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Archive for May, 2024

Guster: Free at Noon (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, May 17, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Free at Noon, Guster, Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on May 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 17, 2024] Guster

My wife told me that she heard Guster was doing Free at Noon and we frantically tried to figure out if she could get the day off so  we could go.

As soon as I logged into the page, I saw that it was sold out!  I was so bummed.

I can’t believe that the last time I saw Guster: Free at Noon was five years ago!  I would have guessed it was two years at most.

The setlist was mostly new songs (the new album was released today).

There’s a video of the set online and, as usual, the show looks great.

  • Keep Going
  • Stay With Me Jesus
  • Witness Tree
  • Hang On
  • Keep It Together
  • Black Balloon
  • Satellite
  • This Could All Be Yours

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The Avett Brothers / City and Colour (The Mann Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in City and Colour, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, The Avett Brothers on May 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 16, 2024] The Avett Brothers

Three years ago I wrote:

I enjoyed them last time I saw them, but the crowd was terrible,  Nevertheless, it would take a lot to get me to go to The Mann Center to see them–it’s just too inconvenient for me.

Maybe some other tour.

Here it is three years later and they’re back at The Mann Center.  And I’m still not willing to go there to see them.

City and Colour is Dallas Green, the clean singer from Canadian band Alexisonfire.  I liked them a lot (especially his parts).  I’ve also enjoyed some of his solo stuff, which tends to be more folkie.

I’ve often thought it would be interesting to see him live.  He seems like a decent guy and I imagine his shows would be enjoyable.

Maybe I’ll get to see both of them some day.

 

 

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Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (肉包不吃肉) [Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat]–Remnants of Filth / Yuwu (余污) [Pollution] Book 2 (2019) [translation 2023]

Posted in China, Danmei, Drinking, 肉包不吃肉, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Magic, Magical Realism, Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat, Military, Romance, Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, Rui, Sex, Translation, Violence, Yu on May 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: May 13, 2023] Remnants of Filth Book 2

I didn’t expect to read any more books in this series, but then book 2 came to my desk and I had to see what happened next.  Now I’m half way into the series and I’m very curious how it will play out.  But I’m quite certain I’ll never see Part 3.  Incidentally, our library had books 2-4 of Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou’s more noteworthy series The Husky and the White Cat Shizun (why don’t we have book one?)

So, it’s been a while, what did I say last time?

The author of this book is Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (or Roubaobuchirou).  In Chinese that is 肉包不吃肉 which literally translates into Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat.  This last phrase is what she is commonly known as in the United States.

This book is danmei.  According to The Guardian:

Danmei is romantic fiction about men or male beings – ghosts, foxes, even a mushroom – falling in love, written almost exclusively by and for straight women and is the most popular genre of fiction in China.

This series is about two soldiers.  Mo Xi and Gu Mang.

The two were friends and then lovers when they were younger.  They fought together and they loved each other.  This was largely forbidden and no one knew of their relationship.

And then (and we don’t know why in this book), Gu Mang switched sides.  He joined forces with the enemy.  And on the battlefield when Mo Xi and Gu Mang faced each other, Gu Mang stabbed his friend and lover in the heart.  There’s magic in these books, and Mo Xi survived.

In book one, Mo Xi brought Gu Mang out of the slavery he was stuck in.  Mo Xi has to do some twisting of reality for people to believe that he is holding on to Gu Mang for reasonably reasons but Mo Xi is so virtuous, no one questions his motives. (more…)

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Amon Amarth / Cannibal Corpse / Obituary / Frozen Soul (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA, May 13, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Amon Amarth, Cannibal Corpse, Frozen Soul, Obituary, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 13, 2024] Amon Amarth / Cannibal Corpse / Obituary / Frozen Soul

When this tour was announced I had the choice of seeing them at The Wellmont in NJ or the Fillmore in Philly.

I chose the Wellmont because it is smaller and I thought it would be more fun.  I see too many shows in Philly anyway.

It worked out for the best as my wife and I were going to see Neil Young on Sunday night, so this left the rest of the week free.

I’ve really enjoyed Amon Amarth in the past and since my son and his friends enjoyed them when we saw them last year, it was a no brainer for the fur of us to see them headline.

I wasn’t to thrilled with the rest of the lineup, honestly.  I’ve seen Cannibal Corpse a few years ago and once was enough (although now that I heard what a genuinely nice guy Corpsegrinder is, I certainly like them a lot more).  It’s fascinating though that they’ve been a band since 1988 (and appeared in Ace Ventura Pet Detective!  They were an integral early band in the Tampa death metal scene.

Obituary is another super old school band from Tampa (formed in 1984, so even older).  It’s kind of weird that Amon Amarth, who is a Swedish band and not really a death metal band (they’re all about Vikings, but they do sing in a growly way) would invite two early death metal bands.

I know of them (their logo is very familiar) but I guess I never listened to anything they did.  They are heavy and fast but the singer actually does a kind of high voice when he sings (as well as some growling).  It’s a different vibe to be sure and more of what I think about with 80’s metal bands.

Frozen Soul is a death metal band from Texas.  They formed in 2018.  I had not heard of them and wasn’t really that interested in seeing them anyway.  They are heavy death metal with growling vocals.

If it weren’t for the headliners I ‘d have had n interest in this tour at all.

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, May 12, 2024)

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2024] Neil Young & Crazy Horse

My wife and I are both big fans of Neil Young.  Although we tend to prefer different eras, we enjoy most of his catalog pretty equally.

We had seen him play solo ten years ago.  We saw him play Promise of the Real nine years ago.  If we ever got to see hi again, I never would have guessed it would be with Crazy Horse.  I would have loved to get close up seats for this show, but JFC, the pit and front row seats were like $600 a piece.  I actually assumed we were priced out, but I knew how much we both wanted to see him (I mean, Neil is 78 how many more tours is he going to do?).  So I bought two not-outrageously priced seats in the 200 second (front row).

The band wasn’t exactly Crazy Horse.  Nils Lofgren is playing with Bruce Springsteen (booo).  But he was replaced by Micah Nelson (who I have seen as Particle Kid).  Truth be told, I couldn’t tell a difference.  They were far enough away and the spotlights blurred everything anyway.  But he sounded great, as did everyone else.

In classic Crazy Horse style, the three guys up front stood about a foot away from each other.  So despite the size of the stage (and the massive Marshall stack backdrops), they were all within whispering distance of each other.  Which I assume was Neil’s way of letting everyone know what was happening next.  (more…)

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Avatar / Oxymorrons / Conquer Divide (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, May 12, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Avatar, Conquer Divide, Oxymorrons, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 12, 2024] Avatar / Oxymorrons / Conquer Divide

This is a show I was so psyched to go to.  Until I realized it was the same night as Neil Young and my wife and I werre pretty darn psyched to go to see Neil with Crazy Horse.

I’ve seen Avatar three times and I really wanted to see them headline one more time.

I’ve seen Oxymorrons twice and I have loved every second of their shows–I can’t wait to see the again.

Conquer Divide is the only band I was unfamiliar with.  They are a metalcore band, with the twist that all of the members are female, which is pretty awesome.  And frankly, the one really bad thing about metalcore is the vocals.  For Conquer Divide, clean vocalist Kiarely “Kia” Castillo sings in a relatively high register–something that metalcore tends to leave out entirely.  And unclean vocalist Janel Duarte (who just left the band) has a great scream that’s not cookie monster like, it’s a good passionate scream.

This would have been a great show.  Stupid double booked nights.

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Chicano Batman / Lido Pimienta (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 12, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Chicano Batman, Lido Pimienta, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2024] Chicano Batman 

I saw Chicano Batman three years ago and really enjoyed the show and the vibe of the crowd.

I would definitely had gone to the show except for three reasons.

  1. Avatar, Oxymorrons, Conquer Divide were the same night and I would have gone to that show in a heartbeat
  2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, a show my wife and I were over the moon to see.
  3. It was Mother’s Day.  If the other two shows hadn’t existed, I was still going to be home for Mother’s Day.

Lido Pimienta had a song that was on WXPN a few years ago that I really liked.

She is a Colombian Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter whose 2016 album, La Papessa, won the 2017 Polaris Music Prize.  She plays traditional indigenous and Afro-Colombian musical styles such as Cumbia and Bullerengue and merges it with contemporary synthpop and electronic music.

She’s quite delightful.

This would have been a really fun set.

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Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, May 12, 2024) [NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE]

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2024] Reverend Bill & the Stop Shopping Choir

I didn’t know there was going to be an opening act for this show until a few days before the event.  I was glad that there would be one because Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is a pain in the ass to get into on time.

When we saw Pearl Jam, we missed the opening act entirely because of the poor infrastructure there.

It was even better that the opening act was a band I’d never heard of and didn’t care about.

So who are this Choir?  Wikipedia says

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is a radical performance community based in New York City. The Stop Shopping Choir is accompanied by a comic preacher, Reverend Billy, portrayed by performer William (Billy) Talen. The philosophy of the Church of Stop Shopping surrounds the imminent “Shopocalypse”, which assumes the end of humanity will come about through manic consumerism.

The Stop Shopping Choir accompanies Reverend Billy and stages guerrilla theater style actions, singing on the property of the Disney stores, Monsanto facilities, and Trump Tower, among others. They are often considered part of the Culture jamming movement.

The group uses the content from their direct actions to create songs that are performed on concert stages and in cabarets. The director of these shows is church co-founder Savitri D.

The character of Reverend Billy was developed in the early 1990s by actor and playwright, William Talen. His family was Dutch Calvinist.  The Reverend Billy character isn’t so much a parody of a preacher, as a preacher motif used to blur the lines between performance and religious experience. “It’s definitely a church service,” Talen explained to Alternet, but, he added, it’s “a political rally, it’s theater, it’s all three, it’s none of them.

(more…)

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Amon Amarth (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, May 9, 2024)

Posted in Amon Amarth, Cannibal Corpse, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on May 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 9, 2024] Amon Amarth

My son and his friends saw Amon Amarth open for Ghost last summer.  So when they announced a headlining tour, I grabbed us tickets.

I thought it would be really fun to see them headline (although their set was actually smaller than when they opened, probably because it was a much smaller venue).  I also thought it would be really cool to see them in a smaller venue and to be on the floor.

The Cannibal Corpse crowd really took up the whole pit, but when they ended a lot of people left, I guess.  The floor opened up and we headed down there.  The crew went to the front right and I stayed in the center back assuming it would be far enough from the pit but still a great view.

Well, it turns out that at an Aman Amarth show, the pit starts pretty far back and I was pretty much right in the middle of it (cane and all).  I quickly made my way out of that area but was pushed and shoved through most of the show as people tried to get into the pit.

There was a lengthy intro (after a few verses of Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”) while their logo swirled around on stage.  And then the curtain dropped and there was the giant Viking helmet drum set.  That’s when the pit started and I didn’t focus on much of the first song as I tried to clamber over people to safety.

It was pretty great seeing them from this close. You could see singer Johann Hegg ((who had a horn of mead (I assume) on his belt and a swagger in his walk) smile as he welcomed the crowd.  And the songs were so much more visceral with the crowd pulsing around us.

One of the best things about an Amon Amarth show is the theatrics.  The stage set was a little smaller (no giant inflatable vikings), but the participation on stage was full-on.

I didn’t get to fully appreciate the first song as I was getting bumped around. But for Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags two gues stood on either side of the stage and waved giant flags.

I really enjoyed the way the various band members walked around the stage visiting all the people in the front and acknowledging everyone.  Hegg encouraged everyone to do a circle pit (and everyone obliged. (more…)

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Cheekface / Yungatita (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cheekface, First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, Yungatita on May 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 11, 2024] Cheekface / Yungatita

I saw Cheekface a year ago and absolutely loved their set.  I was really looking forward to seeing them again, but they chose to play at The Church, which I don’t go to.  For those keeping score, The Church holds 200 more people than the Ukie Club, so good for them.  Next time they come maybe they’ll be bummed up to Union Transfer.

Yungatita is a band I hadn’t heard of (although they have a song on Spotify “7 Weeks & 3 Days” that has over 77 million plays!

The band is the brainchild of East LA’s Valentina Zapata, Yungatita — who previously released a 2020 solo EP with a groovy, low-fi, retro sound titled Over You — returns with a full band in preparation for their slacker-pop debut LP, Shoelace & a Knot.  That “7 Weeks” song is bedroomy and synthy, but their newer stuff rocks.

Album of the year says that Shoelace 

is the perfect blend between fun, sunny amateur indie rock and ambitious, angry and screamy intentions behind said cutesy indie rock, all in a very digest 35 minutes that never leaves you bored. … infectious melodies and hunger in all of the instrumentals from the surfer-rocky guitar riffs to the hella dynamic and catchy drumming to the harmonies yungatita does with herself that serve as a melodious instrument themselves. The one word I’d use to describe this project is “catchy” – every single bit of instrumentation is an instant hit.

This sounds like it would have been a really fun show (and I would have been the oldest person there by 20 years).

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