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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

Dilly Dally (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2016)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Dilly Dally, Drake, Hole, Philadelphia, PA, Pixies on November 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2016] Dilly Dally

2016-11-07-22-06-13Although many of the shows I’ve attended recently have been by well established bands that I wanted to see for years, I really love seeing new bands who have grabbed my attention.  Especially in a small club.

Dilly Dally are from Toronto and they were described to me as being like the Pixies meets Hole. And I can certainly hear that.  They play loud aggressive alternative rock that’s headed by Katie Monks’ snarling singing voice and Liz Bell’s sharp and catchy lead guitar work.  Bassist Jimmy Tony and drummer Benjamin Reinhartz lay down a low end that keeps the sound grounded.

The band has one album out.  A great album (with an absolutely terrible cover) that juxtaposes angry and pretty quite nicely in just thirty some minutes.

When I saw guitarist Liz earlier talking to someone, I didn’t realize she was the lead guitarist (I barely knew what any of the band looked like).  And, in fact, I nearly crashed into the drummer about five times throughout the night as we kept walking past each other.  So I was delighted not only to see Liz strap on her guitar but to hear her making those great riffs sound just like the album.

I didn’t really think that Katie’s voice would sound quite so…primal live, but it does.  When they eventually played “Desire,” the track that opens with her snarling 1, 2, 3, 4, the sound was exact–like her throat really hurts after singing. (more…)

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Palm (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2016) [DILLY DALLY]

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Dilly Dally, Palm, Philadelphia, PA on November 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2016] Palm

2016-11-07-21-08-37 The second opening act was a band called Palm.  My story about Palm I that given the set up of Boot & Saddle (it’s a small club with no backstage), I was (inadvertently) standing near the band’s gear when their set was done.  Their guitarist Eve walked literally next to me with her guitar on.  So I told her how much I liked the show.  She was super friendly and chatty and then another woman walked up to us.  She turned out to be Liz from Dilly Dally.  Liz told Eve that their set was great and that she had wanted to catch them at SXSW but couldn’t.  Eve was flattered and thanked Liz so much for letting them open, to which Liz smiled and waved her off.  Liz then said she was drinking an American Mule [vodka, and ginger ale and a lime] and said it was great offered Eve a sip.  Then she headed up stage.  I realize that neither of these bands are exactly stars, but that’s not happening at MSG, that’s for sure!

So Palm was fantastic.  An amazing band to see live (especially from so close).  The band plays noisy, complex music that has parts math-rock and parts shoegaze.  They remind me of Battles, but only in part.  The two guitarists Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert are constantly playing different (and highly unlikely) chords or notes.  Meanwhile the bassist (Gerasimos Livitsanos) is typically playing his own patterns that somehow meld with the two and keep everything grounded.  And the drummer (Hugo Stanley) is doing complex things of his own.  It’s so hard to tell who you want to watch. (more…)

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Marge (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2016) [DILLY DALLY]

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Dilly Dally, Marge, Philadelphia, PA on November 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2016] Marge

2016-11-07-20-41-10Two bands opened for Toronto’s Dilly Dally.  The posted start time was 8:30, but I gather Marge went on at 8:15.  Traffic made me a few minutes late, so I really only saw one song from Marge.

And it was really good.  It started off with the guitarist on the right joking about her Lake Wobegone Shirt.  And then she started playing and singing.   The song (no idea what it was called) began slow and fuzzy shoe-gazey.  It stayed that way for a few minutes and then the singer started pogoing a bit and then the song started rocking with some good screams from the lead singer.  Just as I started to get a quick video for reference, the song ended and so did their set.

I have checked out their bandcamp site and I love that their slogan and first single name is “we’re figuring it out” because it really sounded like they were.  But between that 2013 release and their new album Bruise Easy from 2016, Marge made huge strides and their sound is really dynamic and interesting.  I wish I had seen more of their set. (more…)

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Shellac (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 25, 2016)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Shellac, Union Transfer on October 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2016] Shellac

2016-10-25-22-32-01My friend Andrew asked me if I wanted to go to see Shellac.  They were a band I liked in the 1990s and had kind of forgotten about, although I did get and enjoy their album from last year, Dude Incredible.  And I thought that they would be a fun band to see live.

Shellac is known as Steve Albini’s band.  Albini is a famous record producer and famously cantankerous dude.  But people love the clarity and crispness of the sounds he gets.  On the Shellac albums, the guitars are so sharp and piercing that they feel textural.  But he also doesn’t mix things super loud, so nothing is overloaded.  Things are sharp and crisp.  And that is the same for the drums.  Drummer Todd Trainer’s snare drum really pops and the rest of his kit is just as sharp sounding.

On the other end is bassist Bob Weston.  Weston has one of the best bass sounds I’ve ever heard.  Deep and resonant, clean but not pretty.  While the guitar may be the most notable thing about Shellac, it’s the bass that sounds so impressive on those records.  And the three together make loud aggressive sorta punk, with Albini’s spoken/screamed lyrics.  This was definitely a show to bring earplugs to.

The sound of Shellac is quite minimal and, appropriate, so was the stage show.  Before the show Andrew and I joked that the blue gels covering the lights would be too much embellishment for the band.  And indeed, when they came on stage, there were eight white spotlights that lit them from the back.  And that was it.  It was all about the sound. (more…)

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Shannon Wright (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 25, 2016) [SHELLAC]

Posted in Kishi Bashi, Philadelphia, PA, Shannon Wright, Shellac, Twain, Union Transfer on October 26, 2016| 2 Comments »

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2016] Shannon Wright

2016-10-25-20-43-31My friend Andrew got us tickets to see Shellac. When I looked to see who was opening, the site listed “Shannon Wright.”  I had never heard of her.  I had t laugh that the blurb on Shellac was literally two sentences.  While Wright’s was 8 large paragraphs.

It made me excited to see her, but I had no idea what to expect.  And then she came out with just her guitar (and flashbacks to Kishi Bashi’s opener Twain came hurtling at me).

But Wright was no Twain.  She started with a looped guitar melody–rather pretty.  And then she turned it off–that appears to be her “tuning music” because once she started playing–it sounded nothing like that loop.

Wrights play a very aggressive guitar–she doesn’t strum of pick so much as pluck those string so that they slap back against the guitar.  Her low notes are percussive and her high notes are painful.  She uses no pick, so it really emphasizes this abrasive style.  Her songs have a very steady rhythm on the low notes–very easy to bob your head (or in some cases seriously headbang) along to, while the melody gets hammered out on the high strings. (more…)

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Umphrey’s McGee (The Fillmore Philadelphia, October 21, 2016)

Posted in Disco Biscuits, Dream Theater, King Crimson, Nirvana, Philadelphia, PA, Phish, Sturgill Simpson, The Fall, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Who, Umphrey's McGee on October 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2016] Umphrey’s McGee

2016-10-21-21-25-48 As of this summer I didn’t know who Umphrey’s McGee were.  I assumed they were a country band or something.  Then I found out a friend of mine who was at the Phish show that I went to was a huge fan of Umphrey’s McGee too.  She said that they were amazing live.  I listened to some of their stuff (and learned that their debut was called Greatest Hits Volume III, which I love), and then saw that they were playing three nights at The Fillmore in Philadelphia.  So I got a ticket for the middle night to see what the story was.

And I think I picked a good night to go.  Friday night the band had an opening act, not so Saturday or Sunday.  This meant that they didn’t go on until 9:15, which was fine.  I arrived in time but I had forgotten about the long security lines (and I’m thankful for the security, but ouch, it adds ten minutes to the line).  I missed the opening song, but since the band played for nearly three hours, that was okay.

So it turns out that Umphrey’s McGee are a jam band who work within a more progressive/metal sound.  They have a lot of stops and starts and time changes and their guitar solos are superfast pyrotechnics.  Most of their songs extend to about ten minutes or more (maybe like Dream Theater if they were a jam band).

But the fun thing about UM is that they throw in all kinds of cover segments and mashups.  To my knowledge there were no mashup in this show, although they are about a to release a whole album full of great mashups. However, they did tease out sections of other songs during some of their longer instrumental jams, which was fun. (more…)

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Sloan (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2016)

Posted in Canadian Music, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Philadelphia, PA, Sloan, Television, Underground Arts on October 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

sloan[ATTENDED: October 15, 2016] Sloan

Back in the early 1990s, I heard Sloan’s “Underwhelmed,” and I loved it.  Such a great song that is still rocking and clever over 20 years later.  Sloan has a tumultuous few years after that, appearing to break up but not, getting signed and then dropped and then settling down and putting out some amazing music over the next 20 or so years which few people outside of Canada heard.

They have released eleven albums and I think that each one gets better and better.  Sloan is touring the 20th Anniversary of One Chord to Another.  There are some great songs on it, although it’s wasn’t my favorite album.  But the point is I have never seen Sloan.  In all the years I’ve been a fan, we’ve never been in the same place at the same time.  So even though I had been to a show the night before and this would make six concerts in twelve days (!), I bought tickets to see one of my favorite underground bands.

Since I knew they were playing all of OCTA, I listened to it a lot before hand and now, after seeing it live, I do like it even more than before. (But seriously if they do a 20th anniversary tour of Between the Bridges in three years…. you couldn’t keep me from that stage).

I’d never been to Underground Arts before.  It is indeed underground.  And it is indeed quite small (about 500 people max).

I arrived pretty early (start time was supposed to be 9:15, but they didn’t go on until 9:30–divas!).  But that meant that I was able to score a spot right behind the guy leaning on the stage.  As they say in Fast Times at Ridgemont High: so close I could scare the band. (more…)

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Kishi Bashi (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 4, 2016)

Posted in Guster, Kishi Bashi, Philadelphia, PA, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Tall Tall Trees, Union Transfer on October 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2016] Kishi Bashi

2016-10-04-22-03-10This is our third time seeing Kishi Bashi, and our second time seeing him with our friends Liz and Eleanor.  We all saw him together the first time when he opened for Rodrigo y Gabriela.  And they were hooked just like we were.  They have since seen him with his string quartet, which we didn’t.  I’ve liked him so much solo that I didn’t know if I wanted to see others playing with him.  Well, Tuesday’s show was a full band and it was phenomenal.

He is an amazing solo performer with his loops and improv and his fantastic stage presence.  But when he has other people to play off of, he completely soars.  And, since he was the headliner, he added a great light show (and confetti!).  And it also mean that even though we had heard these songs live before, in this setting they were completely reworked and different.

Kishi Bashi’s newest album is the disco-infused Sonderlust in which he more or less switches from his signature violin to keyboards.  But the music, while quite different from his earlier records is still very Kishi Bashi–that voice and those melodies are unmistakable. (more…)

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Twain (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 4, 2016) [KISHI BASHI]

Posted in Kishi Bashi, Philadelphia, PA, Twain, Union Transfer on October 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2016] Twain

2016-10-04-20-30-56 Kishi Bashi has been an opening act for two great bands that I’ve seen.  So I was really curious to see who his opening act would be.  I’d looked up Twain online but all I got from the brief glimpse was that it was a duo from Brooklyn.

When we got to the venue, there were some big drums and keyboards around the stage and I thought maybe they belonged to Twain.

Well, indeed, they did not, for in this show Twain was just one guy and his guitar (actually two guitars).

And his first song was very disconcerting.   Lyrically, Twain seems to come from the state-everything-I-see school of lyrics.  He mixes this with a hippy world view and a pretty big obsession with death.  And his delivery is stark and sharp and, yes, pretty unpleasant. (more…)

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The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses: Master Quest (Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 25, 2016)

Posted in C., Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Pokémon Go, Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda on September 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 25, 2016] The Legend of Zelda

legendBack in the summer we took the kids to the Mann Center to see Symphonic Pokémon.  And it was pretty great.  Well, the Mann Center closed its season with a symphonic Legend of Zelda performance.  C. has been a big Zelda fan for a couple of years (he loves the soundtrack particularly), so it seemed like an obvious show to go to.

Our one regret is that it was on a Sunday night which meant we didn’t get home until 11, which is just too late for a school night (especially since earlier in the week we took the kids to see “Weird Al” and got home even later–terrible parents, yes, but pretty cool parents).  But that was the only regret we had.

The show was fantastic.  C. even wore his Zelda Halloween costume (and brought his home-made cardboard sword–which passed security thankfully).  And he was not the only one in costume–some people were very seriously dressed for this event. (more…)

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