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Soulwax (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, February 29, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in 2manydjs, Cancelled, Philadelphia, PA, Soulwax, Union Transfer on February 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: February 29, 2020] Soulwax [moved to October 8]

soulwax

I haven’t thought about the Belgian band Soulwax in about 15 years.  I bought their 1998 album Much Against Everyone’s Advice and then really enjoyed brothers David and Stephen Dewaele’s side project 2ManyDJs (whose release As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2) was an amazing mash-up album).

I really had no idea they were still making muisic (and apparently putting on incredible shows).

Brooklyn Vegan said:

If you’re never seen Soulwax live, David and Stephen Dewaele treat a live band show like a DJ set, with songs flowing into one another, and builds and drops. (Their 2006 show at long-gone Brooklyn club Studio B was one of the best shows I saw that decade.) You can get a feel for what to expect on their 2017 album, From Deewee which is a seamless one-hour set they recorded live in their Deewee studio in one take.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to this show, but then the show was inexplicably postponed.

As Brooklyn Vegan put it:

Dammit! Soulwax were to have started their first U.S. tour in forever beginning in February but they’ve just announced that it’s been postponed. It’s not visa issues, for once, but production design for the group’s new stage set:

We are always committed to delivering the best show we can and have designed a brand new set up which sadly just won’t be ready in time for March. We are working on new dates – please look out for an announcement very soon.⁣

We would like to thank everyone who bought tickets for these shows and look forward to seeing everyone later this year.

I’m more interested than I have been in a decade.

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We Were Promised Jetpacks (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, February 29, 2020)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Frightened Rabbit, Jersey City, NJ, We Were Promised Jetpacks, White Eagle Hall on February 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 29, 2020] We Were Promised Jetpacks

I saw We Were Promised Jetpacks two years ago at Boot & Saddle, a wonderfully intimate place to see a band.  Although I had read that when they played slightly bigger venues, they really maximized the stage space.  In particular, guitarist Michael Palmer was a wild man.

Last time, lead singer Adam Thompson had a shaved head and he looked kind of fierce.  For this show, his hair was grown back and he was giddy, smiling up and down at everyone and clearly enjoying himself.

What was also different was Michael Palmer.  When he came out, I thought–I don’t remember him looking like that at all. Did he grow his hair super long?  And why is he so mellow over there?  Well, it turned out that that was not Michael Palmer. Palmer retired after last year’s tour (which I was supposed to go to but then couldn’t).  This new guitarist was Andy Monaghan from Frightened Rabbit. His playing was excellent, but he was not a very dynamic performer.  That just meant that Thompson was the main focus as he strode around the stage and hammed it up for the people up front to take pictures. (more…)

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Slaughter Beach, Dog (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, February 29, 2020) [WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS]

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Modern Baseball, Nap Eyes, Slaughter Beach Dog, We Were Promised Jetpacks, White Eagle Hall on February 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 29, 2020] Slaughter Beach, Dog

I had heard, vaguely, of Slaughter Beach, Dog but I didn’t know anything about them.  So I was really surprised that a band with a name like that wound up playing quiet folky music.

The band was a three piece, but aside from singer guitarist Jake Ewald, I don’t know who else was on stage.

I found out after the show that Ewald was previously the singer/guitarist for Modern Baseball, a band I’d heard of but didn’t know.  I also read that Ian Farmer, bassist for Modern Baseball played on the latest Slaughter Beach, Dog album.  But I’m not sure if that was him on stage.

So they came out on stage, and Jake Ewald was soft spoken and funny.  Had I known he had been a front man for so long, I wouldn’t have assumed he seemed a little nervous or shy up there.  Perhaps that’s just the persona for Slaughter Beach, Dog (I have no idea what he was like for Modern Baseball).

They played about seven or eight or ten songs. (more…)

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Sarah Harmer (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, February 27, 2020)

Posted in Canadian Music, Kathleen Edwards, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah Harmer, Weaves, Weeping Tile, World Cafe Live on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 27, 2020] Sarah Harmer

I don’t remember when I first heard Sarah Harmer.

I think it was back in 2000 with her first album You Were Here.  (She has an album that she recorded before it but it wasn’t officially released until later).

You Were Here had the song “Basement Apt.” which was a reasonably big hit.  I also checked out her previous band Weeping Tile who are unjustly overlooked.

Harmer put out consistently great records, including I’m a Mountain, a bluegrass album that is totally awesome.  It took her five years to release the next album, Oh Little Fire, because she became an environmental activist and performed music mostly in guest roles.

Now it’s been ten years since Fire and she is back with a new album called Are You Gone.

She told us that this was the second night of her tour–a warm up for the big times in Canada.  Sarah had a four piece band with her.  She introduced them twice and I couldn’t make out a single name in the bunch.  But I was able to look them up. (more…)

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Chris Pureka (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, February 27, 2020) [SARAH HARMER]

Posted in Chris Pureka, Genderqueer, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah Harmer, World Cafe Live on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 27, 2020] Chris Pureka

I had not hear of Chris Pureka before this set, but they really blew me away.

Pureka has been making music for about twenty years and they have a fantastic stage presence.

Chris is never rushed, calmly getting things set up between each song and maybe chatting with us–or not.

For the first song, “Holy,” they played acoustic guitar and the song was really quite pretty.  But it was when Pureka turned away from the microphone and yelled a “Hey!” that I really paid attention to how they were singing.  Pureka’s voice is quiet, but when they did those “Hey”s their voice was loud and filled the room.  Fantastic.

Introducing “Tinder” Pureka says that they wrote the song back in 2009 when tinder had an entirely different (and nicer) meaning.

One of the cooler things was Pureka’s use of an electronic drum pad.  What I especially liked what their sparing use of it.  Because whenever that cavernous echoing drum jumped in to keep the beat, it made the song so much bigger.  But the spare use of it meant that it gave the song parts some extra oomph.

Pureka played acoustic and electric guitar and for the fourth song, they sat down (after joking about how the microphone was going to fall into their lap for sure).  The reason for sitting was because in addition to the electronic drum, there was also a tambourine and Chris used both feet to add the drum and a tambourine to these songs. (more…)

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Sloan: Navy Blues tour (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, February 20, 2020)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Canadian Music, Consolidated, Jersey City, NJ, Sloan, White Eagle Hall on February 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 20, 2020] Sloan

This is my fourth time seeing Sloan (and S’s second time).  This is the second time I’ve seen them tour an album in its entirety.  (If only I’d gone to see the Twice Removed tour!).  These album tours are just fantastic.

The shows never feel like a nostalgia show.  The band was rocking and totally into it.  Plus, you get to hear songs that they never play live (“Chester the Molester”?).  What makes it even better is that set two (the non-album set) often has some deep cuts (because they’re not playing the songs from the album they just played).

So in total I heard 16 songs that I haven’t heard them play live before.  Sweet.

We arrived on time, but since it was sold out and there was no opening act, it meant we were pretty far back.  Fortunately, we managed to move past the mountain man in front of us.  The band came in and Chris Murphy literally had to squeeze past me to get to the stage (I love Boot & Saddle).  Less cool were the fans who followed the band to the stage and pushed their way in front of us,

Recent shows at B&S have had poor lighting, but I believe the band brings their own lighting crew (and a giant 4 like on the 4 Nights at the Palais Royale album), so the lighting was excellent all night.  As was the sound! (more…)

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The Exile Follies: Kristin Hersh, Grant Lee Phillips, John Doe (SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, February 8, 2020)

Posted in Gilmore Girls, Grant Lee Buffao, Grant Lee Phillips, Harry Dean Stanton, John Doe, Kristin Hersh, Led Zeppelin, SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, The Knitters, Throwing Muses, X on February 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 8, 2020] The Exile Follies

There are some musicians who I’ve often thought I’d like to see but who I wouldn’t really want to travel too far too see.  This trio of artists are each musicians that I loved back in the 90s but whom I’ve lost touch with since then.

I used to love Throwing Muses and I have her first two solo albums.  I often thought about going to her live, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it if I didn’t know her new stuff.

Same with Grant Lee Phillips.  His song “Mockingbird” is one of my favorite songs of all time, but I don’t love all of his material, so I wouldn’t want to have gone for a whole show, I didn’t think.

And John Doe.  X is one of favorite bands from back in the day and seeing them live was amazing.  But I was never sure if I’d want to see just him because I don’t know much of his solo work.

So this tour with all three of them (and in a nearby venue) was perfect.

Kristin came out first.  She sat on a stool center stage and played her acoustic guitar. (more…)

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Garcia Peoples (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2020)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Full show video, Garcia Peoples, Grateful Dead, King Crimson, P.G. Six, Philadelphia, PA, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on February 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 7, 2020] Garcia Peoples

I saw Garcia Peoples on New Year’s Eve eve at a Phish after party.  The show was great with them playing their new 30 minute song “One Step Behind” as well as a few others.  For that show, their original bassist Derek Spaldo was in town (after this Philly show I talked to Tom Malach and he told me that Spaldo lives in Chicago and tours with them when he can–sometimes they are a six-piece band).  That show was great.  It was the second time I’d seen them playing a short set and I really wanted to catch them as a headliner. So I was pretty excited to see that they’d be playing Boot & Saddle (even if I’d only seen them a month ago I wanted to check them out again).

When I arrived the place was pretty empty, but by the time Garcia Peoples went on, it had filled in nicely.  I was intrigued by the diversity of ages in the crowd–a lot of old Dead-heads and a few younger frat boy types as well as a lot of (drunk?) women.  I am also pretty certain that Chris Forsyth was in the audience.

The crowd was responsive and really appreciative whenever the guys played some impressive soloing (which was often).

I was intrigued to see that Spaldo was not with them this time but bassist Andy Cush was.  Cush played with them when I first saw them.  This means that there are two guys who know the bass parts to their songs. Pretty cool. (more…)

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Suffacox [Mach 2] (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2020) [GARCIA PEOPLES]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Boot & Saddle, Brother J.T., Full show video, Garcia Peoples, Mae Pang, Philadelphia Stories, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Floyd, Suffacox, Suffacox (Mach 2), Tech & Learning, The Original Sins, The Tights, Vibrolux on February 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 7, 2020] Suffacox [Mach 2]

When I entered Boot & Saddle, I saw that the opening band was named Suffacox.   I had never heard of Suffacox and was rather puzzled by the name.

I was even more surprised when I saw the band setting up because I was standing a few feet from the stage and a guy kind of squeezed in front of me (which I thought was kind of rude as there was so much empty space).  He then proceeded to remove his coat and soon enough I realized he was the guitarist for Suffacox.  Whoops.

When the band started, the guitarist, John Terlesky, told us that they were Suffacox… Mach 2.  He said that they had been a band in the mid 90s and now they were back together again.

In their first incarnation they were led by Wayne Hamilton (whom they spoke of as if I’d know who he was, which I don’t).  Hamilton has passed on and now the rest of the original band is back with an extra guitarist and a manager/backing vocalist. (more…)

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Seratones (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, February 4, 2020)

Posted in Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Seratones on February 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 4, 2020] Seratones

I first heard of Seratones on a Tiny Desk Concert back in 2016.  I was really impressed at how great they were.

When they announced a show at Johnny Brenda’s I knew I’d want to see them.  And they did not disappoint.

Their new album Power is a bit more soul and a little less rocking than their debut, but when they played it live, it totally rocked.

I watched the band set up their gear.  Singer A.J. Hayes was not wearing the big red skirt as she did so.  After they were all set up, they stepped away and then came back right at 9.

They opened with a wave of synths from Tyran Coker as Hayes showed off her amazing voice.  It was like the coolest warm up a vocalist could do as she sang “like a heart attack” slowly and in different pitches until she signaled to drummer Jesse Gabriel that the song was ready to start.  And with those clicks, “Heart Attack” rocked out.  I loved that they allowed for some serious jamming in this song.

On the record the song is 3 minutes, but this version included a little drum solo and a lengthy keyboard solo while Hayes yelped and rocked out up front.   It got everyone moving. (more…)

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