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Archive for the ‘Philadelphia, PA’ Category

Bombay Bicycle Club (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 20, 2024)

Posted in Bombay Bicycle Club, Mustard Service, Nagin, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on March 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 20, 2024] Bombay Bicycle Club

 

The show opened with bouncy horns and fanfare as they sang the song “Just a Little More Time.”  The live version was bigger and felt more fun than the record and I knew that this was going to be an enjoyable set.

This segued into the second song on the new album, which had lots of drums and a cool guitar riff and sound.  I really enjoyed watching guitarist Jamie MacColl, confidently playing these riff and getting such varied sounds.

The middle of the song has Jack Steadman whispering I want to let go and forget and he was indeed whispering it pretty quietly.  So much so that some jackass yelled “fix the mic” just before he started getting louder.  Duh. (more…)

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Mustard Service (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 20, 2024) [BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB]

Posted in Bombay Bicycle Club, Mustard Service, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on March 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 20, 2024] Mustard Service

Mustard Service is an indie rock band based in Miami, Florida, formed in 2015. Self-described as “zest pop”, the band’s music draws influences from rock, surf, jazz, funk, and bossa nova.

When they came out and started playing I thought they were joking.  They play with a total wedding band vibe.  There’s soft gently echoed guitars, wavery synths, and a kind of crooning vocal.

And yet, the lyrics are contemporary and funny.

The amusingly titled “Get Fucked” (which has no curses in the lyrics), features this gem:

So when I tell you, hun that I just need to go outside and smoke a blunt, the world seems like it’s spinning, I don’t wanna die, my skin might disagree, but then my heart, it flies, every single day I’m going down.

The songs are all mostly quite short, and yet there were solos galore.  Leo Cattani played a few great keyboard solos (with all kinds of settings on the machine).  And even Augusto “Tuto” Di Catarina had a brief bass solo in one of the songs.

Adam Perez on drums was always smiling and was quite amusing as he introduced “(Your Cat) Don’t Stand a Chance” by saying it was a song about their cat Smoky.  Amusingly it’s about cats fighting, but it’s smooth and discoey.

The band was a four piece for this show with Marco Rivero Ochoa on lead vocals and lead guitar.  Apparently the band has a lead guitarist guitar, Gabriel Marinuchi (or “Nuchi”) but he was not there.  Rivero Ochoa’s solos were good but not amazing or anything. (more…)

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Sleater-Kinney (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2024)

Posted in Black Belt Eagle Scout, Philadelphia, PA, Sleater-Kinney, Theatre of Living Arts on March 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Sleater-Kinney 

This was my fifth time seeing Sleater-Kinney.  I saw them twice back at the turn of the century and then two more times in the last few years.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to see them again, but I thought a show at TLA would be a great way to see them and when my wife said she wanted to come along too, I knew it would be super fun.

The band has a new album out and they played 9 of ten songs from it.  However, they played 24 songs in total so it’s not even a majority of tracks.   (Interestingly they barely played anything from the other records “from this century.”

The older songs definitely got the most love from the audience, but I think this new album is quite good and most of the new songs received appropriate accolades.

They opened with “Hell” and “Needlessly Wild” a chance for both Corin and then Carrie to sing lead.

The setlist was pretty varied from there, including a number of older songs that I hadn’t heard live before.   Like “Oh!” from One Beat, a super fun song with great harmonies from the rest of the band.

The band this time was similar to their 2019 band: Angie Boylan (drums), Katie Harkin (guitars/keyboards) and Toko Yasuda (keyboards). but Katie Harkin, who has played with them a lot was replaced by Teeny Lieberson.  Their backing vocals were terrific–something I never really thought about with S-K before, but their voices really fleshed out the overall sound. (more…)

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Black Belt Eagle Scout (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2024)

Posted in Black Belt Eagle Scout, Philadelphia, PA, Sleater-Kinney, Theatre of Living Arts on March 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Black Belt Eagle Scout

I was pretty excited to see that Black Belt Eagle Scout was going to open for Sleater-Kinney.  I’ve wanted to see her /them for a while and this was a great opportunity to see them.

I had heard a few songs by them a couple of years back but I had also heard that the live show was terrific.

The band came out–a trio.  There were two guitars and drums.   Singing was Katherine Paul, a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, Oregon.  Paul blends the vibe of Pacific Northwest rock with elements of Coast Salish traditional music

Her music is grungey in its tone, but it is also pretty slow, with Paul’s voice soaring in wonderful and at times unexpectedly places.  She is also an amazing guitar player, jamming out some killer solos as the songs (and the set) wrapped up.

I enjoyed the way “My Blood Runs Through this Land” got bigger and bigger, with her singing wordless lines (again, such a good voice) and cool lyrics like

I know you speak through me IFeel it in the sound of waterTouching all the rocks I feelNo one can takе this moment away ’causeMy blood runs through this land IFind it in the land and sеa

“Treeline” opened with Camas Logue playing big soft drum with mallets–yes it felt tribal, but not like a stereotype.  Fancy Dance followed and it was faster and much shorter (barely 2 minutes) which came as a but of a surprise after the first two five minute songs.

What was really interesting to me about their set is that there was no bass player.   It was like they took a page out of the Sleater-Kinney playbook: two guitars and no bass.  (apparently there is typically a bass player, but they were not missed in this set).  The second guitarist Claire Puckett mostly played chords, but also played lead lines and even soloed a bit with Katherine at the end.

The set seems to have moved through the band’s output, with only one song from the previous album.   And then three songs from the debut, which the crowd seemed  to really like.

She dedicated “Indians Never Die” to the Lenape Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  It had a simple but super catchy chord progression and they jammed the heck out of it at the end.

Sam, A Dream was my favorite song of the set.  After the song moves slowly along, it picks up in the middle and Paul plays a very cool hammered on riff that isn’t complicated but sounds great.  I love the way the band played around that riff and then returned to it at the end.

They ended with the fantastic “Soft Stud” and the recurring line “I know you’re taken/need you want you.”  Like many of her songs, the basics of the song are simple, but the way the song gets bigger and adds new elements (like the simple but catchy guitar riff that comes in halfway through) is really exciting, with Paul absolutely rocking out the guitar solo at the end of the show.

It was a great set.

  1. My Blood Runs Through This Land ≅
  2. Treeline ≅
  3. Fancy Dance ≅
  4. My Heart Dreams ∇
  5. Indians Never Die Ô
  6. Sam, a Dream Ô
  7. Loss & Relax %
  8. Soft Stud Ô
≅ The Land, the Water, the Sky (2023)
% 2019 single
∇ At the Party With My Brown Friends (2019)
Ô Mother of My Children (2017)

 

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum / Stinking Lizaveta / Zoë Keating (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Stinking Lizaveta, Underground Arts, Zoë Keating on March 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 16, 2024] Sleepytime Gorilla Museum / Stinking Lizaveta / Zoë Keating

Underground Arts had a special year-end sale.  12 future shows for $18 each.  It’s a good deal if you plan to go to a lot of shows there.   And I find myself wanting to go to more and more shows there.

Well, my cost per show went up a bit because I wound up not going to this show.  My son was home from college, and that more important that checking out this strange band, although I would still like to see them sometime.

I actually only even paid any attention to this show because Stinking Lizaveta was opening for them.  They are a local Philly band that I have yet to see, but who I have missed now about six times.

This lineup was pretty fascinating.

Zoë Keating opened the show.  I have discovered that she recently played at ArtYard in Frenchtown and I’m going to want to check her out live.  Here’s her bio

I am a cellist and composer, born in Canada and currently based in Vermont. I use live sampling and repetition to layer the sound of my cello and create rhythmically dense, immersive music. I’m known for both my use of technology – which I use to sample my cello onstage – and for my DIY approach, releasing my music without the help of a record label. In addition to performing, I also write music for TV, film and dance.

(more…)

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Mary Timony: Free at Noon (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, March 15, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Free at Noon, Mary Timony, Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on March 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 15, 2024] Mary Timony 

Mary Timony is one of indie rock’s great guitar players.  I really enjoyed her band Helium, although I haven’t really listened to them in quite some time.

I didn’t go to her show last week, so i thought I had a nice gift of a Free at Noon today.  I grabbed a ticket even though I knew I had a doctor’s appointment earlier that morning.  I assumed t he appointment would be quick and I could get to World Cafe just in time.

Well, it turned out the appointment went really long and I was still in the office as of 11:30.  So, there was no way I could ever get to the venue on time.

So, I had to miss Mary once more. (more…)

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Cherry Glazerr (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, March 11, 2024)

Posted in Cherry Glazerr, Ex-Pilots, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Foundry on March 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 11, 2024] Cherry Glazerr 

After Ex Pilots and the obnoxious guy who was talking about how much he didn’t like Cherry Glazerr, a new guy behind me popped up who was a truly crazy fan.  He said he was going to start crying as soon as singer Clementine Creevy came out.   He also shouted her name and said “I love you” about six times.  It wasn’t scary stalker territory but I could see how she could have been unnerved by him.  He sang/screamed too loudly for a bunch of songs and then I think people got him to calm down (it’s a small venue after all).

I’d wanted to see Cherry Glazerr for a while.  I could have seen them in 2019, but they played a date that I couldn’t make.  Then in 2022 they were the openers for the Alt-J/Portugal the Man show that I really wanted to go to but couldn’t make.  Of course, it’s always more fun to see a band like this headlining a small venue, so this show at The Foundry was perfect.

They opened with the slow, moody, “Touched You With My Chaos,” with Clementine sing/shouting “I said that I loved you” and the creepy intense fan screaming it along with her.

But he wasn’t the only one super psyched to be here.  The two women in front of me bounced and screamed to each other for song after song.  And a guy who pushed his way to the barrier was literally leaping three feet in the air to land with every drop in a song.

I don’t really know the band’s output all that well, but I recognized a few songs like “Told You I’d Be with the Guys” with the sharp guitar line and screamed lyrics. (more…)

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Ex Pilots (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, March 11, 2024) [CHERRY GLAZERR]

Posted in Cherry Glazerr, Ex-Pilots, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Foundry on March 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 11, 2024] Ex Pilots

I was not familiar with Ex Pilots before this show, but a guy behind me certainly was.  he was one of those guys who feels the need to talk loudly about whatever he thinks he knows a lot about.  He was pretty annoying, but he was right: people are going to come away from this show as Ex Pilot fans.  At the very least, I became a fan.

He also went on some crazy rant about Cherry Glazerr saying he’d never heard of them but thought they were some kind of 90s female grunge sound which he was never into (I was shocked that the the women around him didn’t pound him).  he also said he was surprised that there was only one opening band because most shows have like four.  Ugh, men.

But he was right about Ex Pilots.

I really enjoyed the way Hammer started as a fast rocking song and then after a minute it shifted gears to a slower, heavier rocking sound and then immediately shifted again into a lighter bouncier verse.  According to their recording, this song is only two minutes long.  It changed gears about five times and I was hooked.

“Exactly Like You” is a quieter song with echoing guitars.  It has very few words (only the title is sung) and at two minutes long, the vocals don’t come in until the half way part.

There were lots of fascinating things about this band.  There are six members in the band, including three guitarists!  And yet despite this, lead singer (and from what I can see, the main Pilot) Ethan Oliva played most of the lead guitar lines too.

After two new songs (I always think it’s funny bands ask if it’s okay if they play a new song, especially if hardly anyone has heard their older songs) they played “Nick Song” has a really catchy vocal melody.  “Bad Aibling” has a rocking shoegaze feel.  Most of the songs were about two minutes long but “Aibling” stretched out to 3! (more…)

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Slide Away Philadelphia: Nothing / Swirlies / Loveliescrushing / Tagabow / Mint Field / Knifeplay / Astrobrite / Glixen (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 9, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND–COVID]

Posted in Astrobrite, Glixen, Knifeplay, Loveliescrushing, Mint Field, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Slide Away, Swirlies, Tagabow, Union Transfer on March 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 9, 2024] Slide Away

When this day-long event was announced, I grabbed a ticket because I knew a couple of the bands.  Amazingly, perhaps, I didn’t know Nothing, the headliner.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to spend an entire day at Union Transfer, but the lineup was pretty great.  The recently sent the proposed schedule

3:00pm Doors Open
4:00pm Glixen
5:00pm Astrobrite
6:00pm Knifeplay
7:00pm Mint Field
8:00pm TAGABOW
9:00pm Lovesliescrushing
10:15pm Swirlies
11:30 Nothing
w/ DJ set by Full Body 2, Kip Berman and Vyva Melinkolya between bands

And it sounds like most of the sets were going to be about 30 minutes, at least until Loveliescrushing.

But then my son came home from college for Spring Break and I REALLY didn’t want to spend most of the day away.   I mostlu wanted to see Knifeplay and Mint Field, but as I listened to more of the bands, I realized I quite liked them all.

Glixen is from Phoenix.  Now, pretty much all of these bands are shoegaze, so the descriptions are going to be quite similar, but here we go

Glixen is a shoegaze band from Phoenix, Arizona whose sound consists of tender melodies encased inside chrome walls of grungy textures and heavy guitars. Founder and lead vocalist, Aislinn Ritchie, began the project in 2020 enlisting guitarist Esteban Santana, drummer Keire Johnson, and bassist Sonia Garcia.

I really liked the Glixen vibe–lots of soft guitars and thick cottony sounds.  Aislinn Ritchie has a beautiful soaring voice that suits the music really well. (more…)

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The Teeth / Toby Leaman (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, March 8, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dr. Dog, First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, The Teeth, Toby Leaman on March 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 8, 2024] The Teeth / Toby Leaman

Back in January I wrote this about the Teeth.

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

After abruptly breaking up 15 years ago The Teeth are reuniting for a pair of special shows at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. Twin brothers Peter MoDavis (Bass) and Aaron MoDavis (guitar) will reassemble with Jonas Oesterle (drums) and Brian Ashby (guitar) on their favorite stage in the City of Brotherly Love.

Well, that short run of songs has been extended.  They’re playing this show at The Church and they’re opening for Dr. Dog in July. (more…)

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