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“Weird Al” Yankovic: Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour (TD Pavilion Stage at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2025)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Funny (ha ha), Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Milo Murphy's Law, Paul Simon, Philadelphia, PA on July 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 19, 2025] “Weird Al” Yankovic

This was my tenth time seeing Weird Al.  That’s pretty exciting.

I didn’t know if he’d be doing another tour (he hasn’t put out any new music (aside from soundtrack songs) in over ten years!  But this was a bigger and weirder tour.  In practice, this meant that there were more people on stage than ever before–four other people on stage aside from his long-lasting regular band.

Probyn Gregory – backing vocals, trumpet, trombone, tuba, guitars, percussion ; Scheila Gonzalez – backing vocals, saxophone, clarinet, percussion ;  Payton Velligan – backing vocals, guitars, percussion ; Monique Donnelly – backing vocals, keyboards, percussion.

I asked my whole fam if they wanted to go and all three of them said yes, rather excitedly I might add.  But that was a long time before the show.  And so my daughter wound up working and my son wound up going to a concert in Wisconsin!  I was able to sell my two tickets for basically face value and my wife and I enjoyed the show by ourselves.

I assumed that this show would be a kind of greatest hits show, but it turned out to be chock full of songs I hadn’t seen live before and, some that I had never even heard before!

They opened with Tacky, but there was some kind of technical difficulty, so I’m not sure how much of the song they were going to play.  I would have enjoyed hearing it, but it’s not a big deal.

Then he surprised the heck out of me by opening with Mission Statement, the CSNY inspired song that mocks corporate speak.  It sounded great with the backing singers doing harmonies.  Then came Polkamania!  I knew this medley, but not very well.  I had forgotten that he put it out in 2024 as a single covering the ten years since his last album.  It was really fun seeing Billie Eilish in a Weird Al concert.

After the drum solo, they played Everything You Know is Wrong, a song I simple cannot believe I’d never seen him play live before (I see he never played it before this tour!).  It was amazing. (more…)

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Puddles Pity Party (TD Pavilion Stage at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2025) [“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Funny (ha ha), Los Lobos, Metallica, Philadelphia, PA, Puddles Pity Party, Tom Waits on July 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 19, 2025] Puddles Pity Party

I heard about Puddles Pity Party a few years ago. A giant (6′ 8″) man dressed like a clown with whiteface and everything.  Who has an incredible voice.  He’s funny, but also not funny at the same time.

I’ve wanted to see his act but I didn’t think I wanted to see him as a headliner (where does he even headline show?).  So the fact that he was opening for “Weird Al” was perfect.  An opportunity to check him out.  Sadly, two things prevented this from being a great experience.  The first is we ran into a ton of traffic and wound up missing at least half of his show.  The second is that we were pretty far back, so it was hard to get absorbed in the show that interacted with the front rows.

But yes, walking in during him singing Estoy sentado aquí–beautifully, of course–was surreal because who knew if it was suppose to be funny.  By the time we were settled he had started Come On Up to the House.  This is a Tom Waits song that is, unsurprisingly, rather sad.  So it’s kind of funny to see a clown singing it, but it’s not really funny–there’s no punch line.

Up next was In the End, not a cover and also not funny.   But again, wow what a voice. (more…)

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Phish: Summer Tour 2025 (The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, July 15 & 16, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Phish on July 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 15 & 16, 2025] Phish

Ever since seeing Phish on New Year’s Eve (and getting the full Gamehendge) I didn’t really think I needed to see Phish again.  I mean, sure there’s more songs I wanted to see live, but 17 times seemed like enough.  And then they announced these two shows at the Mann.  My plan was, if I get GA Pit tickets (the one thing I have not had for Phish) I would go.  And I won the lottery and got two Pit tickets!

And then Hozier cancelled his show in Camden and pushed it to July 15!  There was no debate about which I was going to.  I’ve never seen Hozier in a big setting like that PLUS, my whole family was going to the Hozier show.  So I’d sacrifice my Pit tickets (even though everyone says that this tour is one of the best in years).

I also sold my lawn tickets for the second night.  I don’t enjoy lawn tickets and it turned out we were exhausted after Hozier (home by 1:30AM that night), so I wasn’t too sad to get rid of the tickets.

Then I foolishly looked at the setlists.   I have a list of about 25 songs (which I really like) that I have yet to see them play live.  So I looked at the setlist and I am sadly bolding the FOUR songs they played over the two nights.  And I gotta say, Maze is one of my top want to see songs and Pebbles and Marbles was like a fingers crossed request.  So, yes I’m a little bummed.  But Hozier was awesome, and I’m sure I can see Phish again. (more…)

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Wavves / Beach Goons / Chokecherry (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, July 13, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Beach Goons, Chokecherry, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts, Wavves on July 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 13, 2025] Wavves / Beach Goons / Chokecherry

This show came on my radar because of Chokecherry whom I saw a few months ago and absolutely loved.  I was 100% going to go to this show to see them again.  And then I realized that they were the first of three bands and that their set would be minimal.  I’m still not sure how long or what they played.

I also thought that I had seen Wavves before (I had seen Hovvdy back in 2017–different band, same double v).  I kind of thought that I didn’t like them, but they’re pretty fun.  They have a sloppy indie rock vibe that would probably be fun live.

In fact, looking at past posts about them, I was once quite the fan of the band, but I completely lost touch with them.

I’d never heard of Beach Goons, but when I looked them up I saw this reddit thread from two years ago:

Anyone know what’s going on with Beach Goons?  Seems like the members keep changing, lots of drama/controversy around getting kicked from tours/venues and scamming fans, and more importantly — no new music in 5 years with no communication of anything in a few months it seems. Is the band still alive?

with this follow up

The scene Beach Goons is a part of has splintered apart. Some bands cancelled due to controversies or have distanced themselves away from their origins (The Frights). I don’t know about Beach Goons drama but it doesn’t surprise me considering the state of the scene since covid.

and this one

Pablo is super egotistical, i was in high school going to backyard shows showing mad support for beach goons and members as he got more famous, seemed like he grew a crazy ego, then the controversies and drama started

I listened to some of their songs and quite liked them.  I guess maybe I should have gone to this one.

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Tyler, The Creator (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 6, 2025)

Posted in Lil Yachty, Paris Texas, Philadelphia, PA, Tyler the Creator, Wells Fargo Center on July 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 6, 2025] Tyler, the Creator

Lil I didn’t know all that much about Tyler, the Creator before this show.  All that I knew about him was from when he first came on the scene with odd Future and he wrote horrorcore raps that were pretty graphic and nasty.

I knew that his albums were well regarded, but I had no idea that he had changed his style and that he was massively popular!

My daughter has a few of his songs on her playlists.  He’s still pretty vulgar, but in much smaller doses.

I had no idea what to expect from this show.  So I was blown away when the show started and Tyler came out, by himself, on the massive stage that was full of green lights.

Then we realized the problem.  The seats that we had were pretty great–straight back from the stage and in rather comfy chairs.  But there was this massive piece of rigging in the rafters that literally blocked all of the giant screens behind him and almost cut off him from view.  It turns out that this rigging was all part of his stage show, so I can’t blame Wells Fargo Center.

Tyle came out and started dancing and rapping on the stage.  He was completely engaging and commanded the entire room.  He wore a mask with a wig (as on the album) for this part of the show.  Although really I couldn’t tell at all that he was wearing the mask–couldn’t see the screens and he was too far away to see his face.

He played six songs from the new album (I don’t know if they were played all the way through or were just snippets).  Which I only mention because in the middle of the set he played nothing but shortened versions of his songs.

After Judge Judy, the rigging moved down and then Tyler was on the catwalk in between the main stage and the B stage.  He marched around and danced and was a fun spectacle to watch while he was up there.

And then the B stage rose high in the air to connect to the catwalk and as it lowered back down, a series of panels surrounded the stage and made it look like a small house.  We couldn’t really see him inside and I thought, wow, we’ll never see this guy.  But after the first song, the walls lifted and the B stage was there for all to see–a couch, a few other things and in the center was a turntable.  For in one corner, he had a whole bunch of albums that he flipped through.

The camera was on him the whole time and while we still couldn’t see the screens, we could see him pretty well.  But we needed the screens to see that he was digging through his records and ultimately pulled out IGOR (and the crowd went nuts).  He brought the record to the turntable and put it on.  I’m very curious to know if IGOR’s THEME was playing from the record he put on or not.

Then he proceeded to play three songs from Igor, including a snippet of Are We Still Friends, which everyone went nuts about.  (more…)

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Lil Yachty (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 6, 2025) [TYLER, THE CREATOR]

Posted in Lil Yachty, Paris Texas, Philadelphia, PA, Tyler the Creator, Wells Fargo Center on July 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 6, 2025] Lil Yachty

Lil Yachty followed about 15 minutes after Paris, Texas.  He was also on the small stage in the middle of the floor. When he came running out, the noise was loud, the lights were bright and the fog was thick.

I had listened to Lil Yachty before the show and I really liked his style.  I was intrigued by the Wikipedia blurb:

Lil Yachty has called his style “bubblegum trap.” His songs have sampled sounds from Mario Bros., Charlie Brown, the theme from Rugrats, the startup sound of a GameCube console.  Themes in his works include clouds, cotton candy, the Super Nintendo, and scenes from Pixar films. Rolling Stone described his music as “catchy, intentionally dinky-sounding tunes packed with off-color boasts delivered in a proudly amateurish singsong.”

It was exactly the kind of alternative hip hop that I like.

But his sound was overwhelmed by the venue.  Any subtlety in his music was lost and mostly it just felt like the bass was going to knock the building down.  The girls in the seats next to us were thrilled with Yachty and they screamed and sang along.  But I couldn’t hear the words and the music kind of just got melded together.  He also didn’t do very much on stage, just wandering around the stage and mostly engaging with the folks in the GA Pit, with his back to us at least 90% of the time.

He was very gracious about us being there to watch him (and not getting a hot dog or some shit).  I’m fascinated that he played 22 songs in 45 minutes.  I think this show made me realize that rappers don’t necessarily play their whole song–sometimes snippets or even a verse will suffice.  Although many of Yachty’s songs are short (many under 3 minutes, he still had to cut some parts to squeeze all of this in.

So even though I couldn’t really hear anything that was going on, his set moved pretty quickly and I enjoyed watching everyone really getting into him.

 

  1. the BLACK seminole [TAPE]
  2. Gimme da Lite (Southside & Lil Yachty song) §
  3. pRETTy ⇓
  4. SOLO STEPPIN CRETE BOY ⊥
  5. Split / Whole Time ¾
  6. Pardon Me ¾
  7. Hate Me (ian cover) ‰
  8. Ron Artest (Babyface Ray cover) (with Babyface Ray) §
  9. Yacht Club ⊗
  10. NBAYOUNGBOAT ½
  11. Flex Up ¾
  12. Coffin ¾
  13. From the D to the A (Tee Grizzley cover) >
  14. Minnesota ∼
  15. Broccoli (DRAM cover) ¥
  16. iSpy (KYLE cover) ∝
  17. One Night ∼
  18. TESLA ⊥
  19. Poland
  20. Strike (Holster) ⊥
  21. drive ME crazy! ⇓
  22. WE SAW THE SUN! ⇓
  23. A Cold Sunday π
π Something Ether EP (2024)
⇓ Let’s Start Here (2023)
⊥ TESLA EP (2023)
¶ single (2022)
¾ Lil Boat 3 (2020)
½ Lil Boat 2 (2018)
∼ Lil Boat (2016)
⊗ Nuthin’ 2 Prove (2018)
Others
¥ DRAM-Big Baby Dram (2016)
∝ KYLE-Light of Mine (2016)
> single (2017)
§ single (2023)
‰ single 2024 

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Paris, Texas (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 6, 2025) [TYLER, THE CREATOR]

Posted in Lil Yachty, Paris Texas, Philadelphia, PA, Tyler the Creator, Wells Fargo Center on July 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 6, 2025] Paris, Texas

My daughter really wanted to see Tyler, the Creator, so I grabbed us tickets.  I knew him a little (from what she had played me), but I didn’t know the other two opening bands at all.

When I read about Paris, Texas I was intrigued.  The group is a duo, featuring Louie Pastel and Felix and what I was most interested in was their description: an eclectic mix of rap & hip-hop, fused with the guitar-driven elements of alternative rock, including grunge, punk, metal, emo and new-wave.

When we arrived, we could see that the main stage was bathed in green.  But when the lights dimmed, the tiny stage in the middle of the pit suddenly lit up and Paris, Texas ran up to the small stage to perform their set.  They had a DJ with them and the three guys prowled the stage.

They also set the basic tone that everyone would have their back to us when at the center stage.  It was clear that the performers were gearing their set to the GA Pit area.   I realized pretty quickly that the people who rushed to be first at the stage were actually pretty far from the action once the band started.  (more…)

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Babymetal (TD Pavillion @ The Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 28, 2025)

Posted in Babymetal, Black Veil Brides, Bloodywood, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Poppy, Tom Morello on June 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 28, 2025] Babymetal

My son and I saw Babymetal last year and while we loved the show, the venue (Wind Creek in Bethlehem) was overcrowded.  So when they announced this show at the Mann, and I scored decent seats, I was excited for us to see them again.

Then my son couldn’t go.  So I asked my wife to go and she was pretty excited to see them.

We had stayed in our ADA seats for this set the actual seats were pretty uncomfortable and despite being further away in the ADA seats, the view was still much better).

Like last time, they opened with Babymetal Death.   First comes the masked Kami band (their masks are cool and the band is incredible).  Then the trio came out: Su-metal, Moametal and Momometal.

Everyone there knew the words (in English and Japanese) and what to do and when to do it–Total crowd synchronicity.

They followedwith Megitsun (that’s 2 songs from the debut to open the show). This one has a great synth line that translates well live.

Throughout the songs the trio danced like crazy.  Their precision synchronization was impressive–I like the hop dance on Megitsune. (more…)

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Paul Simon: A Quiet Celebration (Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA June 29, 2025) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Edie Brickell, Paul Simon, Philadelphia, PA, The Academy of Music on June 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: June 29, 2025] Paul Simon: A Quiet Celebration

My wife and I have seen just about everyone that we really want to (I have a list of bands that i still want to seem but it gets shorter all the time).  But one person on her bucket list was Paul Simon.

So when he announced this Quiet Celebration tour, I grabbed tickets immediately.  In fact, I joined the Academy of Music to make sure I could get us tickets for this show.

Then two days before our show, Paul announced that he would have to cancel the shows because of terrible back pain.  He was going to have surgery and hoped to get back on tour.

As it turns out, he was able to make the next night of his tour (which was about a week later).  So he only missed two shows and ours was one of them.

There were no plans to reschedule the show, although he did talk about trying to make up the shows.  He did play one night in Philly, but surely he can’t leave us hanging like that?

He’s on the West Coast until the end of the tour in early August.  Fingers crossed he squeezes us in.

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Black Veil Brides (TD Pavillion @ The Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 28, 2025) [BABYMETAL]

Posted in Babymetal, Black Veil Brides, Bloodywood, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA on June 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 28, 2025] Black Veil Brides

I was really bummed that Jinjer was opening half of these shows and that our show was so close to the Jinjer dates.

I had seen Black Veil Brides open for Ice Nine Kills and my first thought when I saw them was:

“these guys have gotta be from L.A.”  Why?  Because the drummer was swinging his head around and spinning and throwing sticks and the guitarists were really flashy, doing solos up front and standing back to back while they soloed together.  None of it was especially crazy, but it just screamed L.A. metal band to me.  And indeed, I found out after that they are from Holly wood.  Turns out the rhythm guitarist is named Jinxx!

I enjoyed their set well enough then and it was fine for this show.  We had moved to the ADA section, which meant comfy chairs, so we sat through their set.  Couldn’t see them all that well, but they didn’t do anything visual, so it was no big deal.  I had mentioned my L.A. comment to my wife and she agreed.

Many people at the show were REALLY into BVB.  The person in front of us in particular was crazy for  them.

Their set was entirely fine.  I was chickling about he lead singer who sounds like a TV presenter when he talks but who started every single song with a guttural scream.  This of course made all of the songs blend together to me.

There was nothing that we didn’t like about their set, but we both agreed afterwards that there was simply nothing memorable about it.  It turned out, though, that we liked the final two songs the most.

Those songs were from 2011 and 2013, so I’m guessing I like their older stuff better.

2025 2022
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Johann Sebastian Bach song)
(Intro theme, transitions into “Knives and Pens”)
 The Phantom Tomorrow [tape intro]
Knives and Pens ⊗ Faithless ∇
Bleeders ♦ Coffin ®
Faithless ∇ Crimson Skies ¶
Coffin ® Shadows Die ϖ
Devil ♠ Wake Up √
Perfect Weapon Scarlet Cross ¶
The Legacy § Knives and Pens ⊗
In the End ϖ The Legacy §
Fallen Angels §
In the End ϖ

♦ Bleeders EP (2024)
♠ The Mourning EP (2022)
¶ The Phantom Tomorrow (2021)
√ Vale (2018)
∇ Black Veil Brides (2014)
ϖ Wretched and Divine (2013)
® Rebels EP (2011)
§ Set the World on Fire (2011)
⊗ We Stitch These Wounds (2010)

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