I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 21, 2026] Remember Sports

A few years ago my son was listening to Remember Sports as I walked past his room.  I liked the song and made a mental note of the band.  I have no idea what song it was now, but it was really good.

I hadn’t really heard much about them since.  I assumed they had broken up.  But no, they just took four years to make their latest album.

They announced an album release show at Kung Fu Necktie and I grabbed a ticket, not really knowing what to expect.  Although during the show, they admitted that they’d played in Brooklyn the night before.

I felt a little bad being right at the front of the stage since I wasn’t a huge fan, but whatever–the songs were new (mostly) so I assumed most people didn’t know all the words yet.

They opened the set with the first three songs on the album.  The opening song Across the Line has been getting lots of airplay on WXPN so I knew that one well.   And I had listened to the album a few times so I recognized most of the songs.

Bug starts heavy. I was in front of guitarist Jack Washburn who was really fun to watch–he played great solos and switched easily from noisy to quiet.  Bug segued into Thumb, which is under 2 minutes long–it was a fast and heavy start.

But they weren’t going to play the whole album in order.  They played two songs from their Sports album–Tiny Planets and You’re So Sorry, two ripping songs both under two minutes.

I really enjoyed bassist Catherine Dwyer who sang excellent backing vocals and in true bass player fashion, was chill and low key while everyone else was looking intense.  She also took over the banter portion when Carmen admitted that she forgot about the banter.  Catherine asked, what everyone had for dinner.  Sushi was well received by the band

I couldn’t see drummer Connor Perry unless I looked in the mirror at the side of the stage, but his drums sounded great.

They returned to the new album but not with the next song.  They jumped down to Cut Fruit before returning to the album order with Selfish.

Singer Carmen Perry switched between acoustic and electric guitars from time to time.  And her singing was uniformly great–she has a distinctive delivery that was even more fun live.  It was kind of funny that she seemed so quiet between songs when she (often) sings so loudly.  Although a song like Selfish is quieter with a great bassline.  I really liked the sound of Dwyer’s bass.

Jack contributed backing vocals from time to time as well, so there was lots of backups on Selfish.  Ghost was one of the longer songs of the night.  There were bagpipes on the song which they said meant they had to tune the song to the bagpipes because they only come in one key.  Dwyer made a (pretty funny) joke about the bagpipes and then acknowledged that it was her idea to have them on the record.

Fridge slowed things down (Carmen played acoustic) and then they jumped a couple of songs to the delightfully named Yowie–a faster song but with Carmen still on acoustic guitar).

Then they jumped to some old songs again.  Only one song from Slow Buzz, the rocking and bouncy Calling Out and then Easy from Like a Stone.  I don’t know which of their older songs are people’s favorites, but I assume all of the older songs were the fan favorites.

Returning to the album, they played Zucchini, which featured a whole mess of “hoo hoo hoos” which Carmen joked about.  The louder Soothe/Seethe was fun to hear live and they ended the album with Nevermind.  Carmen joked that they wanted to call the album Nevermind, since there was already a famous album with that name, but they decided not to–it would have been funny, though, she admitted.

They played a song from their last album, the EP Leap Day (which says they didn’t have a drummer for so they used a drum machine).  This explains the drum machine when they played the song.

They played the entire new album except for the song Roadkill.  It was supposed to come before Out Loud, but I ‘m guessing they ran out of time.  This is the second show I’ve seen at KFN where the headliner had their set cut a little short.  I’m guessing they have some kind of event going on at 10, because there was an announcement that they had to be done by 9:45.  Roadkill is one of the longer songs, so they skipped it.

Earlier during Selfish, the power cut out to some of their gear.  I actually couldn’t tell since I was right up front and it was a quiet moment.  But as soon as Jack trued to sing it was clear something was wrong.  They had to wait a little while until the crew fixed the problem.  But I’m fairly certain this problem is why they had to cut their setlist one song short (I mean, why would they play one fewer song in Philly rather than New York).  I’m assuming Out Loud is a fan favorite (the crowd went nuts when they started it).  This song was loud and fun and had a lengthy ending in which every member of the band (even Perry) got to sing a little.  It reminded me of Ratboys in the best way.

And then it was 9:45 and they were done.  I’m not sure if they went over by their merch to sign stuff.  I wanted to check out their new T-shirt, but the KFN merch area is nuts.  And I was just really happy to be heading home before 10PM. But it was a great show and I really like the new album.

SETLIST

1. Across The Line ®
2. Bug ®
3. Thumb ®
4. Tiny Planets Π
5. You’re So Sorry Π
6. Cut Fruit ®
7. Selfish ®
8. Ghost ®
9. Fridge ®
10. Yowie ®
11. Calling Out §
12. Easy ♣
13. Zucchini ®
14. Soothe/Seethe ®
15. Nevermind ®
16. Leap Day £
17. Out Loud ♣

® The Refrigerator (2026)
£ Leap Day EP (2022)
♣  Like a Stone (2021)
§ Slow Buzz (2018)
Π SPORTS (2013)