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Archive for February, 2025

Cult of Venus (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, February 17, 2025) [LAUREN MAYBERRY]

Posted in Chvrches, Cult of Venus, Lauren Mayberry, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on February 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 17, 2025] Cult of Venus

It was a cold windy night when we headed out to this show.  Luckily, we managed to get really close parking (Monday night shows are good for that).  Which meant we were plenty early to see the opening act, Cult of Venus.

Cult of Venus has had a lot of mystery surrounding her.  I’m sure her identity is known (I didn’t look too hard to find it), but the two main articles I saw gave this info:

Forgoing any photos to remain completely anonymous and undefined, Cult of Venus have given themself the perfect platform from which to build and long and exciting career. ][They make] music that illustrates and illuminates the dystopian world today, challenging the patriarchy and resonating with the “divine feminine.” Her on-the-ground activist work includes support for incarcerated women and environmental protest movements. Her mysterious presentation is often shrouded in darkness, with her identity and face in the shadows. Her secretive appearance aligns her poetic soundscape in a way that not only drives more curiosity to her audience but is calming in a world so focused on desperate self-promotion.  With shows in all-female prisons and detention centres in the books already, as well as a show as part of New York City’s Women’s March, Cult of Venus have a big year planned while being rooted in reform.

They opened the show with a prerecorded message about strength in the face of oppression.  And then she came out, picked up her guitar and stood in front of the keyboard.  

The only problem to me was the fairly lengthy (I mean, it was probably less than a minute, but it was SO QUIET) pause before the first song started.  I feel like she could have timed that a little more smoothly.  But whatever.

She generated some beats and some synths and proved to have a fantastic voice.  When she played guitar, she clearly had it patched into an effects box because it didn’t sound like a guitar–it was very cool. (more…)

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Emo Nite featuring MC Lars (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 14, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Emo Nite, MC Lars, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 14, 2025] Emo Nite featuring MC Lars

I have wanted to see MC Lars for a few years now.  But this wasn’t the way for me to see him.

I didn’t know what Emo Nite was.  I assumed it was just a night of emo music.  Which it is, but apparently, Emo Nite is a THING, an entity that tours.  As their blurb says

We are not a band. We are not DJ’s. We throw parties for the music we love.

Their website goes into detail about how they started and what they play.  Basically they love emo and play a night of emo with guest artists.  If I were younger and liked going out, this is the kind of thing I’d enjoy.  But I don’t want to go to a room to listen to records.

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The Get Up Kids: 25 Years of Something to Write Home About / The Anniversary (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, February 14, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom, The Anniversary, The Get Up Kids on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 14, 2025] The Get Up Kids / The Anniversary

So, once again I missed The Get Up Kids.  They played back in September for this tour and I couldn’t make it.  I hoped  they’d swing around again and they did.  But on Valentine’s Day?

I’m sure many people would find seeing them on Valentine’s Day to be a perfect night.  But, well, not in our house.

I recalled loving The Anniversary‘s album Designing a Nervous Breakdown and being kind of obsessed with them.  And yet, listening to it again now, 25 years later, I don’t really remember it.  But I like it.  I think it would have been fun to see this pairing.  Shame the date was really bad.

I won’t even hope that this tour comes back around, because they are heading to Europe and surely won’t play it again when they come back.

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J. Mascis (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 12, 2025)

Posted in J. Mascis, Kurt Vile, Mike Polizze, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Mountaintops, Purling Hiss, Underground Arts on February 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 12, 2025] J. Mascis

When this show was first announced it turned out to be on the same night as the Babymetal show that my son and I were going to.  But then it was postponed and I grabbed a ticket for the new date.

I couldn’t really imagine J. Mascis in a small club or playing quietly.  Well, this is the same place I saw Thurston Moore a number of years ago.  Amazingly neither legend sold out for a solo show (Thurston wasn’t solo, but it was his solo music).  J was by himself, but I needn’t have worried about being quiet, as he had a massive amp setup on stage.

I don’t know why it took him so long to get on stage (he showed up at 10:10 even though no work had to be done on stage).  His roadie also put like 5 different drinks on his stool, and I don’t think he had any of it.

He came out with a beat up acoustic guitar and proceeded to jam through almost 20 songs.

Before he started, some meathead started the E-A-G-L-E-S chant and J. smiled and then said, I’m impressed you guys can spell.

And then he got to business. (more…)

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Molchat Doma / Sextile (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, February 12, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Molchat Doma, Philadelphia, PA, Sextile on February 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 12, 2025] Molchat Doma / Sextile

I’m so very intrigued by Molchat Doma.  I first heard about them a couple of years ago, and their bio shows them to be right up my street:

Founded in 2017 in Minsk, Belarus, and now residing in Los Angeles, MOLCHAT DOMA stands at the intersection of post punk, new wave and synth pop.

I love the idea of a band from Belarus singing in Belarusian becoming successful in the States.  Indeed, when they played Philly llast year I believe they sold out Union Transfer.  At least according to this blurb from 2022

Fans who missed their sold-out tour earlier this year will have a chance at redemption as the trio play larger venues, fitting for their growth.

In 2022, they played Underground Arts, in 023 they played Union Transfer and this year they are playing Franklin Music Hall–steady growth indeed.

And here’s what Underground Arts said back in 2022 (more…)

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Mike Polizze [Purling Hiss] (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 12, 2025) [J. MASCIS]

Posted in J. Mascis, Kurt Vile, Mike Polizze, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Mountaintops, Purling Hiss, Underground Arts on February 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 12, 2025] Mike Polizze [rescheduled from November 21, 2024]

When this show was first announced I didn’t know if I wanted to go, plus it turned out to be on the same night as the Babymetal show that my son and I were going to.

Initially Pink Mountaintops were supposed to open for this show.  Then a few days ago I saw that it was going to be Purling Hiss.  I was really excited to see Pink Mountaintops (who I haven’t seen before).  There was no notice or explanation of their departure from these shows.  But they were replaced by, as many of the posters say Purling Hiss (Solo).

Purling Hiss is Mike Polizze.  He was the only person on the first few records and the latter records add a drummer and maybe someone else.  But it’s not wrong to say this is Purling Hiss solo.

Polizze had opened for Kurt Vile recently and I enjoyed listening to his set.  And it proved to be quiet similar to this set opening for J Masics.

Mike had an acoustic guitar and a bunch of pedals–mostly a looping pedal, a distortion pedal and a wah wah.

And wow, was he loud.  I anticipated J would be loud, but I think that Mike may have been louder–or his equipment wasn’t mic’d as nicely so it sounded harsher.

Mike looped his guitar chords and then played solos using varying degrees of distortion and volume.  I really enjoyed the amount of looping he did and I was close enough to watch him using the looping pedal–tapping the pedal to add a solo section to loop with the chords, etc. (more…)

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Dan Santat–The Aquanaut (2022)

Posted in Animals, Dan Santat, Death, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Ocean on February 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: February 2, 2025] The Aquanaut

I like Dan Santat (his instagram is fun) and I like his drawing style.  I’ve read a lot of books that he has illustrated but I don’t know that I’ve read all that many books written by him.

This book was pretty weird, but the story was a lot of fun.

The story opens with a man getting killed at sea (yea, pretty shocking).  The man turns out to be the father of the main character, Sophia.

Sophia’s father and her uncle had created a marine theme park called Aqualand.  They were scientists and they wanted to bring the world of the sea to everyone.  But there’s not a lot of money in that so investors kept insisting that they add more excitement to Aqualand.  And soon it was a far cry from what they’d envisioned.

But then one day, an Aquanaut walks out of the sea.  The aquanaut is in a diving suit–the one that her father had used!–It causes quite a stir, obviously, but it has one goal: to find Aqualand.  It’s especially funny when you realize that the suit is being “driven” by three sea creatures.

I enjoyed the story well enough but it did leave a lot of questions, mostly to do with the plot.  There’s no real explanation or even introduction to the sea creatures. And after reading the afterword where Santat talks about how personal the story was to him, I wanted to like it more.  But instead I mostly enjoyed the illustrations and the overall environmental themes and vibe of the book.

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Ben Oliver–The Kill Factor (2022)

Posted in Ben Oliver, Death, Ocean, Violence on February 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: February 8, 2025] The Kill Factor

My daughter brought this book home and encouraged me to read it.  She said it was pretty dark and was kind of like the Hunger Games.

So I read it and I was immediately struck by how dark the book was.  And then by how violent it was!  This book (for teens) does not shy away from death–and violent deaths at that.

We open on a girl named Emerson.  She has been arrested for arson and murder.  She had robbed a school but didn’t know anyone was in the building when it caught fire.  She also doesn’t believe she set the fire, but she may just be blocking out reality.

The world they live in is a few years ahead of ours (but no all that far, it seems).  The currency that people use is followers on social media (no specific media is mentioned).  The popular people have it all–fancy houses, medical attention, schooling.  The unpopular live underground (literally under the Topsiders) and are unlikely to be able to go to college.

Emerson’s younger brother is deaf and when he needed medical attention immediately, the ambulance said they wouldn’t drive below the Topsider dividing line.  She had to carry her sickly brother a pretty long way to reach a street where the ambulance would go.  The kids’ father is so obsessed with getting viewers that he neglect them and everything else while trying to make his videos.

Since they had nothing, Emerson resorted to stealing.  But she got caught.  And she is certain to go to prison.

Until a producer shows up and offers her a chance to go on a new reality show called Redemption Island.  50 young people would be on the island, doing contests.  The most popular ones at the end of the day would continue.  The least popular would be imprisoned for life.  At the end of the show, 49 people would be in jail for life and the last would go free. Emerson thinks this is nuts but her father has already signed off on the deal (she is bitter about that).  But when her brother thinks she should do it–she should earn enough credits for them to get a lot (and for her brother to go to college) and there’s no way a game show can imprison people for life.

She agrees and boards a cruise liner with 49 other kids.  They are branded with a number (and an unpleasant surprise).  And soon enough they learn the truth.  The punishment for losing isn’t life in prison.  It is death.  As in, the completions will kill you.

For instance, the first one finds all fifty kids buried alive.  Those who can’t make it out don’t make it out.

Emerson has bonded with a few like-minded kids and we learn a lot about each of them and what they did to get there–although here are a few people whom we never do learn their infractions, now that I think about it.

Every night the contestants have to film a video diary to try to earn more followers.  And the pretty Topsiders are way way way ahead.

The story was a pretty intense and hard to put down.  It did get a little samey what with the format of the show and the relentlessness of the activities.  There’s a couple of times when people rebel against the producer, which is excellent for disrupting the formula. And, as I said, the story is brutal–it is pretty explicit about people hurting themselves to earn viewers and about how violently they died (there’s no way Emerson is getting reunited with everyone at the end of the “show”).

And unlike many other stories, some of the characters we like are killed too–I mean, literally no one is safe, which makes the terror all the more real.

The ending–the last 100 or so pages just flew by.  In fact, the ending may have been too fast.

And one gripe is a potential hint at a sequel (but don’t worry the book does END).  I’d be curious to see what a sequel might entail–there are so many questions.  But I could also see Oliver not writing one.

I haven’t read a book like this is a while and it was quite exciting.

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Phantogram / meija (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, February 8, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in meija, Phantogram, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia on February 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 8, 2025] Phantogram / meija 

For reasons I don’t really understand, I thought that Phantogram was My Brightest Diamond.  The bands’ names are not similar and they don’t sound much alike.  But I was sure that I had seen Phantogram open for someone.  And I had not.

As it turns out, I’ve been vaguely down on Phantogram for a while, and yet there’s been a song on the radio recently that I really like.  And when I listened to some more of their music I realized that I like them quite a lot–they remind me of Chvrches.  And so I thought I’d grab a ticket for this show.

And then I realized that we had a commitment that night, so all of my dithering was pointless.  But I’ll definitely be listening to more of them.

meija is LA based producer and songwriter Jamie Sierota.  He makes synth-drenched, indie pop adjacent rock.  It’s a little low-key and chill for me, but it seems like a decent pairing for Phantogram.

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Wax Jaw: video shoot and dance party / DJ PTFERRIS96 (Ortlieb’s, Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in DJ PTFERRIS96, Ortlieb's, Philadelphia, PA, Wax Jaw on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 7, 2025] Wax Jaw / DJ PTFERRIS96

Yet again, Wax Jaw eludes me.

This show sounds amazing–a rocking show with an opportunity to watch the band make a video.  How cool would that be?

The blurb says

This will be a Wax Jaw banger to end all Wax Jaw bangers, and all attendees will get to:
⭐️ star in a wax jaw music video
💀 thrash to a fresh wax jaw set
🪩 dance all night with @ptferris96

~BLACK AND PINK ATTIRE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED~

And, yea, I don’t want to be in a Wax Jaw video.  And they don’t want me in a Wax Jaw video.

 

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