I’m not sure when I first heard about Ratboys. I think it was the release of their (terrific) album Printer’s Devil. They were scheduled to play Johnny Brenda’s three times and each one was postponed during the pandemic. I seem to have missed when the show was actually rescheduled though. Oops.
At any rate, two years later and they are back. And they have a new album, The Window. And it is really great too. Which is good because they played every song from it (although not in album order).
Ratboys have been together since 2010, formed by singer/guitarist Julia Steiner and guitar wizard David Sagan. I really enjoyed watching Sagan play with the pedals on the floor–for the encore, he even brought out some kind of remote controlled feedbacky gadget which was cool.
I was in a strange location for me at the show. I was literally standing right under bassist Sean Neumann, so I couldn’t really see his face much, but I enjoyed watching his basswork and his backing vocals were stellar. (more…)
When the lineup for the All Things Goes Festival was announced, the first band to play on Saturday was Free Range. My daughter and i are going to the Festival and we both agreed that we had not heard of Free Range.
Imagine my surprise to find out that Free Range was opening for Ratboys at Johnny Brenda’s.
Free Range is Chicago musician Sofia Jensen (who is originally from Scandinavia). Free Range put out an album (Practice) in February. I listened to maybe a song on it and was kind of meh about it.
But live, they were excellent.
The songs had a pretty consistent feel to them–they would start slow and would often build to a loud middle section (usually instrumental) and then kind of fade back into the quieter verses. It wasn’t a quiet-loud-quiet verse chorus thing because the loud parts were more of like a jamming session in the middle of these (otherwise rather short) songs.
Sofia’s voice sounded familiar–maybe a kind of Phoebe Bridgers vibe–a kind of strong whispery style, and her songs had a strong Pinegrove feel to me (turns out that Nick Levin from Pinegrove plays pedal steel on on two of the tracks). I guess the songs are indie rock with a whiff of country about them. (more…)
I can’t believe it has been four years since I last saw Boris. Their shows leave a powerful impression on a person.
I couldn’t make their last tour back in 2022, but that’s okay. Their last show tided me over for four years clearly.
This tour announcement was interesting because they had just released an album called Heavy Rocks, but this tour was them playing Heavy Rocks, the album they released in 2002, in its entirety. [They have released three albums called Heavy Rocks, all different–in 2022 they played the 2022 Heavy Rocks in total].
I’m pretty delighted that with the three shows I have seen such a variety of songs.
I don’t really have a favorite Boris album, but this one is pretty fantastic. With several really heavy songs, several sing a long moments (whether or not you know Japanese) and even a few mellow, quieter moments.
As with each time I’ve seen them, Takeshi stands to our right with his double neck bass/guitar. Atsuo is in the middle with his drum kit and gong and Wata stood on our left with her guitar and effects pedal. The previous two shows she had more gear, but since this show was for a twenty year old record, she didn’t need anything else.
The show started, as it should, with Atsuo smashing the gong. And then the sludgy riff of “Heavy Friends” introduced us to Heavy Rocks. The lights were still way too red, but it didn’t impact the sound, which was immense and awesome. (more…)
[DID NOT ATTEND: September 25, 2023] Osees / Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band
Last year, I did not go to the Osees show. And I wrote this:
I saw Osees exactly one year ago today. I summarized by saying
The show was intense, exhausting and a ton of fun. I am so glad I went.
When they announced this year’s show I wasn’t quite in the mood for seeing them again (the exhausting part being the most vivid memory of the show). But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t see them again maybe next year.
When Osees announced their new show (exactly one year and a day after last year’s show), I bought a ticket for it in February, figuring what I said last year was true.
September was turning out to be a busy concert month, when I was trying to calm down my concert going. And I figured there was always a chance I wasn’t going to go to this show.
But since I had blown off the weekend show, I figured I’d go to this one. Especially since I really like the new Osees album.
But this time the world got to me instead. I had made an appointment for a COVID booster. But I accidentally went to two of the wrong locations (first one my fault, second one a misunderstanding). What should have taken five minutes wound up taken 90, and by the time I actually got the booster, it was later than when I wanted to leave for this show. And I hadn’t even been home yet.
There’s no way I would have made much if any of Nolan Potter and by then, I was just too worn out from driving around to bother going anywhere (we’ll blame a little vaccine exhaustion too).
But since Osees love to play Philly, I’m promising myself that I’ll see them next year.
I had not heard of Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band before this show and I imagined them being loud and crazy and abrasive. But when I listened to their latest album Let It Stream, I was amazed by how much I liked it! It was like Frank Zappa with jazzy and proggy moments.
Another reviewer says of them
Awesome newish prog-psych band with an awesome vibe and a TON of flute. Lotta King Gizzard vibes from them, and if you’re a fan of Matt Berry too you might really like them.
So, yeah, I might be more bummed that I missed them than the Osees. Will definitely have to catch them in the future.
But Markit Aneight recorded the show for everyone:
Despite everything in the world indicating that I should be a Melvins fan, I have never really gotten into them. I mean, I’ve loved thigns about them for decades. I loved that they put out three “solo” albums that looked just like the Kiss solo albums. I love that Boris got their name from one of their songs.
And yet, for whatever reason, I just never followed them. They may just be a little too much in every way for me. Love them in theory nut not in reality.
So I’ve never wanted to see them live. And when this dual bill with Boris was announced, it made sense, but I wasn’t that excited about it. I actually thought that if Melvins were headlining, I might leave to get home early. Although, honestly, how could I leave without at least laying eyes on Buzz Osbourne in the flesh.
So Melvins were playing their Bullhead album in its entirety. I didn’t know it. I don’t know if it’s special in any way in their catalog. But it does contain the song “Boris” so…. (more…)
[DID NOT ATTEND: September 20, 2023] Movements / Mannequin Pussy / Softcult / Heart to Gold
I actually didn’t know about Movements until Mannequin Pussy announced that they were opening for them on this tour. I love Mannequin Pussy and am excited to hear their newer songs live. So I grabbed a ticket–even though I knew I had a ticket to the sold out Death Grips show the same night.
I figured there was a pretty good chance that Death Grips wouldn’t play (they tend to be flaky about tours, but apparently not this one), and maybe I’d get to go to this show which seemed likely to sell out (it hasn’t yet).
Then I discovered that Death Grips doesn’t have an opener and their shows are fairly short (90 minutes or so). And I realized there was a chance I could still see some of this show (the venues are less than ten minutes apart). So it all depends on how long Death Grips play for and how late they start.
Then a few days before the show, I decided that I didn’t want to see Death Grips anymore. After a couple of rough, pushing a shoving shows, I realized that I didn’t want to spend 90 minutes in a crowd at Franklin Music Hall with abrasion and aggression non-stop for 90 minutes while the crowd slam danced all around me and the stage was bathed in red. Maybe had I not seen Igorrr and Boris this week, I would have been more up for it, but it just felt not fun.
So then I thought maybe I’d go to this show. But then things were going on at home and I realized that based on when Mannequin Pussy said they were going on (8:55) that Softcult, who I really wanted to see, wouldn’t be playing for very long. And I didn’t think MP would get a very long set either. So I just said meh to the whole thing and stayed home. (more…)
Death Grips is a band I learned about a few years ago. They are noisy and scary and apparently put on an insane live show. But they are also really flaky, including posting this on Facebook a decade ago
We are now at our best and so Death Grips is over. We have officially stopped. All currently scheduled live dates are canceled.
This show was scheduled to be at Union Transfer, which I was pretty psyched about. But it sold out in about five seconds and they moved it to Franklin Music Hall, which is kind of a bummer, although somehow it seems fitting that they would play at a much bigger venue.
It also appears that it’s unclear how long after doors open that they will go on. You could wait almost two hours if you get there when doors open. Yikes.
Mr. Phylzzz were described as a “two-piece loud-ass noise rock band from Chicago, IL.” And indeed, they were a two-piece and in the way of man two-piece bands, they were loud-ass.
Mr. Phylzzz (pronounced Flyzzz) consists of Clinton Jacobs (guitar/vox) & Danny Sein (drums). Since Sein is behind the kit (and seriously pummeling it), it’s up to Jacobs to be the entertainment. He pretty much never stood still. He ran back and forth around the stage, he climbed into the audience, he waved his guitar around, he looked very intimidating. And yet he had a completely childlike (comically so) speaking voice.
Were the songs simple? Sure! Did they rock? Yes indeed.
There was a real classic rock feel to many of the songs (probably because of Jacob’s falsetto). A song like “Pretend Friends” is only a couple of notes, but they are catchy. And after the verse (single notes really fuzzed out) the song gets huge when Jacob plays the whole chord.
And there was much entertainment at the end of the song when Jacobs and Sein crashed the chords/cymbals at the same time and Jacobs roared his guitar during the pauses.
Incidentally, Sein was wearing a shirt and tie and Jacobs had on a suit–although the jacket was ripped from the bottom up to the sleeve for maximum free movement. (more…)
I bought tickets to this show back in December–I was really really looking forward to seeing Igorrr after reading about his live shows. I thought that I had missed him a few years back–he was supposed to tour with ministry but left the tour before coming to the States. So I don’t really see any evidence of him having played Philly since like 2018.
But I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.
Igorrr is the creation of French musician Gautier Serre. He mashes up genres in a crazy quilt of styles which often changes every few seconds. He has a base of heavy metal but he throws in hip hot, break beats, classical and opera–it’s thrilling and confusing. I loved his album Savage Sinusoid which Metal Injection gave a perfect 10/10 score, and named it the “Batshit Crazy Album of the Year.”
The follow up, Spirituality and Distortion focused more on the metal component of his repertoire. Sinusoid was heavy mostly because it was so erratic and there were heavy components thrown in. But Spirituality is a heavy metal record–with Igorrrr elements like baroque music, harpsichord and Middle Eastern melodies floating around and between the heaviness.
When Melt Banana cleared off their gear, all that was left was a table and a drumset. So when Serre came out and started doing some amazing splicing and breaking up of sounds, I thought for a short time that the whole show was going to be this. And that was cool. I enjoyed watching him (in the moody light) manipulate sounds and create the wacky composition that is “Paranoid Bulldozer Italiano.” (more…)
[DID NOT ATTEND: September 21, 2023] Death Cab for Cutie / The Postal Service / Warpaint
Back in December, Ben Gibbard announced an upcoming tour:
The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie have announced a co-headlining tour taking place next fall. The 2023 dates will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their respective 2003 records: Give Up and Transatlanticism. Bandleader Benjamin Gibbard will pull double-duty each night of the tour, as his bands perform the albums front-to-back. The trek also marks the first live performances from the Postal Service in a decade. Find the full tour schedule below and scroll down for a trailer video.
“I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003,” Gibbard said in a press release. “The Postal Service record came out; Transatlanticism came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.”
I was pretty excited about this show since DCFC are so great live and that Postal Service album is pretty great as well.
As it turns out, the show sold out in about 5 seconds. I was sure they’d announce a second Philly show, but they didn’t. So, nope I didn’t get to see this one. It was later announced that Boris would be playing this night in Philly and I would have been pissed if I had to miss them again even if for a show I wanted to see.
Warpaint seems to be an opening band for a bunch of shows I’m interested in and yet I’ve never seen them. I feel like they should be noisy and wild, but they’re really not. The only thing I really know about them is that drummer Stella Mozgawa is pretty dynamite. They remind me a lot of Luscious Jackson.
I Just Read About That... 