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Laura Marling (The Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2017 )

Posted in Laura Marling, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts, Townes Van Zandt on May 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 19, 2017] Laura Marling

I first heard about Laura Marling from All Songs Considered—they raved about her album Once I Was an Eagle.  Sarah bought it for me for Christmas, and I couldn’t get enough of it.   Since then, Laura has released two more albums, the awesome Short Movie and the newer, more introspective but equally gorgeous Semper Femina.

Normally I like to see bands that have a great stage show, but for Laura, I just wanted to hear her voice live.  I didn’t think she’d do much in terms of stage work, and she didn’t, but her voice (and her guitar) sounded fantastic.

I had checked her setlists ahead of time to see what albums she was playing most of her songs from.  It turned out she was playing almost all of Semper Femina, and then a few other songs from her other albums.  I’m glad I knew this going in or I would have been bummed not to hear some of my favorite older songs of hers.  because even though she did play songs from the other albums, she didn’t play the more obvious tracks.

But that also meant that I listened a lot to her new album and got to really appreciate it. (more…)

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Valley Queen (The Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2017 ) [LAURA MARLING]

Posted in Laura Marling, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts, Valley Queen on May 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 19, 2017] Valley Queen

I recently watched Valley Queen on a Tiny Desk Concert.  Initially, I  enjoyed it but wasn’t blown away.  Although I was blown away by singer Natalie Carol’s voice.  And as I listened to their set a few more times I got really hooked by them.  So I was pretty excited that they were opening for Laura Marling.

I arrived during their first song (TLA is in the center of the city and I wound up parking about 12 blocks away–cutting it way too close).

I walked in on the right side, enjoyed the first song and then had to get water (it was a stupid hot day) and then I wended my way to the front left, where I had a great view of the band.

Valley Queen have released an EP (Destroyer) and they played about half of the songs off of it.  They played a few other songs too, but I can’t find a setlist to confirm what they were. (more…)

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GuGu Drums from Shanghai (Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ, May 12, 2017)

Posted in GuGu Drums from Shanghai, Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ on May 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2017] GuGu Drums from Shanghai

This was supposed to be our last family theater even of the season (and probably our final Chinese Acrobat-type thing for quite some time, as we have seen a bunch lately).  But then something came up and only Clark and I could attend.  So it turned into a fun night for just the two of us to eat sushi at Inspiration Roll and witness the spectacle of many drums.

It’s not easy for us to get to MayoPAC for a 7:30 show, especially if we want to get sushi first.  We wound up missing some of the introductory piece, but that’s okay.

I wasn’t even entirely sure what to expect from this show–it just sounded cool.  And so it was.  Here’s a blurb that kind of summarizes the event: (more…)

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The Family Crest (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, May 10, 2016)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, The Family Crest on May 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 10, 2016] The Family Crest

The Family Crest are a seven-piece band with horns, strings, guitar, keys and great vocals–mostly courtesy of Liam McCormick–but the backing vocalists are pretty awesome too.

I first saw them on a Tiny Desk Concert and they blew me away–watching McCormick wail “Beneath the Brine” gave me (and still gives me) chills.  I followed them on social media and they sent out Christmas postcards to everyone on their mailing list, which I thought was really cool.

So when I heard they were coming to Philly (and at Boot and Saddle no less), I knew I had to go.

I’ve said a lot about the intimacy of Boot & Saddle from previous shows, but this one was especially fun because when I went up to the merch table to check out their goods, keyboardist Laura Bergmann was the one selling the merch.  I also discovered that they had out an older EP that I didn’t know about, so that was cool.

The band came on stage and while everyone was warming up, McCormick came through the audience to the stage–no back room, so they just walk through the crowd. (more…)

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OhBree (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, May 10, 2016) [THE FAMILY CREST]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Boot & Saddle, OhBree, Philadelphia, PA, The Family Crest on May 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 10, 2016] OhBree

I was really excited to see The Family Crest and to see that they were playing at Boot & Saddle (how would they fit a 8 piece band up there, I wondered).  I hadn’t heard of OhBree before this show, so I looked them up and discovered they are a Philly band also with 8 people (!) who play a wonderfully weird blend of punk with horns (but not ska) and super catchy rocking melodies.  All supporting some pretty peculiar (and often amusing) lyrics.

The band is made up of Andrew Scott – Songwriting/Keys/Guitar/Bass/Vocals ;  Adam Laub – Drums/Synthesizer/Vocals ; Bob Iacono – Trumpet ; Tyler Mack – Guitar/Bass/Trombone ; Kyle Press – Bari/Tenor Saxophone ; Vince Tampio – Mellophone/Trumpet/Slide Trumpet ; Lucas Kozinski – Guitar ; Connor Przybyszewski – Trombone

And they all crammed into that tiny Boot & Saddle stage which they had never played at before (a surprise given their Philly roots). (more…)

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Lez Zeppelin (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, May 5, 2017)

Posted in Led Zeppelin, Lez Zeppelin, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on May 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 5, 2017] Lez Zeppelin

I don’t go to concerts by cover bands.  Even though I know a successful cover band is going to sound pretty much spot on to the original, I’d rather see the original.  And, if the original is no more, well, such is life.

But when I heard about Lez Zeppelin–from a lady cutting my hair no less–it sounded like a really interesting premise for a cover band.  I had wanted to see them since I heard about them (almost 2 years ago).  They played a couple of shows that I either couldn’t go to or that were too expensive (for a cover band, seriously).  And then I saw this one announced at the Sellersville Theater.  It seemed like a great place to see them.

And it was, except that, as I’ve learned previously, seated venues tend to be a bit quiet and proper.  This is great during the songs, but the bands get a little self-conscious between songs–especially if they’re used to playing in bars.  One nice thing was that they took out all of the seats in the front of the venue to allow for a standing room area.  I didn’t go up there, and while I would have liked to have been closer for a few things, I think it was the right choice, since our seats were great.

I haven’t listened to Led Zeppelin intentionally for years.  I was a huge fan growing up, have all their albums, listened to them all the time and then …done.  I didn’t need to hear them anymore.  I’ve heard them in places, of course, but I haven’t put on a disc of theirs in I don’t know how long.

And that was a great idea, because Lez Zeppelin sounded fantastic, put on a great show and reminded me of what is so great about Led Zeppelin in the first place. (more…)

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Pinegrove (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, April 28, 2017)

Posted in Birdwing, First Unitarian Church, Hovvdy, Ocelots, Philadelphia, PA, Pinegrove, Poutine, Shoo Fry on April 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 28, 2017] Pinegrove

I first heard Pinegrove on NPR and then I saw their Tiny Desk Concert.  I really liked them and when they announced that sales of their online music would send all proceeds to Planned Parenthood, I knew I had to buy their tunes.  I was also swayed by the fact that they are from Montclair, NJ, a town not to far from where I grew up.

They have been getting fairly popular as of late which I think is wonderful.  And I hope that they continue to thrive and get bigger and bigger.  So that when they are opening for someone at Madison Square Garden, I can say I saw them in a church basement with 600 other people (tickets sold out pretty quickly and I saw people were offering their first-born children for a ticket).

I have never been to a concert where the audience knew and loudly sang every word to nearly every song.  By my reckoning, everyone knew every word to every song on Cardinal, their full length debut.  There are 8 songs on it and the band played 7 of them–not in order–during their 16 song set.  In fact when they opened the show with “Old Friends” the first song on the disc, the room erupted singing along to every word.  And since it was such a small place–with particularly low ceilings–it was the loudest singalong I’ve ever heard.  Check out these clips from “Cadmium.”  It was very cool. (more…)

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Hovvdy (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, April 28, 2017) [PINEGROVE]

Posted in Birdwing, First Unitarian Church, Hovvdy, Lomelda, Philadelphia, PA, Pinegrove on April 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 28, 2017] Hovvdy

I thought that I had heard of Hovvdy (that’s 2 v’s but pronounced “Howdy”), but it’s possible I was thinking of other bands with 2 Vs in their name.  But when I looked up information about this concert, I saw that a lot of people were excited to see them (and that their latest album had been reviewed (positively) by Pitchfork.

We waited in the stifling heart for them to go on–and really should have sacrificed our spot to get water (only $1/bottle a the door!).  Unlike a more “polished” show, where you know that bands will take forever in between sets, this seemed like it would be a pretty quick turn around–the band even came out right away to set up.

Although when all was said and done it was nearly 30 minutes by the time Hovvdy went on.  And boy, did I wish we had taken advantage of the First Unitarian Church’s very generous reentry policy.  Because man, was it hot.  Like unpleasantly hot.

So we stood and sweated and waited for Hovvdy (we didn’t want to give up our semi-decent spot–although truth be told, it was hard to see from just about anywhere).

When the band started I was surprised by how great it sounded.  Birdwing sounded fine, but they must not have been hooked up to the PA, because when Hovvdy’s drummer hit a drum, it was like going from mono to Dolby.

Charlie Martin and Will Taylor are the main force behind Hovvdy (not sure who is who).  They record as a duo.  Each guy sang and played guitar.  From what I can tell Hannah Read (from Lomelda) was on bass.  [Lomelda opened for the show instead of Birdwing in NYC].  And I can’t find the drummer’s name (although all reviews of the band mention that Martin and Taylor were both drummers before they started playing songs on guitar, so I’ll mention it too).

Hovvdy played a kind of noisy lo-fi rock (I see they call it pillowcore).  Both singers’ voices and musical styles were fairly different which kept the music constantly shifting. The rhythm section kept the groove nicely while the two guys (split far apart on the stage) did their thing–sometimes singing backing vocal for the other one.

I found pretty much all of their songs to be catchy–catchy enough to grab their CD on the way out (which is a bit lower key than their live show).  The CD, Taster, had apparently just been released that day (it was download-only previously).

I have no idea what their setlist was as I can;’t find it anywhere, although evidently many of the songs were from Taster.

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Birdwing (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, April 28, 2017) [PINEGROVE]

Posted in Birdwing, First Unitarian Church, Hovvdy, Philadelphia, PA, Pinegrove on April 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 28, 2017] Birdwing

Birdwing opened the show for Hovvdy and Pinegrove.  I wasn’t familiar with their music, but I had listened to a few songs on bandcamp and I was interested to see them live.

This concert was being held at the First Unitarian Church in Philly, which I’d never been to.  I had heard a lot about this venue and the really legendary bands that have played there (usually a few years before becoming legendary).  I was under the impression that the venue’s capacity was like 100 people, but that is clearly not true.  One source suggests that it is closer to 600. So I was surprised by just how large the basement proved to be.

But the one thing that I had heard for sure was that it was hot.  And holy cow was it ever hot.

We went on a mild April evening (temp low 70s) and we arrived a few minutes before Birdwing went on.  By the time they started we were both wet from sweat.  There is virtually no air circulation (the ceiling fans may have been spinning only because of people fanning themselves). (more…)

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The Decemberists (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 14, 2017)

Posted in Chris Funk, Colin Meloy, Jenny Conlee, John Moen, Kelly Hogan, Nate Query, Philadelphia, PA, The Academy of Music, The Decemberists, The Fillmore Philadelphia on April 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 14, 2017] The Decemberists

Two years ago Sarah and I went to The Decemberists concert at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. It was spectacular.  A great venue, a dignified crowd and a great set deign.  The only complaint we had at all was that we couldn’t stand up and dance (well, we could, but we try to be considerate of those around us).

We knew we’d want to see them again, so when they announced another show in Philly–this time at the Fillmore, we were super psyched.  We love the venue, the sound is great and best of all, you can dance.

I was telling Sarah that I have become spoiled by smaller venues like Union Transfer, which holds about 1,000 fewer people than the Fillmore, because I can get up really close.  Well, this show was sold out big time (we were packed in a little too tightly for my liking).  I wanted to try to get there as early as possible, but a few things led us to getting there about ten minutes later than I had hoped.  And as such we were just a little too far out for my liking–the tall people seemed to have a wall set up about five rows of people ahead of us and we just couldn’t break through it.

So that meant a lot of leaning side to side depending on who you wanted to watch and, of course, terrible pictures.  But wow did they sound great.  This tour was a little less elaborate than the previous one. There was no real “set,” just lights.  And that’s fine because the focus was on the music! (more…)

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