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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

The Belair Lip Bombs [FREE AT NOON] (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia Pa, April 10, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Free at Noon, Philadelphia, PA, The Belair Lip Bombs, World Cafe Live on April 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 10, 2026] The Belair Lip Bombs [FREE AT NOON]

I really liked Hey You from The Belair Lip Bombs.  I was pretty excited to get a ticket to see them tomorrow night at PhilaMOCA.  Especially since it sold out pretty quickly.  Then they announced a Free at Noon for the day before the show (they were playing a show in NYC tonight, so they drove back and forth with all of their gear.

I grabbed a ticket because I thought that maybe I’d skip the PhilaMOCA show and go to see Sunn0))) on Saturday instead.  But I was busy that morning and didn’t feel like hauling ass all the way down to Philly especially since I had a ticket to their show.

So I blew this one off.  Interestingly, they played 9 songs at the Free at Noon and 11 songs at the PhilaMOCA show.  Huh.

You can hear their set here.

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Art Brut: Band Bang Rock n Roll plus hits / Party Nerves (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, April 6, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Art Brut, Johnny Brenda's, Party Nerves, Philadelphia, PA on April 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 6, 2026] Art Brut: Band Bang Rock n Roll plus hits / Party Nerves

We had returned from Minnesota on Sunday and this show was the following night.  I loved this album (and the follow up) when this came out.  Eddie Argos was a weird but fun frontman.  I thought about getting a ticket for this but I had so many shows lines up the previous week that I just opted not to get one.  But since I had cancelled those shows while in MN, I thought that I would grab a last minute ticket for this one (which had not sold out yet).

But earlier in the day I went to the knee doctor for some pain and he gave me a cortisone shot.  It hurt so much that evening that there was absolutely no way I would have been able to tolerate standing for the show.  (The shot felt much better by the following night).  So I’m glad I didn’t buy a ticket even though I’m sure it was a fun show.

I’ve seen Party Nerves open for other bands three times.  I was delighted to think I could have seen them a 4th time without really meaning to.  They are a great.  As I’d said before:

All three members are super in tune with each other, but fairly or unfairly, most of the attention has to go to guitarist Woolly since he’s the one playing the lightning fast, non-stop surf guitar riffs. Yup, rocking surf guitar that reminds me of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (the band who made The Kids in the Hall theme song), although listening to them this time, they have more urgency and intensity that Shadowy’s laid back vibe).

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Circle Jerks / Gorilla Biscuits / Negative Approach (Archer Music Hall, Allentown, PA. March 31, 2026 // Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, April 3 & 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Circle Jerks, Gigi Perez, Gorilla Biscuits, Negative Approach, Nikole, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on April 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 31, April 3, April 4, 2026] Circle Jerks / Gorilla Biscuits / Negative Approach

I liked a lot of 80s punks, but I was never really into Circle Jerks.  I mean, they were legends of course, but for whatever reason I never got their music.  When these shows were announced I was actually surprised that Circle Jerks were still a thing.  Actually, I guess they are once again a thing.  They tend to reunite and then stop and reunite and stop.  They’ve been touring now since 2019 (but haven’t released any new music since 1995).  I Really did consider going to this show. I mean, it’s the Circle Jerks after all.  And they were playing THREE dates.  But I was completely shut out on all of these dates.

The March 31 date was the same night as The Teeth who I didn’t want to miss.  April 3 I had tickets to Puscifer and April 4th I had tickets to Nothing.  And then we wound up going to  Minnesota the first few days of April, so I wouldn’t have been able to go anyway.

I’m not sure what an old school punk show like this would be like–is it all old punks in a pit or is it all young kids in a pit an old guys standing around.  I mean I do love seeing that they played 31 songs in roughly an hour–nice old school punk.  And since they played two dates in Philly, they probably won’t come back around any time soon.  Oh well.  Not a bucket list band, but it would have been fun.

All I know about Gorilla Biscuits is that I bought their Start Today CD in college and it had 99 tracks, which was a really fun at the time.  I hadn’t really thought about them much since then, and was kind of surprised to see that they were touring (which I guess they have been doing since 2005?).  They have released no new music since Start Today (1988).  So I guess their shows aren’t very different each night.  I’m not sure I would have recognized many of the songs but it would have been fun to see them too.  They played about 40 minutes (not bad since they released about 30 minutes of music)

Negative Approach is yet another hardcore band who is still around but who hasn’t out out new music since their debut album Tied Down (1983).  I’m aware of the band but really know very little about them.  Unlike the other three bands, when they started playing again in 2006, only the singer remained–everyone else was new.  But it’s the same guys since 2006 which is longer than the original incarnation lasted (1981-1984).  They played for about 30 minutes)

It sounds like a fun night of old school punk and I wish I’d been able to go.

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Wax Jaw / KulfiGirls / Lash Out (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, April 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Johnny Brenda's, KulfiGirls, Lash Out, Philadelphia, PA, Wax Jaw on April 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 4, 2026] Wax Jaw / KulfiGirls / Lash Out

I was such a huge fan of Wax Jaw and I wanted to see them every chance I got.  And then for some reason, I wasn’t that excited about this show.  Have I outgrown them?  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s because I already had a ticket to a different show that night that I wasn’t thinking about this show too much.  Of coure, we wound up going to Minnesota so I wouldn’t have been able to go anyhow.

KulfiGirls are a Philadelphia-based rock band fronted by lead vocalist Abi Natesh who, through her use of the South Indian Saraswati veena, presents a novel “carnatic rock” sound inspired by diverse genres of pop and rock. 

I hadn’t heard of them, but holy cow I would have absolutely gone to this show for KulfiGirls.  Their mix of South Indian music and indie rock is really exciting and interesting.  And Abi’s voice is fantastic.  I’m going to have to check them out.

Lash Out is a Philadelphia band made up of Taylor and Tessa.  They are very low-fi and their songs are really short (on bandcamp, they do a cover of Big Lizard in My Backyard).  Also on their bandcamp is a collection of demos and their debut album Lash Out (which doesn’t sound much more polished than the demos.  Their songs are simple and short and decidedly DIY.

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Nothing / Full Body 2 / Cryogeyser / Violent Magic Orchestra (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cryogeyser, Full Body, Full Body 2, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Violent Magic Orchestra on April 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 4, 2026] Nothing / Full Body 2 / Cryogeyser / Violent Magic Orchestra

I don’t fall for a lot of hype about things.  But when Union Transfer hypes an upcoming show, I often check out the band.  They especially like to hype Philly bands (which makes sense) and I feel like I had been very lax on my Philly music knowledge.  Nothing is a band that I probably should have known but didn’t.  And it turns out I’ve had a few opportunities to see them.  They opened for Boris on the one tour  that I missed and they hosted or helmed Slide Away Philadelphia, which was an all day shoegaze event.  I would have loved every band but a whole day would have been too much.

At the time I wrote

They’ve been around for almost fifteen years. Everything I’ve listened to from them has been quite good.  They tend to veer into the more creepy and less heavy side of shoegaze.

Full Body 2 (odd name that) is also from Philly.  They sound a lot more like My Bloody Valentine than other contemporary shoegaze bands–the vocals are really buried and there’s some interesting synth sounds.

IndexYear0001.com explains the name

Full Body 2 are a band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made up of Cassidy Rose Hammond, Dylan Vaisey, & Jack Chaffer.

Full Body 2 is a sequel to the band Full Body, which included Hammond and Vaisey. Full Body 2 have a dense, shoegaze sound which they combine with aspects of electronic genres like breakcore and digi-core as well as rendered futuristic aesthetics.

Opener Cryogeyser says this about themselves on their bandcamp: “Three piece from Los Angeles. Cute.”

Flood Magazine writes that

 Distortion and reverb are their friends, but none of their music feels consumed or overwhelmed by such effects. A mix of dreampop, shoegaze, and grunge, the LA-based trio balance their stone-heavy rhythmic section of bassist Hunter Martinez and drummer McCoy Kirgo with the swirling melodies and heaven-reaching vocals of singer-guitarist Shawn Marom.

Their music is quite stark and spare, though for all the reverb.  There’s also a sense of 50s girl group about them.  I’d be curious to see how that translates live.

I hadn’t heard of Violent Magic Orchestra who are from Japan.

The Wire says this “Osaka based six piece fuses black metal aesthetics with the endorphin rush of peak time hard trance and gabber”

And the blurb on their bandcamp pages says

After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene.
The blinding lights of DEATH RAVE point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno.

I have no idea how they wound up on this shoegaze bill and their live show sounds pretty amazing.  They are more glitchy/noisy than the other bands, but I would love to see what their love show is like.

We were in Minnesota for this show.  I hadn’t been all that excited about this show because I’d forgotten what Nothing sounded like, but as soon as I listened to them again I remembered how much I liked them and how much this whole evening would have been awesome.

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Dirty Three (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, April 2, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dirty Three, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 2, 2026] Dirty 3

I have a list of bands that I want to see.  The list is pretty long, but I do have them ranked roughly by how much I want to see them.  I also have a category of bands that I assume will never tour again but that I want to see if they ever do.  And Dirty Three was on top of that list.  I couldn’t believe when they announced that they were playing Underground Arts.  I bought my ticket instantly and couldn’t wait to see them.

And then about a week before this show, my daughter told me that she wanted to go to Minnesota for a college visit.  And it had to be the first days of April.

I was obviously bummed but was really happy that the trip was fun and helped her decide on a school.

I assume that Dirty Three will never come back to the States (their previous visit was in 2003).   Huh, I didn’t realize that they had put out a new album in 2024 (first since 2012), so maybe if they make another album before ten years pass, they may come back again).

The show sounds like it was wild (of course) and they played for two and a half hours!  I wonder if anyone filmed it.

 

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Thursday presents Full City Devolution / Chris Conly (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, April 1, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Chris Conly, Philadelphia, PA, Thursday, Union Transfer on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 1, 2026] Thursday / Chris Conly

I have seen Thursday twice.  Both times they opened for My Chemical Romance.  The first time was in the Prudential Center.  The second time was in Giants Stadium.  Both times the sound wasn’t great and while i knew them a little better the second time, I felt like I couldn’t really appreciate them at all.

So while I don’t know their music well, and don’t know the album Full City Devolution any more than any of their other albums, I thought it would be a great opportunity to actually see the band properly.

But then my daughter was going to Minnesota and so I missed all for the shows this week.  Luckily I was able to resell this show, so no loss for me.  And maybe Thursday will headline again soon–I mean they sold out this time, so they know there’s interest.

Chris Conly is a Brooklyn musician,  I listened to two of his songs and hated them both.  He reminds me of George Thoroughgood, and the last thing we need is another George Thoroughgood.

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The Teeth (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2026)

Posted in Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Purples, The Kinks, The Teeth on March 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 28, 2026] The Teeth 

Two years ago, I had never heard of The Teeth before I saw that they had sold out three nights at Johnny Brenda’s months and months before these shows happened.

So who were they?  The Teeth was an indie rock band from Philadelphia consisting of twin brothers Aaron MoDavis on rhythm guitar and Peter MoDavis on bass.  I was intrigued by them and was even more intrigued when I saw that they were going to open for Dr. Dog on their tour last year.  From their images and the few songs I’d heard, I assumed that they’d be a weirdo band.  And I wanted to see them.

So I was pretty happy to have grabbed a ticket for this show.  While the show was starting, I met a guy who was born in Norway but who moved to California when he was three.  He had found The Teeth a few years ago (via Dr. Dog who always praised The Teeth) and fell in love with them.  He was very excited to be seeing them for the first time.  When he asked me how I knew them, I told him the above story.

I was very amused by their stage backdrop which was a bunch of hand drawn and cut out images stuck to the Johnny Brenda’s curtain.

After the comedian, it took some time before the band came out.  And what was so much fun is that they came out of the door upstairs!  They walked through the crowd, all while Herb Alpert’s Behind the Rain played, came down the stairs and climbed onto the stage.  And that’s when I realized how normal these guys were (except for Brian Ashby’s amazing mustache). (more…)

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John Miller Giltner (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2026) [THE TEETH]

Posted in John Miller Giltner, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Purples, The Kinks, The Teeth on March 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 28, 2026] John Miller Giltner

I was delighted when I saw that The Teeth has comedians open for them on the last time they played Johnny Brenda’s.  They did the same this time.  Although last night’s show opened with a magician (which sounds awesome), I got a kick out of John Miller Giltner.

They are a young comedian (meaning he uses a bunch of young person slang) and they used a powerpoint presentation (which was really funny).  It opened with a slide that said Comedy set for The Teeth.  Which is pretty spot on.

The main point of their comedy was about how they had a bed with no frame (it’s amazing how much material you can get out of that).  This included a phot of said bed and a lengthy story about the person he was dating’s reaction to the lack of bed frame.

But it started off funny when John said that in order to get through this set they were going to need to borrow someone’s vape.  A woman nicely obliged.  If they didn’t have the vape it would induce a panic attack for sure (the panic attack graphics on the powerpoint were hilarious).

An unintentionally funny part came when they clicked the wrong button and reset the whole PowerPoint.

There was a funny part about being nonbinary and the way his dad was supported but said the worst things.

The end of the set featured a long call with Amazon help.  He called up to say that he had given his then girlfriend a video game controller and she broke up with him and he wondered if he could get some kind of rebate since she broke up with him.  The woman on the other end of the call was confused but polite and ultimately sweet.  It was a funny bit of reality in a wild set.

I do rather like the idea of a comedian opening for a rock band and think more bands should consider it.

Here’s an article about another of Giltener’s performances.  I think our night was maybe a variant of this but cut much shorter.

 

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The Format / Ben Kweller / Adult Mom (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Adult Mom, Ben Kweller, Franklin Music Hall, Fun., Philadelphia, PA, The Format on March 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 28, 2026] The Format / Ben Kweller / Adult Mom

I didn’t know The Format when they first came around.  But when their new song was played on the radio, I thought Damn this sounds like the band fun.  So it turns out that it’s the same guy!  Spectrum Culture says

You know those stories about people who win the lottery, amassing millions and millions of dollars overnight and then working like nothing happened? That’s Nate Ruess. His old band, fun., put out a single (and album) big enough that he could probably live the rest of his life comfortably. His even older band, the Format, reunited to such massive hype that they had to cancel their reunion tour twice and still sold out the third one immediately.

Rock Doc tells us that they played TWO shows in Philly–one in Franklin Park (free) and one at Franklin Music Hall.

The Format are back on the road behind their latest record Boycott Heaven, and that journey brought Nate Ruess and Sam Means to Philadelphia’s Franklin Music Hall. Between the band’s original rise and eventual breakup nearly two decades ago, Ruess’ hugely successful run with FUN, and a solo career on top of that, these two have seen plenty of the music industry’s peaks and valleys. None of that history dampened the appetite for their reunion – the show sold out almost instantly.

Since I didn’t know and didn’t know anything about this show, it sold out before I even thought about going to it.  I had tickets to The Teeth anyhow.  But Rock Doc continues:

Ruess remains as captivating a frontman as he’s ever been, and he wore his emotions openly throughout the night. The setlist was a clear love letter to the back catalog. Of the twenty songs they ran through, only three came from the new album – a conscious decision to center the night around the songs people have been carrying with them for the better part of twenty years.

I don’t know much about Ben Kweller.  He’s just always kind of been there.  He’s a mellow rocker who plays guitar and piano and has done an album with Ben Folds.  He’s played with lots of people I like, but I’ve never really made the connection to him. I have to assume he’ll open for someone I want to see some day.

I saw Adult Mom almost ten years ago and I enjoyed their set.  A lot has happened to Stevie Knipe over the years including a bout with cancer.  They seem to be back though and put out their first album in 4 years last year.

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