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Archive for the ‘Bethlehem, PA’ Category

Kathleen Edwards (Musikfest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA, October 19, 2025)

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Kathleen Edwards, Musikfest on October 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2025] Kathleen Edwards

When I saw Kathleen Edwards in 2021, I traveled to NYC to see her because I thought that this was a one and done kind of thing.  That she had basically retired from music but was going to do this show and I’d finally get to see her.

Who would have guessed that four years later I would have seen her six times.

After seeing her at the XPN Fest it wasn’t really necessary to see her a few weeks later, but heck, seeing her in an intimate setting like the Musikfest Cafe from just a few feet away (when I already had tickets) was hard to pass up.  I had a ticket for my wife as well but she didn’t feel the need to come to the show.

I must have left a little later than I meant to because by the time I parked (and there are NO ADA spots near the venue–the best they can do is spots on the closest side of the closest parking lot which is like two blocks away) I was running seriously late.  In fact, I think I walked in at exactly 8.  Luckily, this is one of those loose setups and there was no opening act, so she came on around 8:15, which gave me enough time to order my (obligatory at this place) food (a flight of pierogis–pretty good).  I was seated at a table not too far from the stage (but I knew better than to get right up against the stage–it’s too close!)

It’s funny that the first few times I saw her, she had a different backing band each time, but for the last three shows it has been the same–they are a well seasoned band by this point and they sound great. (more…)

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The Decemberists (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, July 22, 2025)

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Melt, Merce Lemon, The Decemberists, Wind Creek Event Center on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 22, 2025] The Decemberists 

We saw The Decemberists last year and it was pretty exciting that they announced a small summer tour (8 shows!) and one was in Bethlehem.  My last experience here at Wind Creek was abysmal.  We arrived much earlier tonight and the getting into the venue process wasn’t that terrible.

The previous show was fairly elaborate with a large cast on stage.  They opened with just Colin singing and then the rest of the band slowly coming out to make each song louder.

This time was completely different.  Drummer John Moen came out first and started a rousing drum beat.  Then the rest of the band came out and they launched into July, July! a perfectly apt song for the summer, and one that we hadn’t seen before (which is shocking).  Indeed, while not a rarities show per se, this show featured a lot of songs that we hadn’t seen before or, had only seen once.

I wondered if they’d play much from the new album–technically this is still the same tour (Peaceable Kingdom–their merch totes still said 2024).  They played three songs, Burial Ground which is always fun to hear live.  The other two songs were deep cuts from the new album and two that they hadn’t played live before this mini tour.

Rox in the Box is one of my wife’s favorite songs and she’s always a little bummed when they don’t play it.  But this time they did.  Before the show we talked to the people seated next to us (gasp, really? Yes!) and in discussing what songs they’d like to hear, my wife said Rox in the Box (check) and Make You Better (check).  We also discussed the new jamming version of Severed.  This version had Colin telling an off-the-cuff (clearly) story about the brown shirts in charge of this country being subsumed by the rust of steelstacks (or something).

After a second deep cut from As It Ever Was (which I thought sounded familiar but couldn’t place it), they played a superbly deep cut from an early album: The Bus Mall (something they do play from time to time, but which I’d never heard live).  It was followed by another new track for us, Oceanside, a fun song from their earliest EP.

They brought out Ron from Melt to sing The Queen’s Rebuke and she sounded fantastic!  I don’t know where she came from–Melt didn’t open the show and they are playing in Bethlehem in two days, but how did this magic pairing happen?  I have no idea.  I see they didn’t play it the previous night, so maybe Melt was just hanging around.  Because Ron stayed out for the next song and their guitarist came out and played too.  And that next song was a cover of Paranoid by Black Sabbath.  Not something you expect to hear at a Decemberists show.  However, Ozzy died earlier that day so it seemed a nice tribute.  Colin took the drums and John Moen sang.  He did a fairly decent Ozzy impression (getting everyone to clap and going crazeee), but hilariously he didn’t know the words at all.  How is that possible? (more…)

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Merce Lemon (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, July 22, 2025) [THE DECEMBERISTS]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Melt, Merce Lemon, The Decemberists, Wind Creek Event Center on July 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 22, 2025] Merce Lemon 

I didn’t know Merce Lemon before this show.  Normally I look up an opening band, but I just didn’t for this show.

They came out as a five piece (although Merce Lemon is apparently the lead singer and it is her project).  She was joined by Reid Magette who played some utterly fantastic lead lines in the songs.  Pat Coyle on drums was fun to watch because the songs weren’t complicated, but he threw in lots of flourishes here and there to make them really come to life.  Alvin Row was playing lap steel for the whole show.  Sometimes his leads lurred with Reid’s but overall he provided some great ambient sounds.  And Benji on nass occasionally made some great feedbacking noises on these otherwise mellow songs.

Merce described her band in an interview with Post-Trash:.

My drummer Pat Coyle plays under his name. Benji, who plays bass, also plays under Clear Creek SP. Reid, my guitarist, plays under I4A, which stands for Ideas for Advertisements. Spencer, who played keys on the album, plays ambient music under the name Alvin Row. We recently played a show at my friend’s sauna, which has an outdoor space. He was playing ambient lap steel, and it made me cry.

They played six songs, each one at least 5 minutes long.  The songs started out quietly but they usually had really exciting moments and the crowd was easily won over by them.  The last song in particular had a great build up and conclusion.

Merce never mentioned the band’s name (or anything more than I’m Merce) and I don’t know what songs they played, except for a Bonnie “Prince” Billy cover of “I See a Darkness.”

I’m hopeful that someone will post the setlist as I really don’t know what they played.

But yeah, overall a very enjoyable opening act.

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Babymetal (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, November 21, 2024)

Posted in Babymetal, Bethlehem, PA, Japanese Music, Kawaii, Scene Queen, Wind Creek Event Center on November 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2024] Babymetal

But it’s hard to be cross when Babymetal takes the stage.  First comes the masked Kami band (their masks are cool and the band is incredible).  Then the trio came out Su-metal, Moametal and Momometal.

I didn’t realize that it had been 5 years since I last saw them.  I feel like the previous show was bigger and/or more impressive.  But again, that could just be because of my poor view.

But I was pleased when I saw my son taking videos of songs because that meant he was into it.

They opened with the first song off their first album–basically an introduction to the band.  Which is totally unnecessary.  Not only di d this show sell out, but everyone there knew the words (in Japanese) and what to do and when to do it.  Total crowd synchronicity.  And Su-metal (as a person next to me said) has total crowd control.  She waves her hands and everyone does what she says.

They had a big screen behind them which flashed various images during the different songs.  I loved hearing Pa Pa Ya (Babymetals are mostly in Japanese, so I don’t know if the stupidly catchy choruses are nonsensical or Japanese, but damn if pa pa pa pa pa ya isn’t the catchiest thing to shout.

I will repeat some things I wrote last time

Throughout the songs the trio danced like crazy.  Their precision synchronization was amazing. (more…)

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Scene Queen (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, November 21, 2024) [BABYMETAL]

Posted in Babymetal, Bethlehem, PA, Japanese Music, Kawaii, Scene Queen, Wind Creek Event Center on November 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2024] Scene Queen

I had this great plan to arrive early to this show.  And then everything went South.

My son’s college had an event that I hoped he could attend, so we wound up leaving later than I intended.  And, somehow, when I bought the tickets, I didn’t realize that going to Bethlehem would be so far out of the way from his school (Philly is more or less on the way, but jeez, this drive was ridiculous.

We also didn’t have dinner, so we had a (yummy) stop in the Bethlehem Waffle House.  But when we got to the Wind Creek Event Center, it was a nightmare.  The traffic to get in was insane–they were directing everyone around the whole campus to the parking garage that you could enter on the way in.

I went looking for a handicapped spot and they were all full, so we had  to park about as far away from the entrance as you can get.  So we trudged through the cold rain to the doors only to find a massive security line and one of the most thorough checks I’ve been in a show in a long time.

When we got in the venue people were spread out all the way to the back of the room making it almost impossible to get in.

I was really annoyed by this time.  So it didn’t give me a great introduction to Scene Queen. (more…)

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Richard Thompson / Alexa Rose (Musikfest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA, July 26, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Alexa Rose, Bethlehem, PA, Musikfest Cafe, Richard Thompson on July 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 26, 2024] Richard Thompson / Alexa Rose

I really want to see Richard Thompson one more time, but I really want to see hi with his band rather than solo.

For this tour, he announced it would be a band tour!  I was so excited.  But when he announced this relatively local show, it was solo.

What’s weird about his solo shows is that he had a million songs in his repertoire and he plays all request shows where I’m sure he’s playing all kinds of songs.  But when he plays solo he tends to play the same twenty or so songs.  It’s always amazing, I am just looking for something a little different from him.

I keep hoping he’ll bring the band to McCarter one more time.

Alexa Rose was born in the Alleghany Highlands of western Virginia, raised in the tiny railroad town of Clifton Forge. Though no one in her immediate family played or sang, she inherited a deep musical legacy.

She has a pretty, clean voice with vaguely country leanings.

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Ben Folds and a Piano (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, April 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ben Folds, Bethlehem, PA, Wind Creek Event Center on April 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 20, 2024] Ben Folds and a Piano

Two years ago, we saw Ben Folds for the fifth time.  This was at Parx Casino.  And As I wrote then,

things were kind of weird right from the start.  He was really late coming out.  I accept that a start time is fungible, but the lights went down and it took him a solid five minutes to come out.  During which time someone loudly made a I’ll bet he had to rush to the bathroom joke which really set the tone.

It’s hard to say is Ben was annoyed, but he seemed to be.  He didn’t like the camera set up (one was on the keyboard) and he just didn’t seem as fun as he has in the past.

Of course, he’s professional, so he sounded great and his playing was wonderful.

The crowd around us was weird.  It was a much older crowd than a typical show that we go to and I’m guessing a Saturday night show at a casino is going to lend itself to a lot of drunken people.  Because the bad behavior was in evidence.

For whatever reason, this show didn’t feel as great as the previous ones.  I blame the casino.  And the drunks.

And this show, at another casino, in an auditorium with dicey sound at the best of times, just didn’t seem worth the bother.  I was surprised that neither of us wanted to go, but we both felt the same way.

And this doesn’t matter, really, but his setlist was pretty short too.

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Wax Jaw / Food Truck / (The Funhouse, Bethlehem, PA, April 5, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Food Truck, The Funhouse, Wax Jaw on April 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 1, 2024] Wax Jaw / Food Truck

I keep getting shut out of seeing Wax Jaw.  It’s insane how many concerts they sprinkle around for me to see which I somehow manage not to get to.

When I saw they were playing Bethlehem, I was super psyched to go!   Sure, I’ve never been to The Funhouse, but so what.

I wrote on the calendar that this show was Saturday night.  Only to realize on Friday that it was on Friday!  And we had already made plans.  Sigh.

This one was weird because there were no tickets available ahead of the show, it was only at the door.  I had no intention of getting here early or anything s oi guess it’s possible I could have been shut out (capacity 100) and that would have just pissed me off. (more…)

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Melvins / Boris / Mr. Phylzzz (Musikfest Cafe, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA, September 20, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Boris, Mr. Phylzzz , Steelstacks, The Melvins on September 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 20, 2023] Melvins / Boris / Mr. Phylzzz 

There’s not a lot that could keep me away from a Boris show.  Although the last time they came to the area, it was the same night that my daughter wanted to see Kurtis Conner.  So obviously she won out that night.

This year, I saw that Boris and Melvins were touring together.  I’m not a big fan of the Melvins.  I like them in theory but never really got into their music.  And yes, I know that Boris gets their name from a Melvins song, so this tour is just too perfect.

Anyhow, the one thing that could keep me away from this show was the fact that I had tickets to see Igorr this very night and I wasn;t going  to pass up that rare opportunity.  PLUS, this very show was going to be in Philadelphia the next night.

Mr. Phylzzz are described as a “two-piece loud-ass noise rock band from Chicago, IL.”  Sounds like a perfect fit for this show.  I’ll find out tomorrow.

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Lotus Land (Musikfest Cafe, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA, August 25 & 26, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Lotus Land, Rush, Steelstacks on August 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 25 & 26, 2023] Lotus Land 

This is the third or fourth time I could have seen Lotus Land.  And this time they are playing two nights in a row!

Really, I have no interest in seeing tribute bands.  If I can’t get the real thing, then I won’t get it at all.

However, this Rush tribute band intrigues me because in the pictures they both use doubleneck instruments and their ads say they play mostly late 70 and early 80s Rush.  This is a period I’ve never seen live and I think it might be fun.  Plus they are very highly praised in their reviews.

Turns out Friday night we had plans and I’m really trying to not go out on Saturdays as much, so I’ll just have to hope they come back around when I’m not doing much else.

 

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