[DID NOT ATTEND: September 3, 2026] Nelward / Grocer / Gloorp
I saw Nelward open for TWRP a while back. I hadn’t heard of him, but holy cow a few people in the audience sure did. So Nick “nelward” Elward is an electronic composer based in Atlanta. His music takes cues from video game soundtracks, jazz fusion, old school hip hop, and classic pop. His songs are (mostly) short and (mostly) silly. He came out snazzily dressed and began singing DVD (30 seconds long, although longer live, with the entirety of the lyrics: Have you seen the DVD of me? (repeated).
I found his stuff to be amusing, but just ok. And yet wow, he had some die-hard fans.
I was interested in this how pretty much only for Grocer. I thought I’d get to see them open for Blvck Hippie a few weeks ago, but that fell through. Tonight’s show was the day after we’d returned from a long trip and I knew I wouldn’t have the energy for it. But Grocer does play a lot, so I hope to see them again soon. They are a trio from Philly: Cody Nelson – Drums/Vocals, Danielle Lovier – Bass/Vocals and Nicholas Rahn – Guitar/Vocals. Each member sings and each singer’s musical style is a little different making for a wide ranging musical set all held together by this great band having a lot of fun. I don’t think I stopped smiling once during there set. I definitely want to see them again.
I instinctively want to like a band called Gloorp. Not knowing anything about them, with this line up it’s hard to tell if they are just goofy like nelward or weird but seriously like Grocer.
So Gloorp is from Philly and is the creation of Garrett Burke (with Danny Murillo, and Gabe DeSanto). Pitchfork sums him up:
Burke is a high school marching band kid with a drumming resume that includes stints with Mothers and of Montreal. His albums are half-organic/half-electronic MIDI meld of slamming polyrhythms and gonzo sound effects. There’s hardly even any melodies or samples taking up space—just one skull-rattling fill after another, a daisy-chained string of mulching beats that’s casual, light, and fun as hell. Songs have bouncing bass throbs, a wispy vocal sample weaving its way between the beats like it’s gasping for air. Or a phased-out spoken-word passage from that’s similarly abstracted, used more like extra grease to keep Burke’s water slide nice and slippy. His drums speak for themselves. It’s all very low-key, in that special way an album best heard blasting through beat-up car speakers should be.
So he’s not really like either band. I imagine this is more fun to see live than to listen through good speakers.
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I loved these three bands back in the 1980s. Not on the above order (Anthrax was always near the top), but the only one of the three I’d seen was Iron Maiden.
