Posted in Madison Square Garden, New Order, New York City, Paul Oakenfield, Pet Shop Boys on September 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: September 28, 2022] Pet Shop Boys / New Order / Paul Oakenfield: The Unity Tour [rescheduled from September 12, 2020 and September 22, 2021]
This concert was postponed twice. And now it was finally happening.
I had seen Pet Shop Boys a few years ago and definitely wanted to see them again. I had never seen New Order but new it would be a fun show. I had no real opinion of Paul Oakenfield.
And yet… (more…)
Posted in Girl in Red, New York City, The Rooftop at PIer 17 on August 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: August 2, 2022] Girl in Red
After seeing Girl in Red earlier this year, I didn’t think we’d be seeing her again. But then my daughter’s friend invited her to go along to see Girl in Red at the Rooftop at Pier 17.
I was glad I didn’t have to drive as getting there was a hassle. But getting into the venue was cool. I enjoyed the way the whole place was designed (ads for the show on every floor as we escalatored to the roof). And then the rooftop itself was really quite lovely.
There are excellent views of the city and the camera crew did some excellent editing, occasionally splicing up Marie Ulven’s face with the crescent moon that was hanging in the sky.
We both really enjoyed the show at Union Transfer and assumed that another show would be equally go. We didn’t really consider that an outdoor show would be any different. The setlist wasn’t really, but the stage production was much bigger.
She had three screens and even had smoke machines late in the set! (more…)
Posted in binki, Girl in Red, New York City, Philadelphia, PA, The Rooftop at PIer 17 on August 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: August 2, 2022] Blu deTiger
I had heard of Blu deTiger and knew her song “Figure It Out” which I quite liked.
I didn’t realize that she was a bass player and lead singer–she played some great lead bass lines and did some good funky riffs too.
Blu has been playing bass since she was seven and has been in bands on and off for many years so she has her stage show down really well–she’s flirty and funny and knows how to play an audience.
It also turns out that she’s something of a TikTok sensation, but somehow my daughter wasn’t familiar with her.
Posted in binki, Blu DeTiger, Girl in Red, New York City, The Rooftop at PIer 17 on August 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: August 2, 2022] binki
My daughter’s friend invited her to go see Girl in Red at the Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City. Part of the deal was that I went as well. Which was cool as I enjoyed the last Girl in Red show quite a lot.
Best of all, the friend’s dad (who I like, so that’s a relief!) was driving.
We got into the city, did not get to use the parking space I pre-paid for (who know why) but found another garage after some fruitless and frustrating driving around.
We grabbed a slice nearby and walked down to the Pier. Which has some very cool art and a very excellent walk way up to the rooftop.
We arrived after binki had started. I’d never heard of this Pennsylvanian rapper. The sound was terrible where we were, but I realized we were right in front of one of the massive speakers so I moved us to more of the center and the sound was much better and we managed to get in the shade (late August sun can be brutal). (more…)
Posted in Hugh Jackman, New York City, Sutton Foster, The Music Man, Winter Garden Theatre on May 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: May 21, 2022] The Music Man
S. loves musicals. She especially loves The Music Man. So when it was revived for Broadway and was starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, I knew I had to get tickets for her.
And then the pandemic shut down Broadway. I believe the show was supposed to open in 2020 (I was going to get us tickets back in 2019). But then Broadway bounced back and the show opened in December 2021. We managed to get tickets for May 2022 (purchased on October 3, 2021). We were in Left Mezzanine Row D seats 49-51.
The seats were a little far to the left, but were not obstructed in any real way (there was one scene where we couldn’t quite see what was going on in the one corner, but that’s okay. most of the action was out front.
We opted for the matinee performance because, well, hell, it was much easier to get into the city early and to get home at a reasonable hour. Or so we thought. Our train in had delays. Our transfer train into Penn Station had an overflowing toilet! It was pretty stressful. It was also crazy hot. But we did enjoy our dirty water dogs on the street corner before heading into the theater. (more…)
Posted in Heaven, New York City, Supergrass, Swervedriver, Webster Hall on May 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: May 17, 2022] Supergrass
There are few bands that I will travel to New York City to see anymore. Supergrass was one of them.
In It for the Money is in my Top 5 greatest albums of all time and I could listen to it again and again. I Should Coco is up there pretty high as well. And while I didn’t love their later stuff quite as much, there are still some great songs on those records.
Supergrass last played Philadelphia is 2003 (and weren’t going to play there this time) and last played NYC in 2008. They broke up in 2010 and reunited in 2019. So this was my chance to see them.
The crowd was also pretty excited. One guy near me in particular was out of his mind and talked about seeing them in L.A as well (did he really travel across the country for them?).
The lights went down, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” played out of the speakers and the guys came out. Supergrass were always presented as a trio even though singer Gaz Coombes’ brother Rob Coombes was unofficially a member for a pretty long time. It was nice to see him getting proper recognition on this tour. Even if, really all of the love was for Gaz, the face of the band. (more…)
[ATTENDED: May 17, 2022] Supergrass
There are few bands that I will travel to New York City to see anymore. Supergrass was one of them.
In It for the Money is in my Top 5 greatest albums of all time and I could listen to it again and again. I Should Coco is up there pretty high as well. And while I didn’t love their later stuff quite as much, there are still some great songs on those records.
Supergrass last played Philadelphia is 2003 (and weren’t going to play there this time) and last played NYC in 2008. They broke up in 2010 and reunited in 2019. So this was my chance to see them.
The crowd was also pretty excited. One guy near me in particular was out of his mind and talked about seeing them in L.A as well (did he really travel across the country for them?).
The lights went down, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” played out of the speakers and the guys came out. Supergrass were always presented as a trio even though singer Gaz Coombes’ brother Rob Coombes was unofficially a member for a pretty long time. It was nice to see him getting proper recognition on this tour. Even if, really all of the love was for Gaz, the face of the band. (more…)
Posted in Heaven, New York City, Supergrass, Swervedriver, Webster Hall on May 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: May 17, 2022] Heaven
There are few bands that I will travel to New York City to see anymore. Supergrass was one of them.
I didn’t care who was opening. I didn’t even care if I saw the opening band. Except that I knew I would be getting there very early to see the band as well as I could.
I had never been to Webster Hall before and didn’t know where the band would be. I walked past the merch (which was totally sold out by the time the show was over) and looked around for any signs of where to go. I was early and people were milling about. Finally I figured out the stage was upstairs (!)
So who was Heaven? Well, back in the 80s there was an Australian heavy metal band named Heaven who released a couple of albums including a cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” It seemed REALLY unlikley that it was them (especially since they officially broke up in 2012). But who was this other Heaven? (more…)
Posted in Madison Square Garden, New York City, Phish, Postponed on April 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: April 20 & 21, 2022] Phish [rescheduled from December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022]
I wasn’t exactly happy that Phish cancelled their New Year’s run at MSG. Well, actually I was because I didn’t feel safe going out.
The rescheduled dates (around 4/20, ha ha) were doable except that it’s a birthday week in our house.
MSG is a pain in the ass to get to, so I wasn’t looking forward to the travel. Then Phish announced more summer shows–in Philly and Atlantic City. Suddenly I had tickets to seven Phish shows in four months. That was too much even by my standards, so I sold these two on Cash or Trade and someone else got to enjoy the shows.
Posted in New York City, United Palace, Wilco on April 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: April 17, 2022] Wilco
When Wilco announced that they were going to play Yankee Hotel Foxtrot straight through–in Chicago and New York City–I knew I had to try to get a ticket.
Amazingly, I scored one–a fantastic seat–on Sunday April 17. Which was, I later found out, Easter Sunday. Easter is not a huge holiday for us, but it is a family gathering, and I didn’t feel right going out on the Sunday. Especially to a place that i knew nothing about, location and parking-wise. I tried to sell the ticket but wasn’t able to. So I ate it along with my Easter ham.
A couple of days before hand, there was some grousing that the band (known for their long shows) only played the whole album an a few encores. They played fourteen songs on the first night. By my night (night three). they had bumped it up to 19 songs. But it seems like maybe the band were annoyed that people wanted more…
I have a little regret for not going–it will certainly never be played like this again. But it was not that big a deal to miss out. Especially since I had been in a massive cancelling on shows streak. (more…)
Posted in Annette, New York City, The Sparks Brothers, The Town Hall on March 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: March 29, 2022] Sparks
Sparks is, without question, a weird band. I got into them back in 1997 when they released an album of re-recorded versions of their best songs and called it Plagiarism. Since then they have released eight albums. Before that the had release sixteen albums dating all the way back to 1971. And yet despite the occasional hit, they remained largely unknown in the States. They are from the States even though many people assume they are from Europe. Sparks are Russel Mael (vocals) and Ron Mael (everything else).
And they remained at a certain level of obscurity until 2021 when a documentary called The Sparks Brothers was released (and did very well) and when they created a musical movie called Annette which won the Cannes Soundtrack award.
The time seemed ripe to do a (limited) tour of the States. Sparks last played toured American back in 2013, they played at Le Poisson Rouge in 2017, but that was just two shows in New York and two in California–not much of a tour. Normally I hate going into New York and will only do it for special occasions. (more…)
