came to PhilamMOCA in 2022 I completely missed it until after it had happened.  So I was psyched to get in on this before it sold out (and a second show was added, but without a musical opener).

The Kids in the Hall was one of my favorite shows in college.  I even liked their “massive bomb” Brain Candy.  I’ve read books about them and books by them. I assumed that I knew all of the good stories.  So I wasn’t entirely sure what Kevin could tell us.  Boy was I naïve.

Kevin came out and was immediately self-deprecating, shying away from our applause.  He then apologized, a lot.  He was sorry that he was a sketch comedian trying to do standup.  He apologized for destroying our childhoods and for making us all fail out of college.  It was a great start.

Kevin told us about the demographics of the people there–34% were 49 years old, dating someone for decades whom they would never marry and who were die-hard KITH fans.  The rest were people who had heard of KITH and lived within walking distance.  And there was a small extra part who were super die hard who loved Brain Candy–they were scary people.

He told us about a time when he was coming out of a place on Queen Street and a very drunk man looked at him and said, “It’s the guy from Brain Cancer!”  He kept shouting “he made brain cancer!” (more…)

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Joe Jack Talcum (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2024) [KEVIN McDONALD]

Posted in Joe Jack Talcum, Kevin McDonald, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Scott Thompson, The Dead Milkmen, The Kids in the Hall on February 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 7, 2024] Joe Jack Talcum

I was so excited to hear about  this show as soon as it was announced.  When Scott Thompson came to PhilamMOCA in 2022 I completely missed it until after it had happened.  So I was psyched to get in on this before it sold out (and a second show was added, but without a musical opener).

I didn’t know who the musical opener was going to be until day of the show where I saw it was Joe Jack Talcum from the Dead Milkmen!  I had somehow thought it might be someone from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, although it makes 100% more sense that it was a local Philly fella.

I have never seen The Dead Milkmen even though I’ve been a fan forever.  I’ve also never seen Joe Jack in any context, so this proved to be a fun, if simple introduction.

He sounded much the same–slightly off-key and really into his songs.  He played acoustic guitar and harmonica and he sang five Dead Milkmen songs and 1 original.

I recognized the first song which was from the final Dead Milkmen album that I seriously listened to.  It made me want to relisten to the album. (more…)

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