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The Sewing Club (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, December 9, 2025) [CHOKECHERRY]

Posted in Chokecherry, Philadelphia, PA, The Sewing Club, Warehouse on Watts on December 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 9, 2025] The Sewing Club

The Sewing Club is from Nashville.  I hadn’t heard of them before this show.  When I walked in, their guitarist was at a merch table selling cute little hand sewed monsters.  He later told me he had been sewing since he was little and thought it would be fun merch given their band name. And it was!  I bought one.

The Sewing Club are a four piece of two guitars (Stephen Meaux and Justin McKinney), drummer Zach McCoy (who added great backing vocals) and singer/bassist/keyboardist Hannah McElroy.  I was in front of  McCoy and very close to their merch guitarist (I’m not sure who was who).  I could clearly see McElroy, but the other guitarist was on the far side of the stage and I never really saw him.

They opened up quietly with Sport Mode.  I enjoyed the shoegaze vibe of the song and the intensity of the guitars, but was blown away when the song started rocking out.  The loud part was simple but really catchy with the two guitars playing different parts (one lead).  Up next was Wyatt, a song that mixed the tempo up right from the start (and which had some soaring guitar lines).

I enjoyed watching the crowd around me get more and more into the set especially when Wait kicked in and ramped up the intensity.

For Bite, Hannah switched to keys.  This was a much slower and more mellow song, although the rest of the band joined in before the end.  After an unknown song (the most rocking of the set with lines something like I wish you’d die), they played a newer song that they were sure they’d screw up (they didn’t) with some fun headbanging from Hannah.

They ended their 30 minute set with Strange, a slower song that filled the room and had a killer guitar riff.  I really liked their set a lot and look forward to more music from them.

Sport Mode ∼
Wyatt¢
Pocket ∼
Wait ∼
Bite $
(Unknown)
Alright Ok %
Strange ¢


% single (2026)
∼The Sewing Club EP (2025)
¢ Care EP (2024)
$ single (2024)

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The Beths (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, December 6, 2025)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Phoebe Rings, The Beths, Union Transfer on December 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 6, 2025] The Beths

This is my third time seeing The Beths, a New Zealand band that’s taking the U.S. by storm.  Las time they played here they sold out Union Transfer.  This time, they sold out TWO NIGHTS at Union Transfer.

We immediately got tickets to night one and for the first time, saw them from a chair off to the side (thanks ADA seating).  Although they interact so nicely with the front, that it’s kind of a bummer to not be in on the action.

But the sound was great (I know it always sounds better further back, but I like being close).

So The Beths are a four piece: Elizabeth Stokes, singer and guitarist.  Jonathan Pearce who plays lead guitar. Benjamin Sinclair on bass and Tristan Deck on drums.  They are delightful and funny and play fantastic songs.  Liz is a great songwriter and the boys make divine harmonies.

Last time they played nearly all of their then new album.   This time they played nine out of ten songs from their newest album.  And they opened with the title track a bouncy song that had everyone delightedly singing along.

After the even punchier No Joy they played two older songs one from Expert and one from Future Me Hates Me.

Then they moved back to the new album with the super fun first single Metal.

At one point during these songs, Benjamin did something that made a tin whistle fly into the air which he caught and started playing.  Later both Benjamin and Jonathan activated the tin whistle cannon and we were delighted to see them snatch the instruments out of the air and start playing.  The also have some shakers in their songs.  Liz uses a banana shaped one.  If you go to Benjamin’s review of the following night, you can read about the amusing trick they played on Liz and her banana. (more…)

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Phoebe Rings (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, December 6, 2025) [THE BETHS]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Phoebe Rings, The Beths, Union Transfer on December 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 6, 2025] Phoebe Rings

I hadn’t heard of Phoebe Rings and then I found out that she (I now know that Phoebe Rings is a band name and no one in the band is named that) was opening for The Beths on Saturday and Sunday and opening for Speedy Ortiz on Monday.

The Beths and Phoebe Rings are from New Zealand and, it turns out that Phoebe Rings and Speedy Ortiz are on the same record label.

Phoebe Rings began as the solo project of musician Crystal Choi, and is now a four-piece made of jazz students (guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, bassist Benjamin Locke and drummer Alex Freer).

We arrived and had ADA seats.  Then we laughed as the tallest person in the room stood in front of us.  We could still see just fine, but it was hilarious how much taller he was than everyone else.

Phoebe Rings was delightful.  They are described as dream pop but they were a bit more like jazz pop.  I’d even go so far as to say they were like lounge music.  There was an early Stereolab vibe musically (not lyrically). (more…)

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Ted Leo (Revilla Grooves and Gear, Milltown, NJ, November 20, 2025)

Posted in Milltown NJ, Ray Lego, Revilla Grooves and Gear, Ted Leo on November 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2025] Ted Leo

I’ve seen Ted Leo three times before this.  Twice with Pharmacists and once with Aimee Mann for a Christmas show.  When I saw that he was playing a solo gig at Revilla Grooves, since it’s only 45 minutes from me, I had to go.  I also happen to know the owner, who DJ’d at my wedding.  But this is the first I’d been to his store and it is impressive.  A fantastic collection of vinyl and CDs as well as a ton of used equipment.  If you’re into music, it’s worth the trip.  He knows his stuff too.

But back to Ted Leo.

Back in September, Revilla Grooves hosted the ‘Noise In Focus: 30 Years of Music Photography’ exhibition.  It’s 30 years of candid photos of hundreds of musicians (while I was there I saw MCR, Deftones, Phoebe Bridgers, Jarvis Cocker and so many more) by Ray Lego.  This was the final night of the exhibition which also included a video room containing “Unseen behind the scenes of making of Deftones’  “Sat Night Wrist” record.  The video was from a bunch of tapes Lego had saved from when the band was making Saturday Night Wrist.  It showed the guys playing and taking candid shots.  There was no sound, but it was cool to watch for a bit.

So on this closing night, Ray invited Ted Leo (of whom there were many photos) to play a 45 minute electric set.  I’d never been before and the setup was great.  There’s a small stage and the sound was fantastic.  So, standing about five feet away I got to see Ted Leo do his thing.  This seemed like a great opportunity for Ted to play whatever the heck he wanted.  And I was pretty delighted by the variety of songs he played–some that I knew and many that I didn’t. (more…)

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Aaron Chen (NJPAC–Victoria Theater, Newark, NJ, November 14, 2025)

Posted in Aaron Chen, Blake Freeman, Fisk, Newark, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Taskmaster, Taskmaster Australia on November 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2025] Aaron Chen

I have made a list of all of comedians from Taskmaster who I would like to see live.  It’s not everyone of course (some of them don’t do stand up and some I don’t think I would enjoy).  And then we started watching Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand, and I’ve added a dozen or so more to that list.

So I was pretty delighted that Aaron Chen announced a show at NJPAC–only ten days after Romesh Ranganathan.

I didn’t know if anyone here knew about him, but friends of ours knew him from the show Fisk (which is very funny). So good for him.  Aaron is currently living in the U.S.  And he made a big deal of coming all the way to Newark (from New York City).

He started right off by saying that he is from Australia and how he doesn’t look how he sounds–we don’t have that combination here. (more…)

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Blake Freeman (NJPAC–Victoria Theater, Newark, NJ, November 14, 2025) [AARON CHEN]

Posted in Aaron Chen, Blake Freeman, Newark, NJ, NJPAC-Victoria Theater, Set in New Jersey! on November 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2025] Blake Freeman

I have made a list of all of comedians from Taskmaster who I would like to see live.  It’s not everyone of course (some of them don’t do stand up and some I don’t think I would enjoy).  And then we started watching Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand, and I’ve added a dozen or so more to that list.

So I was pretty delighted that Aaron Chen announced a show at NJPAC–only ten days after Romesh Ranganathan.

Romesh didn’t have an opening act, so I didn’t know if Aaron would.  But out came an Australian comedian named Blake Freeman.  Blake has been living in the U.S. for about a year (with his partner).

He was very funny.  His delivery was calm but witty.  Talking about living in the U.S., he said the hardest part wasn’t having absolutely no professional or personal support network, it’s that we use Fahrenheit.

There was a very funny bit about him not being able to fight.  He said that he and his mates are open emotionally, and so they only fight when people can’t admit their feelings.  He had to break up a fight between his friends because one felt the other wasn’t opening up about his breakup, “You think you’re tough, well, connect with me like a man.”  After, he apologized saying his love language was touch. (more…)

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Kurtis Conner (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2025)

Posted in Danny Gonzalez, Dean Hebscher, Drew Gooden, Jacob Sharpe, Kiss, Kurtis Conner, Neil Diamond, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, The Rolling Stones on November 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 9, 2025] Kurtis Conner

My daughter and I saw Kurtis Conner three years ago.  I didn’t know him at al, but I knew my kids really liked him.  I came away from the show laughing really hard and having a really strong respect for him as a comedian.

I still have not really watched any of his YouTube stuff (what I’ve seen I like, but it’s off my radar).  But what really impressed me (and impressed me more this time) was how a YouTuber who effectively uses editing can do standup so well.  He is (mostly) comfortable in front of the audience (in fairness, everyone there loves him and there is nary a heckler in sight), and he clearly feeds off of the laughter.

Although he is (quite a bit) younger than me, I found it really interesting that his childhood sounded kind of similar to mine–defects and all.  Kurtis is a feminist and an ally, and proudly on both counts (which I found wonderful since my kids liked him so much).  But he’s also able to look back on his younger self with dismay at the way he (and kids in general) behaved.  It does make for good comedy too.  Like he regretted that when he was ten, he and his friends used to use “gay” as an insult.  Like he would be drawing and his friend would come up and he’d tell the guy to get away and stop being gay–and then go back to drawing the most detailed penis you’ve ever seen.

The show was called The Goodfellow Tour and it is named after where he grew up–on Goodfellow Street.  A road that had a ton of kids in it.  They used to play together all the time.  He had a lengthy but very funny bit about a kid in their group whom they all convinced had super fast speed.  They would do races all the time and the kid with super fast speed (who was in reality the slowest person in the world) would win. It went on all summer until the kid’s father found out.

This was all in aid of a running joke that he is a compulsive liar trying to fix that about himself.  But somehow, he keeps lying–throughout the show, even, making the jokes even funnier. (more…)

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Danny Gonzalez (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2025) [KURTIS CONNER]

Posted in Danny Gonzalez, Kurtis Conner, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on November 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 9, 2025] Danny Gonzalez

My daughter and I saw Kurtis Conner three years ago.  I didn’t know his stuff at all but I thought he was really funny.  So when he announced another show in the same venue I grabbed us tickets.  My son is also a fan and he wanted to go to this show too, so it was a fun night out with the kids.

We had seats in the balcony but they allowed us to sit in the ADA section.  It didn’t seem like it sold very well, which I was surprised by since last time I think it was sold out.  But we enjoyed the spaciousness of the ADA section to be sure.

Before the show started, we didn’t know if there would be an opening act.  And then Kurtis announced that his special guest would be Danny Gonzales.  The crowd went crazy, although I had no idea who he was. I see that for the last show I wrote that my daughter told me

the Holy Trinity is Kurtis Conner, Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden.

So, it was cool to see one third of the trinity.

Danny was very funny.  He seemed a little nervous to be doing stand up, and suggested that it was either his first time or his first time in a long while.  But he was very warmly received–that’s an understatement.  My daughter says it was very exciting to see him live.  And the one vide I can find of his introduction practically blew out the speakers of my phone (more…)

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Rocket (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2025)

Posted in Bleary Eyed, Cashier, Philadelphia, PA, Rocket, Warehouse on Watts on November 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2025] Rocket

About a year ago I saw Rocket open for Ride and I loved their set. I wrote then

This band is from LA and holy cow, they scratched just about every musical itch I had.  Soft female vocals, shoegaze to heavy crunchy guitars.  It was all there.  I loved every second of their set.

I mentioned the L.A. part because there’s a few bands named Rocket and this was the easiest way to distinguish them.

Anyhow, I said that I would definitely see them again and here was a great opportunity.

There’s nothing fancy in Warehouse on Watts and that’s totally fine.  It’s all about the music.  And wow, did Rocket sound great.  Despite this being a tour for their new album, they opened with Take Your Aim from their previous album.  It’s got great guitar riffs and a classic 90s alt rock sound,   It wasn’t quite as immediate as Portrait Show (which won me instantly last time and which they didn’t even play this time (!). But it was still great.

I loved the vocal melody on the chorus of Sugarcoated.  Things got loud again with a great fuzzy bass intro and perfect guitar lines on “Act Like Your Title.”  “Crossing Fingers” continued with perfect quiet verses and soaring vocals and a great chord progression in the chorus.

For The choice she moved to the keys adding a droning high end with really no low end–a nice mix up in tone as the guitar played  a cool melody.  But SHE was back to the bass for Crazy with the nice low end kicking back in.  For Number One Fan, the guitarist moved to synth for this dreamy slow song.

The final three songs were three that they played last time, too.  They were unreleased at the time.  Pretending has another classic grungy riff–hits all the sweet spots.  Wide Awake is a solid rocker with guitar harmonics and a heavy riff.

And R is for Rocket is a fantastic set ender.  It rocks with a great riff and then has a lengthy jam in the middle of the song–not a wild soloing jam, just a nice noisy jam with the band enjoying the riffs that they made.

The set was about an hour and they played a great set,  I was pretty surprised that they didn’t play more of the songs they played last time.  But it was nice to hear the new ones.

 

2025 [W.O.W. headline] 2024 [open Ride]
Take Your Aim ∇ Portrait Show ∇
One Million ® Sugarcoated ∇
Sugarcoated ∇ Pretending ®
Act Like Your Title ® On Your Heels ∇
Crossing Fingers ® Normal to Me ∇
The Choice ® Pipe Dream ∇
Crazy ® Wide Awake ®
Number One Fan ® R is for Rocket ®
Another Second Chance ®
Pretending ®
Wide Awake®
R is for Rocket®

® R is for Rocket (2025)
∇ Versions of You (2023)

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Cashier (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2025) [ROCKET]

Posted in Bleary Eyed, Cashier, Philadelphia, PA, Rocket, Warehouse on Watts on November 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2025] Cashier

Cashier is a four piece from Louisiana.  Before this show I went to their bandcamp and found exactly five songs.  And I liked them all.  A grungy shoegaze vibe with female vocals and cool guitar sounds.

I stood in front of singer guitarist Kylie Gaspard who played intensely and sang with a similar intensity.  She was an early focus for me, but I soon realized  that the whole band was fun to watch.

They opened with Beginner, and like on the recorded version, it opens with feedback and two guitars playing one note over and over until one of the guitars turns it into a little riff and then the song slams out with the full force of the band.

Guitarist Joseph Perillo and bassist Austyn Wood were on the far side and I couldn’t really see them, but Perillo’s guitars were great–playing lead lines throughout the songs. (more…)

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