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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

[ATTENDED: October 30, 2024] Party Nerves

I saw Party Nerves open for Say Sue Me back in November and for Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and Otoboke Beaver in March.  And now they are back opening for Drinking Boys and Girls again.

Party Nerves is a great, fun band.

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).

Admittedly a lot of the songs are samey–I mean, it’s instrumental and it’s all kind of reverbed and riff-based.  But each guy is really good and the riffs are tasty.

The crowd was really into it with lots if applause after each song.   They just put out a new EP.

Party Nerves is a great opening act, check them out!

 

2024 2024 2023
Going to Hell on a Technicality Going to Hell on a Technicality
Whose Blood is This? © Hearse Donuts ©
Scum Island ⇔ Texas Pastry Month ⇔
Hearse Donuts © 12
Coffee and Muffins with Anton ⇔ Whose Blood is This? ©
Jackie Dracula © Scum Island ⇔
Tellez Marella ⇔ Jackie Dracula ©
Coffin Hop © Goose Suit ©
I Said No Thank You ⇔ Ikta
Texas Pastry Month ⇔ Coffin Hop ©
Toothpaste, NJ ⇔ Toothpaste, NJ ⇔

⇔ Go Broke or Go Home (2024)
⊗ 2023 single
© Put a Load On, Come Back Mangled (2022)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 26, 2024] Osees

Three years ago I saw Osees and really enjoyed the chaotic energy of the show.  Since then they have returned every year in mid October.

Last year  had an appointment scheduled that ran really late and made me unable to get to the show.   This year, I bought tickets for the show in February.

But this year my daughter’s birthday conflicted (as it tends to do) and I wasn’t able to go out that night.  I really would like to see Osees again.  Maybe if they come back around this year I can go.

Godcaster is a screamy noise band from Brooklyn.  Pitchfork wrote of them that their music is “teetering right on the edge of irredeemable obnoxiousness, daring you to resist their charm and lightning-fast musicianship.”  Another reviewer says of their show “If you’ve seen Godcaster live, you know they put on a show as if they were in a crowd of thousands.”  That’s a cool recommendation, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard.

Maybe I’ll get to see them as well.

 

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 25, 2024] Bleary Eyed / Hello Mary

I’ve been vaguely obsessed with Hello Mary for a couple of years now.  Looking back at shows I didn’t attend, I could have seen them six times in the past two years but didn’t for one reason or anther.

So I was really looking forward to this show.

And then, as often happens at this time of year, my daughter had a birthday party planned for that night and so I was in for the night.

Bummer. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] Descartes A Kant

In 2018 Descartes A Kant, Bob Boilen talked about Descartes A Kant at SXSW and said they were an amazing band live.  I have wanted to see them ever since, but (I assume since they are based in Guadalajara Mexico) they never came anywhere close to us.

And then, SIX YEARS later, they announced a show in Philly after releasing what might be my favorite album of 2024, After Destruction.  It’s a concept album of sorts, with songs that are not really connected but have am idea running through them.  The band has enlisted the help of a DAK machine which is designed to help you navigate life.  The album opens with Hello User, in which the DAK welcomes you to its programming.

And that is how the show opened as well.  Although, like Star Carr, they seemed to have a bunch of technical difficulties and I wondered if we didn’t get an encore because of it (I honestly don’t know).

But they had their big DAK machine on stage and their bassist Memo Ibarra turned it on, and the voice over from the record welcomed us to the show. (more…)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 22, 2024] Dehd / This is Lorelei

I saw Dehd open for Sylvan Esso last year.  I rather enjoyed them and concluded

I enjoyed their whole set–short, simple, dancey rock songs.  And as I was listening to them I realized that they were exactly the kind of band that I like live but would probably never listen to on record.  The songs are too simplistic for me to really enjoy unless they band is playing them in front of me.  Or something.

Since then they’ve had one or two more songs out that I’ve really enjoyed too.  But I didn’t get tickets as I was trying not to overload my calendar with shows this month.

This is Lorelei is just one band that features Nate Amos.  He is also in Water from Your Eyes who I don’t know and He’s one half of My Idea with Lily Konisberg from Palberta who I know. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 22, 2024] Star Carr / Quick Chills

Star Carr is a Mesolithic archaeological site in North Yorkshire, England. It is around five miles (8 km) south of Scarborough.

I had never heard of it. Nor the Baltimore-based band of the same name.

Star Carr is psychedelic street punk.
Oren Folus-drums, Don McIntosh-guitars and vocals, Sebästian Grey-bass and vocals.

Their band site says :

“Do you like the MC5? The Stooges? Wish Motorhead sang about unions and the Baltimore uprising? Wanted to put Thin Lizzy, The Business, and Hawkwind in a blender and hear how it sounded? You’re gonna wanna listen to Star Carr!”- Tyler Vile, poet, author

And that is pretty spot on.  They were very loud in the small space, but they were really good.  Heavy, crunchy, nice riffs.  Two singers, heavy drums.

But I felt bad for them because they took a really long time to set up and then only played about 20 minutes.  I’m not sure what they played, but their new album had just come out so I assume it was mostly from that. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Boris 

I saw Boris last year.  It was great, of course.  And I ended my post about that show with

I wonder if we’ll get a drone show from them next time?

And did we ever!  This was a tour of their second album, Amplifier Worship.  65 minutes of loud heavy drone music.

When I arrived., the place was pretty crowded, but that’s because everyone was online to buy merch. The venue was almost empty because there were 150 people waiting to buy the kick ass poster.  I figured I’d wat until after the show to get the kick ass poster, but after waiting for ten minutes and the line not moving at all, I gave up and went home.

They came out.  Muchio was on drums.  This was the first time I’d seen him play with Boris (and I didn’t know he was on this tour).  This explained why there was a smaller drumset facing the larger drumset.  Then Takeshi came out with his double neck guitar and Wata walked out to her station.

Muchio smashed the gong, the music began to swell, Atsuo came on stage and commanded everyone’s attention.  He’s usually behind the kit so I’ve never actually seen him out from before.  He stood at the front of the stage, arms outstretched and half of the crowd raised their arms in (amplifier) worship.  I loved how long he stood there absorbing the adoration as the other three played a wall of noise.

“Huge” opened with heavy, loud chords from Wata and Takeshi.  Atsuo stood and absorbed everything.  Eventually he and Takeshi screamed the vocals.  “Huge” is 9 minutes on record.  I don’t know how long it was live. (more…)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 20, 2024] Fontaines D.C. / Been Stellar

I’ve seen Fontaines D.C. twice and each time I’ve found the crowd to be unpleasant.  I decided that I didn’t need to see them again.  Especially in a place like the Fillmore–a huge venue that lends itself to bad behaviour.

They released a new album, though and my wife really likes the songs she’s heard and she wondered if we should go.  Then we saw that the show was on a special day for someone in my family.

So that’s THREE shows I would have gone to on one day.  And the day in question was not cool for us.

Oof.

I’m intrigued by Been Stellar and have heard good thigs about them.  I hadn’t heard anything by them and listened to a few clips just now and I don’t really get much of a feeling from them–fuzzy alt rock.  They’re kind of a buzz band, but I’d need to hear more.

Huh, last year I said I listened to a few songs and really liked them.  Maybe I didn’t give a good enough listen this time.

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[DID NOT ATTEND: October 20, 2024] Acid Mothers Temple / Spirit Mother

I try to never miss an Acid Mothers Temple show.  But they placed this one on the night of a special day for someone in my family.  So there was no way I’d be going out to any shows.

It would have been interesting to see them on a small stage like Milkboy.

But AMT tends to come back every year or so, so I hope to see them next year. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Starcrawler

Starcrawler goes down as probably the biggest let down from a build up for me at a concert.

I had wanted to see Starcrawler for about 5 years because I had heard such great things about their live show.  Since then, their show had evolved (as it probably should) and instead of the crazy rockers I thought I was getting, instead, I got a cocksure LA band who were snotty to the crowd and way overconfident in an unpleasant way.

So, while I might normally have been really excited to see them, I was a little bummed that they were opening for Boris without hearing anything new from them.

There’s a few songs by them that I really do like.  And they didn’t play either “Hollywood Ending” or “No More Pennies.” But the did play the two songs that I liked least when I saw them last time, covers of two genuinely terrible songs, If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough and Pet Sematary (easily the worst Ramones song ever).

The one thing that made me happy was when Wata from Boris came out and played guitar on Kick Me. (more…)

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