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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

Shannen Moser (McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Haddon Heights, NJ, August 24, 2022) [KATHLEEN EDWARDS]

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Haddon Heights, NJ, Kathleen Edwards, McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Philadelphia, PA, Shannen Moser, Summer Concert Series on August 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 24, 2022] Shannen Moser

It’s funny how some artists wind up as opening acts quite often.  Shannen Moser has been listed as an opening act for several band that I was interested in seeing.  She’s also been on two Champagne Jams from The Front Bottoms.  This is only my second time seeing her though and I’m not sure when she was announced as the opener for Kathleen Edwards, because I didn’t find out until a couple of days beforehand.

Shannen is from Berks County, PA.  She plays a simple kind of open-tuned guitar (such that a capo is all you need to make a chord sound good).  Some of her songs have a finger-picking section as well.

Her lyrics are personal and often pointed.

She received a nice round of applause for saying that she played with Bernie Sanders a few days earlier at his Rally with Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia to fight back against corporate greed. (more…)

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David Gray–White Ladder: The 20th Anniversary Tour (The Mann Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, August 18, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in David Gray, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA on August 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 18, 2022] David Gray [rescheduled from to August 20, 2020 and August 18, 2021]

I was never 100% sure that we’d be going to this show.  My wife and I like the album, but it’s a big difference liking the album and going to see the band live.  Turns out this much-postponed show was right during our vacation.  Sorry David.

~~~~~~

My August was filling up pretty quickly so I assumed I wouldn’t be going to this show anyhow, but now that it’s in 2022.  Maybe…?

~~~

David Gray is pretty uncool–definitely “old person” music.  However, White Ladder is a pretty solid album.  When he announced this show, I asked S. is she might want to go.  We both had the same reaction.  Maybe… if it’s convenient.  Well, the Mann Center is anything but convenient, so there’s no way we were going.

I really shouldn’t even post it here, but since I’m including anything I even considered going to, here it is.

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Franz Ferdinand / Vundabar (The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, August 12, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Franz Ferdinand, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, Vundabar on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 12, 2022] Guster / Allison Ponthier

I really enjoyed Franz Ferdinand’s first album.  Liked their second and then kind of forgot about them.  They made a (really good) album with Sparks that put them back on my radar.

This Greatest Hits tour would have been the ideal way to see them.

However, we had tickets to see Elvis Costello–a guy I’ve wanted to see for a pretty long time.

UPDATE: It’s a shame the Elvis show was so meh.

I could have seen Vundabar back in June when they did a headlining tour.

Although, by the time I knew who Vundabar was and was interested in seeing them because of their ubiquitous (in my house) old song “Alien Blues” I was way too late.

I was also a little surprised to find out that their music doesn’t really sound like “Alien Blues”–that song is a bit more frenetic and weird than their most recent album anyway.  Although most live reviews I’ve read say they are terrific live.

They’ve got quite the buzz, so I’m sure they’ll be back.

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Blu deTiger (The Rooftop at Pier 17, New York, NY, August 2, 2022) [GIRL IN RED]

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.

(more…)

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Courtney Barnett / Lucy Dacus / Samia (The Mann Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, July 28, 2022) [CANCELLED BECAUSE OF RAIN–WHILE WE WERE THERE]

Posted in Cancelled, Courtney Barnett, Lucy Dacus, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Samia on July 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: July 28, 2022] Courtney Barnett / Lucy Dacus / Samia

My wife and I were pretty excited about this show,  We’ve had tickets to see Courtney Barnett a couple of times recently and they’ve all been cancelled.  We have seen her before and she is great live.  So this–a small stage outside on a lovely summer night–sounded amazing.

Add in Lucy Dacus who I have seen a number of times and my wife has seen once, and it was a great night.

Opening for the pair was Samia, a singer I don’t know, but whose name I have heard a lot.

It’s fair to say I don’t love The Mann Center.  The venue itself is amazing, but the whole getting there and parking scene is dreadful.  And so it was tonight as we arrived on time, but by the time we parked, the Samia set was in full swing.  As we were walking to the entrance, we heard her play “Stacy’s Mom,” which was her last song.

And since someone has done the dirty work for me, I’ll let Rocking the Burbs give the report:

As Lucy Dacus’ 7:30pm set time approached, workers began covering up equipment with tarps and plastic on the stage. Shortly after, it was announced that everyone should take shelter in the TD Pavilion to ride out the impending storm. Over an hour later, the rain and lightning finally arrived – at that point, most felt confident that the show would eventually re-start albeit with shortened set durations. The rain finally did stop, but Dacus’ gear was drenched in the process – the announcement came at 9:30 that the show was cancelled. Well, that was unexpected.

It certainly sucked that we waited that long to find out that it was cancelled.  At that point even if it had gone on, how late would we have been there?  We probably should have just left.  But whatever.

The craziest thing is that we were going to look at merch but decided to wait a little while.  We decided to look just as we were ushered under the Pavilion.

It was an unforgettable night, to be sure.

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The Linda Lindas (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, July 26, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in Bacchae, Bikini Kill, Philadelphia, PA, The Blue Hearts, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Foundry, The Go-Go's, The Linda Lindas on July 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 26, 2021] The Linda Lindas [postponed from July 21, 2022]

I was excited to take my daughter to see The Linda Lindas since she is the same age as they are.  She didn’t really know their music (I heard about them when they played at a library in LA), but I thought she’d enjoy the show and the venue.

But when the show was postponed (it was pretty cool that it was only postponed five days), the new date was on a night that she has a 4H commitment.  So she couldn’t go.

So, I went since I wanted to see them while they were still buzzed about.  If you know them at all, you know that they are four teenaged girls who made a great punk song called “Racist Sexist Boy” about their experiences with a racist sexist classmate.  They did a pandemic-era show at the L.A. library and made huge news.

The foursome are great musicians, they write rocking, relevant (to them) punk songs and, most important, they have a ton of fun.  At the time of our show, the drummer, Mila de la Garza, was possibly not yet 12.  She played a solid drum, sang her heart out, drew a cat under her nose like a mustache and had a great time. (more…)

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Coheed & Cambria / Alkaline Trio / Mothica (Liacouris Center, Philadelphia PA, July 27, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Alkaline Trio, Coheed & Cambria, Dance Gavin Dance, Liacouris Center, Mothica, Philadelphia, PA on July 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 27, 2022] Coheed & Cambria / Alkaline Trio / Mothica

I’ve been a fan of Coheed & Cambria for a while.  Not a huge fan–I like them more in theory.

They are a complicated prog metal band and it takes some time to get into their new stuff.  Plus, their music is all part of a lengthy story.  Lead dude Claudio Sanchez has a grand vision and it’s easy to get left out of it.

But I wanted to be a part of the grand vision so I grabbed a ticket for this venue which is on the Temple University campus.

But by the time the show came along, I had been to a couple of shows already this week and this was a big one, with three bands in a venue I didn’t know anything about.

Plus, we were seeing Lucy Dacus and Courtney Barnett the following night [had I known that it would be rain-cancelled, that might have changed my mind].

UPDATE: I saw a person wearing a shirt for this tour in Salem, MA just after Halloween.  He told me I was a fool for not going.

Initially Dance Gavin Dance were supposed to open however, in June, this was revealed

Dance Gavin Dance removed from Coheed And Cambria tour following sexual assault allegations

Instead, Alkaline Trio were put in place.  I don’t really now them, although they’ve been around forever.  They’re a punk band from Chicago.  I guess they are always a three-piece.  Their sound is pretty good although it’s very simple compared with Coheed.

Mothica is the project of McKenzie Ellis, a singer from Oklahoma City.  She’s got a kind of dark electro emo goth vibe thing going on.  I imagine she’d be fun live.

Markit Aneight posted the Coheed show online:

 

 

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Bacchae (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, July 26, 2021) [THE LINDA LINDAS] [rescheduled]

Posted in Bacchae, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Foundry, The Linda Lindas on July 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 26, 2021] Bacchae [postponed from July 21, 2022]

I was excited to take my daughter to see The Linda Lindas since she is the same age as they are.  She didn’t really know their music (I heard about them when they played at a library in LA), but I thought she’d enjoy the show and the venue.

But when the show was postponed (it was pretty cool that it was only postponed five days), the new date was on a night that she has a 4H commitment.  So she couldn’t go.

So, I went since I wanted to see them while they were still buzzed about.

The opening band I hadn’t heard of.  They are called Bacchae (a good start for a intellectual show, right?).  They are a Washington D.C. based punk band with really smart lyrics.

They released their last album just in time for the pandemic. (more…)

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Mitski (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, July 24, 2022) [rescheduled]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Mitski, Philadelphia, PA, The Weather Station on July 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 24, 2022] Mitski [rescheduled from March 25, 2022]

I saw Mitski back in 2018.  She sold out Union Transfer and while I enjoyed the show very much, I remember being disappointed that I was so far back and behind so many tall people that I couldn’t really see her performance all that well.

In that time, Mitski has taken off even more with the young people.  Both of my kids love her (as does a large section of the youth).  When this tour was announced, there was no question that I would get four tickets for my two kids and one of their friends.

I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, since she was playing at a pretty huge venue.  But the presale sold out in like 5 seconds.  And the main day sale also sold out in like 5 seconds.  The bots were all over this tour.  It was so obnoxious.

My kids really wanted to see her but there was no way I was spending a ton of money on her, so we were SOL.

Then a few days before the show was to happen, it was postponed because of COVID.  It’s not often that we are happy that things are postponed, but this one worked out very well for us., because a rescheduled date meant a possibility of new tickets being made available.  I put my name on the waiting list.  But didn’t really have much hope. (more…)

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Beach House (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2022)

Posted in Beach House, Mary Lattimore, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on July 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 23, 2022] Beach House

I’ve been a fan of Beach House for a long time. I wasn’t sure if they were a band I wanted to see live, but then it turned out that everyone in my family was enjoying them independently of me.

Both of my kids had been listening to a few of their songs and I knew that S. liked the songs she’d heard too.  So I thought it would be fun for us all to go see them live.

I got us GA tickets because the closest seated tickets were kind of crappy.  I suppose seated would have been fine because the Beach House show was pretty much designed for you to not really see the stage very well.

The lighting was such that it had a presence in the room.  You could practically feel the weight of the colors as they fell from the stage.  The three band members were placed in a row across the stage.  with Alex Scally on the left playing guitar, Victoria Legrand in the center on keys and James Barone on drums on the right.  The band was backlit for the entire show so that they were in shadow and silhouette.  I am fairly certain I never saw any of their three faces all nights.

Whether it was white lights shining down from the ceiling, a wall of stars on a deep blue background, or waving searchlights through dense fog, the atmosphere changed with every song.  The details were different but the overall vibe remained one of a kind of smothering warmth almost like a weighted blanket.  (more…)

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