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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

Speedy Ortiz (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018)

Posted in Jessica Lea Mayfield, Mal Blum and the Blums, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Speedy Ortiz on July 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Speedy Ortiz

I really enjoyed Speedy Ortiz’ Foil Deer.  Sadie Dupuis has a great sense of melody (in a delightful alt-90s rock package) combined with excellent lyrics.  Check out this great blurb about Dupuis’ lyrics:

It’s very strange (“Or not strange at all! Hi!” says feminism) that most of the music we funnel into little girls’ ears——even music written by former little girls——is about how women are petty, pretty garbage whose only valuable function is to hold perfectly still in men’s boudoirs and wait for intercourse. “I wanted to make songs that were the opposite of ‘Genie in A Bottle’ or ‘The Boy Is Mine,’” Sadie Dupuis says of Slugger, her new solo album under the name Sad13. “Songs that put affirmative consent at the heart of the subject matter and emphasize friendship among women and try to deescalate the toxic jealousy and ownership that are often centered in romantic pop songs.” What!? Songs for women that actually champion women’s autonomy, reflect women’s desires, listen to women when they talk, and let women be funny and normal and cool, like women actually are?   – Lindy West

When Speedy Ortiz released their new album, they did a mini tour of…ice cram parlors.

As The Key noted:

It was a little suspicious, previously, that Speedy Ortiz’s only tour appearance in Philly would be at Little Baby’s Ice Cream in West Philly to scoop a new flavor, “Twerp Verse Dessert Burst Sundae,” and not to perform.

Then they announced a proper tour, which included a headlining spot at PhilaMOCA.  Amazingly, four days after our show, they were going to open for Dinosaur Jr and Foo Fighters at Fenway Park!  I don’t know how many people arrived early enough to see them, but I have to assume thy were seen by more than the 150 capacity crowd at PhilaMOCA.  And yet Sadie said she was more excited about our show than that one.  And it seemed like it.

Before the shows even began, Sadie was hanging out at the merch table.  We chatted, she sold me a copy of Twerp Verse and even signed it for me.  She was super nice.   (more…)

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Two Inch Astronaut (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018) [SPEEDY ORTIZ]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Two Inch Astronaut on July 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Two Inch Astronaut

I had heard Two Inch Astronaut on NPR and loved them.  I put them on my list of bands to check out.  So I was really excited that they were opening for Speedy Ortiz.  I got there early and wound up right in front of the stage where I was able to watch Sam Rosenberg play amazing and complicated riffs right in front of me.

Matt Gatwood was also great on drums–he hit really hard but in sophisticated rhythms that really worked with the jagged and noisy guitar that Rosenberg played.  On my right was Andy Chervenak on bass.  He was all over the fretboard, playing low and high notes to complement and contradict everything else that was going on.  It was a terrific package of music.

Until about four songs in when Rosenberg explained that this was their final tour.  They were breaking up after the next show.  It was an amicable breakup, “Nothing dramatic — still get along and love playing, but we’ve been doing some form of this band for almost ten (!?) years and it’s time to shake things up a bit,”

But still. (more…)

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Old Maybe (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018) [SPEEDY ORTIZ]

Posted in Old Maybe, Palberta, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA on July 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Old Maybe

I had never heard of Old Maybe before this show, although I understand that they have been playing together for a while. (Their earliest demos are from 2014).

The band consists of Jazz Adam (guitar and vocals), Ricardo Balmaseda (bass and vocals) and Nina Ryser (drums).

The only person I knew in the band was Nina Ryser whom I had seen on this very stage when she played with Palberta a year or so ago.

But this band belongs to Jazz Adam on vocals and guitar.  She invited anyone of color or non-cis to the front of the audience before the show began.

I didn’t know much about her, so I have learned that

in 2015 Adam began playing solo shows, performing most songs a capella, creating vocal layers with looping and effects pedals.  Adam attributes her lack of stage fright to her background in theater and stand up comedy. “I am able to be myself onstage,” she says. “And I am aggressive.” [Quote from The Spark).

Adam has been pushing that belief in Philadelphia via All Mutable, a booking collective she started with Nicki Duval and Robin Meeker-Cummings. The mission of the collective is to “diversify lineups sonically and racially,” she says. “Our focus is to book lineups that represent and attract those who are under-represented in this music scene, including (but not limited to) POC, queer identified, trans identified, and those who identify as non-binary. We also hope to sonically diversify lineups, and represent genres that are not often recognized in this culturally homogenized city.”

(more…)

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 18, 2018)

Posted in Australia, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2018] King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

‘I’ve been a fan of Melbourne’s King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard since I heard Nonagon Infinity which came out in 2016.  SET

Since that record, the band have released five full length albums (five in 2017!).

And that kind of dedication to making music has seen their fanbase grow and grow.

From the 140 capacity Kung Fu Necktie in 2014 to the 650 capacity Underground Arts in 2016 to the 1,200 capacity Trocadero in 2016 (I found out about this show literally two weeks after it had happened or I would have been there!)  And now finally to selling out Union Transfer (a higher profile show to be sure).

When the band came around in 2016, most of their set came from the then new Flying Microtonal Banana, but here they were one year and four albums later.  What would they play?

They played twenty songs dividing them between Murder of The Universe, Polgondwanaland (their fifth album of 2017, coming out on New Year’s Eve) and Banana, as well as a few from Gumboot Soup (yet another 2017 release) and Nonagon Infinity.  They went back to an earlier album for “Cellophane,” but this show was all about the newest stuff. (more…)

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Amyl and the Sniffers (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 18, 2018) [KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD]

Posted in AC/DC, Amyl and the Sniffers, Australia, Beat, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2018] Amyl and the Sniffers

I had never heard of Melbourne’s Amyl and the Sniffers before this show.

From their name, it’s pretty obvious what the band is all about.  They’re a four-piece, bass, guitar, drums and Amyl up front.  They play short, fast, loud rockers.  On their bandcamp site they have released ten songs totalling about twenty minutes.

And they were pretty fun.

This song shows their garage rock sensibility.

Amyl is an enjoyable frontwoman.  I think we were taken more with her thick Melbourne accent than any words she may have been saying. (more…)

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The Decemberists [two failed attempts June 7 & June 12, 2018]

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Red Bank, NJ, The Decemberists on June 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[NOT ATTENDED: June 7, 2018] The Decemberists at The Mann Center

Boy were we excited that The Decemberists were coming back around to tour their new album.  Even though we have seen them a few times now, we can always make room for them.

I love the acoustics of The Mann enter–it’s a beautiful location.  But it is such a pain in the butt for us to get to.  If it’s the only place a band is playing I’ll get tickets, but otherwise, I’d just as soon not travel that far.

Well, they were playing The Mann Center and I bought tickets.  And then a few days later they announced another show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ.  Well, that is 100 times easier to get to, so I said we’d give up on The Mann show for the Count Basie.

Easy peasy.

Except that I could not sell these Decemberists tickets.  The Mann Center has a strict no resale policy, so you can’t do that Ticketmaster resell business.  Then I tried CashorTrade and even StubHub and there were no takers.  I even went lowball by the end.  The one bad thing about print tickets is you can’t wait til the last minute.

We could have still gone to the show but we had another commitment that night by then and it was still a hassle to get there.  Plus we had the Basie show, so we accepted the loss bitterly.

I noticed an IM on Facebook a couple of days after the show that someone was interested, but obviously that was too late.

[NOT ATTENDED: June 12, 2018] The Decemberists at The Count Basie Theatre

The night of the Count Basie show, we received a notice that Colin Meloy’s voice was shot and the show would be cancelled.  This show and one other (not The Mann Center) shows were cancelled.  And there was no immediate plans to reschedule.  So at least this money was fully refunded.

The band seemed to promise that they’d come back.  But now they have made touring plans further afield.  They are touring the West (and then teasing us here in NJ by coming back in a few weeks to play a show in Brooklyn.  And they are coming East again in October to play Massachusetts.

Then in November they’re off to Europe.

I see a few blank days on the itinerary between the last show in October and the first show in November.  I sure hope they reschedule somewhere near here for us!

 

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Parquet Courts (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2018)

Posted in Goat Girl, Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts, Philadelphia, PA, Street Stains, The Ramones, Union Transfer, Venom on June 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 8, 2018] Parquet Courts

2017-01-31-22-13-40I saw Parquet Courts a year and a half ago at this very venue.  At the time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see them again, but it had been a fun show.  Their new album was also fun, so why not?

They played 10 of the 13 new songs from Wide Awake.  But they also played a lot of older songs too (19 songs in total including a Ramones cover of “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World.”

But they started with the lead song of the new album, “Total Football.”  The end of the song “and fuck Tom Brady” got a huge reaction from the crowd (since Philly beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl). (more…)

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Goat Girl (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2018) [PARQUET COURTS]

Posted in Goat Girl, Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 8, 2018] Goat Girl

Goat Girl are a massive buzz band in England.

Back in March, The Guardian had this to say:

Fearless, omnivorous Goat Girl (named in reference to Bill Hicks’s lusty alter ego, Goat Boy) found each other, and their sound, in Brixton indie venue the Windmill, signing to Rough Trade (over Domino and XL) two years ago before releasing anything. Taking their time and choosing the right home has served them well – their eponymous debut sounds self-assured: 19 songs crafted with care, in which dirty grunge riffs take strange left turns.

I was surprised that they were playing here so soon, evidently on a multi-date tour with Parquet Courts.  But they proved to be an excellent compaion band to parquet Courts since they have a punk, DIY aesthetic but don’t stick to one genre of music

I’ll let NME describe their album:

The four piece’s debut album is a grubby, clattering thing that takes its lead from 1980s LA punk trailblazers like X and The Gun Club, who took traditional country music and fed it moonshine until it fell down in a ditch, then scraped the mud off its jeans, handed it a microphone and a broken electric guitar and made it walk through broken glass to sing in a grotty toilet venue bar over a broken PA system. Goat Girl have mixed this scrappy sound with the gothic ennui of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the doomy experimentalism of Tom Waits. The result is a late-night swagger through the murky underbelly of the town that Clottie Cream, Rosy Bones, Naima Jelly and L.E.D. – not, we assume, their birth names – call home, coming in at 19 swirling songs in 40 punchy minutes. It even includes a song that describes their very sound, the Pixies-esque belter ‘Country Sleaze’, thus rendering the past paragraph of me picking apart their sonics almost entirely pointless. Ah well.

Goat Girl was a lot of fun.  They played for about 40 minutes, presumably their whole album, although I didn’t know it. (more…)

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Street Stains (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2018) [PARQUET COURTS]

Posted in Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts, Philadelphia, PA, Pissed Jeans, Q and Not U, Street Stains, Union Transfer on June 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 8, 2018] Street Stains

Street Stains are from Washington D.C.  They are a duo consisting of guitar and drums.

Guitarist Chris Richards (who was in Q and Not U) plays a spare guitar and simple riffs.  It amused me that he never really took his hood off as he shouted the lyrics.

Drummer Sean McGuinness (who also plays in Pissed Jeans) played some really complex fills and kept the simple songs from growing dull.

He had some things to say about parties in Washington D.C. and how they suck (I assume as an introduction to “The Party.”

I also enjoyed that they have a song called “Street Stains” and one called “Somewhere Over the Chemtrails.” (more…)

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Japanese Breakfast (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 3, 2018)

Posted in Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, Radiator Hospital, Union Transfer on June 3, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 3, 2018] Japanese Breakfast

Japanese Breakfast is the creation of Philadelphia-based Michelle Zauner.  She sings pretty melodies and has a variety of tones when she sings–some high-pitched notes and some lower parts as well.

A lot of bands celebrate in some way when they play a home town.  Sometimes its an extra song or a guest.  I don’t really know how this show deviated from other in terms of set list, but Zauner had a lot to celebrate being back at Union Transfer.

[Quotes and quoted passages are from an article in The Key

“I fucking used to work coat check here,” Zauner told the audience as she gazed into the sold out crowd at UT.

She said this just after she’d sung her first song “Diving Woman.”  It was the first time she had headlined Union Transfer.  She said she felt a bit shy playing here because so many friends and family were in attendance.  And she talked a lot about her connections to the city.  She graduated from Bryn Mawr college and she recorded both Japanese Breakfast albums in Philly.   (more…)

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