I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 15, 2025] clipping.

I haven’t been to the Ukie Club for two years.  A lot of good bands play there and it’s easy to get to and to park around, but something about the club feels so young (although Ty Segall did play there and he’s not young).  The last time I was there, I wrote:

Wow was it hot in The Ukie Club.

And this time I say, holy crap was it hot in the Ukie Club!  I sweated from the second I walked in and my shirt was soaked so thoroughly that it was still wet when I got home an hour after the show ended.  There were a/c units on, but they did nothing near the stage.

But even sweating constantly couldn’t ruin a fantastic show.

We saw clipping. open for The Flaming Lips back in 2017.  They were supposed to play Philly during COVID and now, finally, after eight years, they have returned.

For the last show I had just learned about them (and liked them) about a month before this show.  And I wrote

Lest this seem like a vanity project for Diggs, producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes [Snipes is a sound designer, film composer, and experimental musician who records glitchy, snarky pop-deconstructionist noise music under the name Captain Ahab; Snipes and Hutson are also in the noise band Unnecessary Surgery] are the forces behind all of the music.  The group began in 2009 as a remix project, with Hutson and Snipes taking a cappellas of mainstream rap artists and making power electronics and noise remixes of them to amuse themselves. Diggs joined in 2010 and began to write his own raps over their compositions.  By the way, if we can trust Wikipedia, Diggs and Hutson met in grade school, and Hutson and Snipes were college roommates.  And for the record, Hamilton premiered in Jan 2015.

Unlike last time, I was right up front for this show.  I could have gotten closer but I was enjoying leaning against the pole that’s about six feet from the stage.

The producers for clipping. came out and set up their laptops (cool visuals) and shortly Daveed Diggs came up on stage full of smiles.  And then they began.  So I didn’t know they had a new album out, and that’s fine because I was able to hear most of it tonight.

The music that Hutson & Snipes make is great–noisy, glitchy and sometimes without a beat.  But they basically give Diggs plenty of room to do his thing–fast, literate, witty and pointed rapping.  And fast is an understatement  I can’t believe the speed with which he can spit lyrics and still have them be 90% understood.

They played two new songs and then jumped back to an oldie, Wriggle.

Then came two from the previous album, the one I know best, Visions of Bodies Being Burned and then two more from CLPPNG (the super catchy Body & Blood).

Then Daveed announced that our world would soon change.  And up on stage came Counterfeit Madison, who sat at the keys and sang All in Your Head quietly and beautifully.  I believe she may have sung Long Way Away (I don’t know the songs and Madison played for what sounded like two songs). Someone in the crowd grumbled a bit and she said, someone’s complaining, that’s good.

The rest of clipping. hung out by the side of the stage and watched her.  I was a little concerned that the rest of the set was going to be only Madison, but Diggs jumped up and  played a few more new songs.  I was pretty delighted that they played Shooter (I don’t know how many older songs they tend to play, so it was great to hear that one).

Then Diggs put on mirror shades to sing Mirrorshades Pt.1it was too hot or if we wanted more.  Obviously we wanted more and he did not disappoint.

They finished the set with more songs from the new album and the second of two songs from Addiction to Blood.

They finished the set and Daveed said that normally they’d walk off and wait but there was nowhere to go, so they’d just hang out.  He said they had to decide what to do for the encore–they didn’t have time to discuss it since there was no break.  People started shouting things and he said that it wasn’t a time for requests–they were going to talk about it as a band.

They played a ripping Enlacing and then ended with a cover of J-Kwon’s Tipsy.  I didn’t know it but it was fun to sing along to “everyone get tipsy in this bitch”

It was so hot by the end, that I couldn’t wait to get to the water jug.  While I was drinking, Daveed Diggs walked up to go into the back room.  He turned back and looked right at me and I told him the set was amazing.  And he said thanks.  So I had a brief chat with a Tony winner!

I bought a cool shirt and sweated my way to the car.

A hot and exhausting, but awesome night.

2025 headlining	2017 Open for Flaming Lips
Ask What Happened ≅	Inside Out ¢
Change the Channel ≅	Shooter §
Wriggle §	The Breach  ⊗
Body for the Pile ‰	Air ‘Em Out ⊗
Say the Name ‰	Baby Don’t Sleep ⊗
Scams ≅	Work Work ¢
Work Work ¢	Wriggle §
Body & Blood ¢	Body & Blood ¢
All in Your Head ♠	Story Ø
Long Way Away ⊗	Story 2 ¢
Night of Heaven ≅
Dodger ≅
Keep Pushing ≅
Code ≅
Shooter §
Mirrorshades Pt.1 ≅
Run It ≅
Dominator ≅
Nothing is Safe ♠
Ask What Happened ≅
encore
Enlacing ‰
Tipsy (J‐Kwon cover)

≅ Dead Channel Sky (2025)
‰ Visions of Bodies Being Burned (2020)
♠ There Existed an Addiction to Blood (2019)
⊗ Splendor & Misery (2016)
§ Wriggle EP (2016)
¢ CLPPNG (2014)
Ø midcity (2013)