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Archive for the ‘New York City’ Category

Supergrass (Webster Hall, New York City, NY, May 17, 2022)

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…)

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Heaven (Webster Hall, New York City, NY, May 17, 2022) [SUPERGRASS]

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…)

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Phish (Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY, April 20 & 21, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

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.

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Wilco [we are touring to break your heart]–(United Palace, New York, NY, April 17, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

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…)

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Sparks (The Town Hall, New York, NY, March 29, 2022)

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…)

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Cavetown / Tessa Violet / Addison Grace (Terminal 5, New York, NY, March 25, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Addison Grace, Cavetown, New York City, Terminal 5, Tessa Violet on March 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 25, 2022] Cavetown / Tessa Violet / Addison Grace

Cavetown has a song called “Lemon Boy” which my daughter introduced me to.  She listened to it a lot, so when Cavetown announced a tour I grabbed a ticket for us in Philly.

Then a few weeks later Grandson announced a show in Philly for the same night.  I knew that my son really wanted to see Grandson.  So I checked and saw that Cavetown was also playing the in New York the night before.  So I grabbed us tickets for that show.

Later I found out that my daughter was going to a party that night.  So we opted not to go.  I was able to sell the tickets for both nights.  I’m curious what the show was like, but I’m sure he’ll be back.

Tessa Violet Williams, previously known as Meekakitty, is an American singer-songwriter, video blogger, actress, music video director, and former model.  She seems to write minimalist, simple catchy pop songs.  A perfect companion to Cavetown I think.

Addison Grace has a similar vibe and, in an interview it says they were inspired by Cavetown.  So that makes sense.

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Phish: New Years Run (Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY, December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, New York City, Phish, Postponed, Quarantine on December 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022] Phish [moved to April 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2022]

index

So I got totally shut out for the New Year’s Eve lottery.  The four of us would not go to see Phish.  I knew that no one else in the family wanted to see them on the other nights, so I snagged a ticket for January 29 and 30 for myself.

Although after an exhausting run of shows at the end of November, I was rather burnt out and had every intention of selling these tickets.  I felt like it would be good to stay home for a couple weeks.

I wasn’t going to try to make any money off of them (I’m a strictly cash or trade kind of guy). but I never got around to setting up the trade.

As it got closer I did consider that I might be willing to go to maybe one of the shows.  But as Omicron got worse, I decided that nope, I’m skipping it.

So it was good that they rescheduled, because I still get to go.  Although the shows are the week of S’s birthday, and that’s a pretty busy week,  So we’ll see.

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Phish: New Years Run (Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY, December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, New York City, Phish, Postponed, Quarantine on December 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022] Phish [moved to April 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2022]

indexThis year, since shows were back, I hoped that Phish would do another New Year’s run.  And this year, my plan was simple: get four tickets for New Year’s Eve so my family could live out a bucket list of mine.

S. thought it would be fun. My kids don’t care about Phish at all and were indifferent to the idea.  But I told them that regardless of their opinion of Phish, it would be a lot of fun, because Phish always does a great New Year’s Eve show.  Plus, how fun would it be to be in New York City after midnight on New Year’s Day?

Well, I tried and I got totally shut out for the New Year’s Eve lottery.  I got totally shut out on Ticketmaster a few days later as well.  And that was fine, but I did still want to see them on this run.

So I snagged a ticket for January 29 and 30. (more…)

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Stars: The Together Tour / Lloyd Cole / Shamir (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, December 8 & 9, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Le Poisson Rouge, Lloyd Cole, New York City, Shamir, Stars on December 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 8 & 9, 2021] Stars / Shamir [was Lloyd Cole]

Back in the early 2000s Stars was one of my favorite bands.  They write clever, thoughtful pop with gorgeous harmonies from Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan.

Stars doesn’t come around all that often and I really wanted to see this tour.  When I heard that Lloyd Cole was opening, my mind was blown.  I didn’t Lloyd Cole was till making music–that’s pretty cool.

These shows were at Le Poisson Rouge which I learned last time I Went there, is a super duper pain in the ass for me to get to.  And these shows were midweek.  I just don’t know how I would have managed it.  So when they announced that they were going to play World Cafe in Philly, well that made everything all better.

It also transpired that Lloyd Cole had to cancel at the last minute.  He was replaced by Shamir, another artist I would love to see live.  But it just hasn’t happened yet.

So Stars, please don’t be gone for too long, I’d love to see you.  (Especially since your set was 24 songs!)

 

 

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Kathleen Edwards (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, September 25, 2021)

Posted in Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Kathleen Edwards, Late Night with David Letterman, Le Poisson Rouge, New York City, Newport Folk Festival, XPN Fest on September 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 25, 2021] Kathleen Edwards

I’ve enjoyed Kathleen Edwards’ music for years.  Her album Voyageur is just stunning.

But when that album came out back in 2012, I wasn’t really going to many shows.   It wasn’t until a few years later that I got the concert bug again and put Kathleen on my “gotta see” list.

But Kathleen had other ideas.  After Voyageur, she took a break from music.  In 2014, she launched a coffee house in Stittsville, Ottawa called Quitters.  And it seemed like she might never play again (even though she said she would).  So I left her on my “maybe, someday” list.

Then in 2019, she played the WXPNFest (the same weekend that we were going to the Newport Folk Festival–I was a wee bit surprised she didn’t play Newport too).  I kind of assumed that it was a one-off return and that would be that.

But an album soon followed.  And then earlier this year it was announced that she was playing The Met Philly.  But as an opening act for Jason Isbell, who I did not want to see.  [It’s one thing going to a show for the opening act, but it’s another if you don’t actually like the headline].  So, again, I was out of luck.

But then she announced a show in New York City at Le Poisson Rouge.  And even though LPR is hugely inconvenient for me and it cost extra in tolls and parking, I’m so glad I went to the LPR show rather than the other two.  If for no other reason than the other two shows were all of 9 songs while this one was 16.  And the LPR crowd were there to see her!  And they sang along, and she was pretty tickled with us all. (more…)

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