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Archive for October, 2024

Fontaines D.C. / Been Stellar (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Been Stellar, Fontaines D.C., Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia on October 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 20, 2024] Fontaines D.C. / Been Stellar

I’ve seen Fontaines D.C. twice and each time I’ve found the crowd to be unpleasant.  I decided that I didn’t need to see them again.  Especially in a place like the Fillmore–a huge venue that lends itself to bad behaviour.

They released a new album, though and my wife really likes the songs she’s heard and she wondered if we should go.  Then we saw that the show was on a special day for someone in my family.

So that’s THREE shows I would have gone to on one day.  And the day in question was not cool for us.

Oof.

I’m intrigued by Been Stellar and have heard good thigs about them.  I hadn’t heard anything by them and listened to a few clips just now and I don’t really get much of a feeling from them–fuzzy alt rock.  They’re kind of a buzz band, but I’d need to hear more.

Huh, last year I said I listened to a few songs and really liked them.  Maybe I didn’t give a good enough listen this time.

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Acid Mothers Temple / Spirit Mother (Milkboy, Philadelphia, PA, October 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Milkboy, Philadelphia, PA, Spirit Mother on October 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 20, 2024] Acid Mothers Temple / Spirit Mother

I try to never miss an Acid Mothers Temple show.  But they placed this one on the night of a special day for someone in my family.  So there was no way I’d be going out to any shows.

It would have been interesting to see them on a small stage like Milkboy.

But AMT tends to come back every year or so, so I hope to see them next year. (more…)

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The Mountain Goats / Tift Merritt (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, October 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, The Mountain Goats, Tift Merritt on October 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 20, 2024] The Mountain Goats / Tift Merritt

Back in 2021 I wrote:

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.

This year they played McCarter Theater in Princeton–an amazing venue and super close to my house.  I was just about to grab tickets when I realized that it was the same day as a birthday in my family.  So, yes, their timing is terrible.

I thought I knew Tift Merritt, but I guess I have just heard of her.  She is a singer-songwriter in the alt country vein.  I’m sure she would have been a pleasant opening act, although it would have been cooler if it was only The Mountain Goats.

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Starcrawler (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2024) [BORIS]

Posted in Boris, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler, Union Transfer on October 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Starcrawler

Starcrawler goes down as probably the biggest let down from a build up for me at a concert.

I had wanted to see Starcrawler for about 5 years because I had heard such great things about their live show.  Since then, their show had evolved (as it probably should) and instead of the crazy rockers I thought I was getting, instead, I got a cocksure LA band who were snotty to the crowd and way overconfident in an unpleasant way.

So, while I might normally have been really excited to see them, I was a little bummed that they were opening for Boris without hearing anything new from them.

There’s a few songs by them that I really do like.  And they didn’t play either “Hollywood Ending” or “No More Pennies.” But the did play the two songs that I liked least when I saw them last time, covers of two genuinely terrible songs, If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough and Pet Sematary (easily the worst Ramones song ever).

The one thing that made me happy was when Wata from Boris came out and played guitar on Kick Me. (more…)

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Air: Moon Safari tour / two DJs Rachel Aiello and Veronica Vasicka (The Met Philadelphia, PA, October 17, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Air, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 17, 2024] Air

When Air announced their Moon Safari tour, my first thought was, are Air still together?  The answer to that is, I guess so.  They haven’t released any music since 2012, but I’m not sure if they ever “broke up.”

But that doesn’t matter because they were coming to the States to play Moon Safari, a great album.

And then I saw how much the tickets were.  Astronomical!  Then I listened to Moon Safari again (which I hadn’t done in a long time) and decided I didn’t need to see this.

All accounts say the show was amazing, but that’s okay.  (more…)

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The The: Ensouled World Tour (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2024)

Posted in Matt Johnson, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The The on October 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 15, 2024] The The

I’ve ben a fan of The The forever.  My friend Garry got me into them with the Infected album and I’ve been a fan ever since.  When they played the US in 2018 I was willing to brave the Holland Tunnel to see them in New York.

And it was great.  The band was great, Matt sounded great and they played so many songs that I love.

I was surprised when six year later he announced that there would be a new album (!) and a World Tour.  I grabbed a ticket immediately when it was announced that they were playing Philly.  I’m not sure that I would have gone into New York again, but I was happy to go to Philly.

I found out later that they were going to play the entire new album and then play some hits. Cool.

It turned out that apparently President Biden was going to be in Philly that night so I left really early to avoid traffic snarls.  But there weren’t any and I arrived crazy early. Especially when I learned that the doors opened at 7:30 not 7.  In a nutshell, I was able to get right up on the guardrail (almost).

They played snippets from Johnson’s Radio Cineola (including a very quiet request for people to not take photos/videos) of the show.

And then they played the new album.  I’ve listened to it a few times and quite like it.  But i can’t say I knew it (especially the last few songs) very well.  (more…)

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Xiu Xiu / mcdazzler / J Lesser (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in J Lesser, mcdazzler, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Xiu Xiu on October 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 14, 2024] Xiu Xiu / mcdazzler / J Lesser

I’ve been intrigued by Xiu Xiu for quite a while.  The band is an experimental art-pop group of Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo, and David Kendrick.  Although I don’t really know all that much about them, I’ve heard their live shows were pretty wild.

But it seems like I’d probably never actually go to a show of them.  Especially if there were other shows going on that week.

Although seeing the opening acts, maybe a future show should be investigated.

mcdazzler is someone I’d never heard of.  She sounds like a wild and fun show–she is in the video for Xiu Xiu’s latest song (it is quite NSFW).

Behind the @mcdazzler handle is Alicia McDaid, a self-proclaimed “disgusting feminist” who has been making confessional, character-driven performance art since the late ’90s. After a stint at Smith College and some time in London she ended up in Portland. While working as a traveling puppeteer touring the Pacific Northwest states she found herself lonely and unhappy, and with a friend’s camcorder embarked on a series of videos where she simply cried on camera or performed monologues in character

J Lesser is the stage name for Jason Doerck–between 2003 and 2006 Doerck was a member of the laptop group Sagan, alongside Blevin Blectum, Wobbly, and video artist Ryan Junell.

He was listed as Lesser on the bill, but there is a band called Lesser from the UK.  It’s not that band.

I listened  to some of his stuff on Soundcloud, and I guess it’s exactly what you might expect a laptop musician who is opening for Xiu Xiu to sound like.  Lots of noises and sounds and no beats or rhythm.  If I was in the mood, I’d have enjoyed this, but I definitely wasn’t.

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Sparta : Porcelain 20th Anniversary tour / Common Sage / Hiroe (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 13, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Common Sage, Hiroe, Philadelphia, PA, Sparta, Underground Arts on October 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 13, 2024] Sparta / Common Sage / Hiroe

I really enjoyed seeing Sparta last year.  The songs were intense and great.  So when they announced this tour of the Porcelain album, I was on board.

But then October turned out to be a really busy month for me and I just couldn’t go to concerts every night.  So this one had to get dropped.

Common Sage is from Brooklyn.  They’ve been around since 2018 and play pretty heavy emo.  They’re not very prolific and I wonder if this tour was signifying a new album.

Hiroe is a Philly band.  I find that I’m more interested in underground Philly bands than bands from other places, possible because I think Philly bands tends to be a little weirder.  I mean, Hiroe is pronounced Hero-way for starters.  I’m also intrigued by them because they play intense instrumentals ala Explosions in the Sky.  They have one album that came out in 2022.  The first song is 2 and a half minutes, the last song (called Doom Moon) is over 8.  I’d like to see them.

 

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An evening with PJ Harvey (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 13, 2024)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, PJ Harvey, The Met Philadelphia on October 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 13, 2024] An evening with PJ Harvey

In the 1990s PJ Harvey was one of my favorite musicians.  Her first few albums are just amazing.

Over the years, she has morphed away from that sound and into a very different style.  Critics seem to like it, but I’m not as big of a fan.

A review from WXPN notes:

PJ Harvey and her band opened the evening with a front-to-back performance of the new record.

An album that I didn’t think that much of.  The review continues

If woodsy, Celtic-folk PJ Harvey is not your speed, admittedly you would’ve struggled through the first half of the set, but punk and desert metal-lite PJ were there for you in the end.

They played 6 out of 25 songs that I would have wanted to hear, so it wouldn’t have been the most exciting show for me.  The strange thing is that if I had heard PJ Harvey now (woodsy, Celtic-folk) I would very probably enjoy her music.  But because she used to do something I loved, it’s hard to enjoy the new style.

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Neko Case / Lucy Wainwright Roche (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 12, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Neko Case on October 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 12, 2024] Neko Case / Lucy Wainwright Roche

I know of Neko Case through New Pornographers.  I like a lot of her solo material.  I’ve wanted to see her live for a while.  But when this show was announced I couldn’t believe how expensive the tickets were.

I guess since I missed her show two years ago, this would have been the one to go to, as according to the review at WXPN:

Setlist-wise, the show was nearly identical to their last Union Transfer appearance, two years back, just a few months following the release of a career-retrospective compilation spanning Case’s six studio albums across almost twenty years of solo recordings – with both tour setlists as well as the compilation notably excluding the singer’s 1997 debut record.

That does make me glad I didn’t go to both shows, though.

Opening the night was “folk bonafide” Lucy Wainwright Roche.  She is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Suzzy Roche, so she has music coming out of every pore.  her music is gentle folk and according to that same WXPN review, her set was “equal parts VH1-storytellers and legitimately humorous stand-up comedy.”

 

 

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