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Archive for the ‘Ardmore, PA’ Category

Superchunk / Tee Vee Repairmann (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, September 10, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Superchunk, Tee Vee Repairmann on September 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 10, 2025] Superchunk / Tee Vee Repairmann

I’ve been a fan of Superchunk forever, but I only got to see them a few years ago for the first time.  I saw them once more and kind of thought I didn’t need to see them again.  However, when they announced this show at Ardmore Music Hall, I thought it would be a great place to see them.  So I grabbed a ticket and was really looking forward to the show.

When I found out that my favorite artist made a poster for the tour (see right), I was even more excited to go.

I had been to two shows already this week (Pulp being basically spontaneous), so it was strongly suggested that I should stay home Wednesday night.  I had already given up on going to see Supergrass on Thursday, so I thought I might be able to sneak in this show, but I stayed home instead and had a delightful evening.

Tee Vee Repairmann is Sydney, Australia’s Ishka Edmeades.  There must be something n the air in Australia, because Edmeades is almost as prolific as King Gizzard.  He is (or is in) all of these bands (I haven’t heard of any of them): Satanic Togas, Set-Top Box, Research Reactor Corp, Gee Tee, Remote Control, Mainframe, 3D & The Holograms.

As Tee Vee Repairmann he writes short (like 2 minute) songs that are pop/garage punk.  Fun and simple, they’d be a perfect match for Superchunk.  (Live, he has a full band, who I assume played with him for these shows.

 

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Waxahatchee (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 22, 2024) Philly Music Fest Night 2

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Philly Music Fest, Waxahatchee on October 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] Waxahatchee

My wife and I saw Waxahatchee open for Courtney Barnett six years ago.  I hadn’t remembered that I had seen her a few months earlier with her full band.

I’ve considered seeing her again since then, but I didn’t go back in 2022.  I was looking forward to seeing her a few months ago at the Fillmore, but the show turned out to be between two Pearl Jam shows and we couldn’t possibly do it all.

This show proved to be exactly the same as the two Fillmore shows just without the backdrops and stage props.

I was looking forward to this show because I thought I knew so much of her new album (and she played the whole thing).  I was surprised by how few songs I knew during this show.  In part because she didn’t really play any deep cuts (okay one or two, but none of her hits).

But I was delighted to hear “Can’t Do Much” (the only song of the night that I had seen her play before) and “Problem With It” which I forgot wasn’t actually a Waxahatchee song (it’s a song by Plains, which is Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson.

After playing a couple of songs from the previous album Saint Cloud, she told us about the new album and how she’d be playing the whole thing tonight.  This group of songs started with the wonderful “Right Back to It” and the even better “Bored.” (more…)

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@ (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 22, 2024) [WAXAHATCHEE] Philly Music Fest Night 2

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Philly Music Fest, Waxahatchee on October 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] @

Every since going to Philly Music Fest a few years ago, I’ve been keeping track about it each year to see who is in it the next year.  This year was pretty unexciting for me until they announced a late entry of Waxahatchee as a headliner.  Since we had missed both of their shows at the Fillmore, I decided to grab us a ticket.

Opening was @ a pretty much unfindable band online.

They have a bandcamp site in which they have two releases.  They are kind of interesting and experimental, with lots of sounds layered on to of straightforward lyrics.

But live, they were the least dynamic duo I’ve ever seen. (more…)

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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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The New Pornographers / Gustaf (Concerts Under the Stars series Upper Merion Township Building Park, King of Prussia, PA, August 7, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Concerts Under the Stars series, Gustaf, King of Prussia PA, Philadelphia, PA, The New Pornographers, Upper Merion Township Building Park on August 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 7, 2024] The New Pornographers / Gustaf

I saw New Pornographers’ back in 2019 (I didn’t realize it was quite so long ago).  I enjoyed the show quite a lot.  And almost wondered if I didn’t need to see them again since they played pretty much everything I wanted to see.  And yet, they were really good and I enjoyed the show a lot–I suspect they are always worth seeing.

This was yet another show at the Concert Under the Stars in King of Prussia, which I think would be pretty fun to go to, but KoP is pretty far.  And this night was out of the question as my daughter was showing at the 4H Fair. Plus, we could have seen them in Jersey City the night before (which we didn’t).

The weather was terrible so they moved the show to Ardmore Music Hall.  And the 4H Fair was cancelled.  In theory we could have gone to this one.  But then my daughter was called in to do her show even though the Fair was closed to outsiders.  So we went there instead.

I was actually really excited to see Gustaf who I saw open for Idles almost three years ago.  I’ve wanted to see them again because they were outstanding.  But again, sometimes things prevent you from doing what you want to do.

 

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Stick Men (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, August 2, 2024)

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Pat Mastelotto, Stick Men, Tim Motzer, Tony Levin on August 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 2, 2024] Stick Men 

I have been trying to see Stick Men since just before the pandemic.  They play around here relatively frequently but the timing or location (not to mention the pandemic) has prevented me from seeing them.

But, luckily, they came back to Ardmore and I was able to get up close to the stage to see Tony Levin (the main reason I wanted to go) play the Chapman Stick up close.  I have seen him play with King Crimson but have never been THIS close.

I didn’t know much about Markus Reuter, who also plays a kind of Stick–his own U8 Touch guitar.  But wow, he was amazing.  And he made playing these crazy complicated song so easy.

And I can’t forget Pat Mastoletto, who I’ve seen several times playing drums with King Crimson.  He’s amazing to watch, but I laughed to myself at what an amazing show this was if he was the least interesting thing on stage. (more…)

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Tim Motzer (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, August 2, 2024) [STICK MEN]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Pat Mastelotto, Stick Men, Tim Motzer, Tony Levin on August 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 2, 2024] Tim Motzer 

Tim Motzer is a Philly-based guitarist.  For his live show, he plays acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.  He loops his melodies and creates percussion by tapping on the hollow bodied acoustic (and gets a lot of different sounds from it).

He played four pieces in about 45 minutes.

The first on the acoustic guitar.  It was fun to watch him build and then deconstruct the melodies and work within the drum beat that he created.

When he switched to 12 string guitar the sound was more varied.  Afterward he said that he had a new array of pedals and some of the sounds were surprising to him as well

For the electric guitar he played a heavier song with a notable riff.  For this and t he other 6 string piece, he used the e-bow a lot to generate cool sounds.

It was genuinely unclear to me if he was improvising the whole time or if he was playing some of his original pieces.  It doesn’t matter, of course, because the music was cool either way, but I would give the songs a mention if I could tell which songs they were.

For the final piece, he played the 12 string guitar again and briefly used a violin bow (only briefly) to generate new sounds.

It was a pretty mesmerizing session.  The set was marred a little for me by the guy next to me who would whoo!  every once in awhile (like “Whooo 12 string!”) and the guy in the other side of me who kept getting out his phone and then reciting into it before taking a photo (I guess posting to Facebook) “He just took out the violin bow”)

But those annoyances were not very frequent so it wasn’t too bad.

And, overall, it was cool to see Motzer in person after having streamed his set from Sellersville last year.

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Mdou Moctar [Unplugged] (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 10, 2023)

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Emily Robb, Mdou Moctar on July 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 10, 2024] Mdou Moctar 

Mdou Moctar had just played Union Transfer on June 28.  A week later, he announced two intimate acoustic shows and one of them was back in Philly, practically across the street in PhilaMOCA.

I didn’t go to last week’s show but I didn’t want to miss this one:

New York and Philly! We’re doing a couple of intimate last minute acoustic(ish) unplugged shows. We can’t wait to see you! Grab tickets before they sell out! See you soon!

It was funny to have Emily Robb open for this set because she was so loud.  The show was billed as acoustic and I almost didn’t bring earplugs (which we definitely needed for Emily Robb).  Emily said that she had opened for Mdou on a previous tour and I can see when Mdou was on fire that Emily was appropriate.

But indeed I didn’t need them for Mdou’s set. (more…)

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An Intimate Evening With… The Antlers + Okkervil River (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, June 7, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Okkervil River, The Antlers on June 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 7, 2024] An Intimate Evening With… The Antlers + Okkervil River

I have been interested in seeing Okkervil River, but not aggressively so.  Will Sheff plays in the area a bunch, both as a solo artist and as Okkervil, but I’ve never been fully motivated to go.

The Antlers have been around for awhile and their 2009 album received some buzz.  But when I discovered that main composer Peter Silberman described ‘Hospice’ as the story of an emotionally abusive relationship, told through the analogy of a hospice worker and a terminally-ill patient, I stayed far away from that depressing saga.   Ever since I’ve just assumed their music is sad and depressing and I’m not willing to investigate further.

So this show was a no-go for me. (more…)

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The Antlers + Okkervil River [FREE AT NOON] (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, June 7, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Okkervil River, The Antlers on June 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 7, 2024] The Antlers + Okkervil River [FREE AT NOON]

Since Okkervil River and The Antlers were playing at Ardmore Music Hall that night, the Free at Noon was recorded there as well.  They don’t do this often, but have done a few at Ardmore Music Hall.

I have been interested in seeing Okkervil River, but not aggressively so.  They play in the area a lot, but I’ve never been fully motivated to go see them.

The Antlers have been around for awhile and their 2009 album received some buzz.  But when I discovered that main composer Peter Silberman described ‘Hospice’ as the story of an emotionally abusive relationship, told through the analogy of a hospice worker and a terminally-ill patient, I stayed far away from that depressing saga.   Ever since I’ve just assumed their music is sad and depressing and I’m not willing to investigate further.  The review from WXPN says (more…)

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