[DID NOT ATTEND: May 22, 2024] Mannequin Pussy / Soul Glo
I’ve seen Mannequin Pussy three times. The first time they were opening for Japandroids and Boot & Saddle. And now they have three sold out shows at Union Transfer!
I immediately grabbed tickets for the first night–a hometown show would be amazing.
When I saw that Gustaf was playing on Wednesday and they had added a Thursday show, I sold the Wednesday show and grabbed a Thursday one. I assume they will be in full force on Thursday.
And I was especially excited that Soul Glo was opening for them. (more…)
[CANCELLED: December 31, 2023] Speedy Ortiz / Foyer Red / Grocer [CANCELLED]
I saw Speedy Ortiz back in September and the show was fantastic. I already had tickets to see Phish on New Year’s Eve, so it was unlikely that I’d be going to this show.
A few days before the show, the band announced that they had to cancel because someone in the band had COVID (it’s a few days later and the message is gone, so I can’t quote it here).
So that sucks for them and for everyone who was planning on spending New Year’s Eve there, including the other two bands.
I could have seen both bands back in 2022 at different shows. Here’s what I wrote then:
Foyer Red has crazy sounds, weirdo words and multiple singers. And somehow despite all the weirdness (their 2021 album is called Zigzag Wombat), the songs are catchy
Foyer Red is a Brooklyn five-piece that makes sweetly sung, charmingly zany art rock. In 2022 they hit the ground running with several great singles — “Pollen City,” “Pickles,” and “Flipper.” In December, the band celebrated signing to Carpark Records by releasing the delightfully spontaneous single, “Etc.”
That first line is enough to make me want to see them. (more…)
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 1, 2023] Baroness / Sheer Mag / Uniform / Zorn
I was really looking forward to this show. I had seen Baroness in Kung Fu Necktie. It was a fun show, but it was close and crowded and, while it was a great experience I wanted to see them in a bigger (but not huge) place. Union Transfer was perfect.
Then I got COVID.
I was so bummed. And with COVID being so weird these days, I wouldn’t have even tested if the tests hadn’t just come in the mail that day. But I took it and couldn’t in good conscience go to the show.
I had been torn about when to get to this show, though. It started at 6:30, which is insane. And the openingest band was called Zorn. Not John Zorn, but Zorn, a Philly based metal/punk band that I was really curious to see. I mean check out this review from Punknews.org
During Zorn’s set, singer Eric Flea approached one of three already burning torches on stage, whipped out a sword, lit the sword on fire, and began waiving it all around as the flames grew up to some eight feet. I mean, that’s all I have to say about the Philly Vender Bender from October 28, 2022. What else can I say? A flaming sword!
I’ll admit, I was worried about Zorn. The band quickly released a string of excellent EPs which coincided with a string of excellent live shows (bandmembers jumping out coffins; people dressed like plague monks; chains being whipped at the audience; really kick ass death punk) but then, things seemed to go… silent. Was one of Philly’s most promising acts snuffed out in the bud before the flame could grow?
For one thing, Zorn was in raw and ragged and crazed top form. Their songs are as fast and as furious as ever. And, their strongest asset (aside from a great core concept) is that they’ve found that perfect sweet spot between metal and punk where the songs have the epic, grandiosity of metal as well as the slam-damn-heaviness, but they also have the unpredictable swing and danger of punk rock. A lot bands try to mix metal and punk and most of them are terrible. At the show, as the epics riffs swung upwards only for the screeched vocals to tear them back down, Zorn proved that it can be done and that the sum is greater than the parts.
The band also played some newish songs. the new tracks are more complex and frantic than earlier hits. This makes the band particularly effective because, while a lot of the spooky bands sound cool for a song or two, all their songs sound like those one or two songs. at the show, Zorn had a core style, but were able to flex it into a broad array of slashing. I’ll also add that the band has some degree of self-awareness, which, much likes Bauhaus, is the extra bit of pop that makes this band soooo good.
Also, did I mention that they started the show by having pallbearers bring out the aforementioned torches and a coffin, only for the vocalist to jump out of said coffin and throw said coffin lid at the audience? Now, THAT’S WHAT I AM HERE TO SEE.
I had been thinking about the Darlingside show and how it was kind of sad that I wasn’t dying to see them again.
And then this Free at Noon was announced.
Sure, it was at Ardmore Music Hall, which is far–not even closer to my work like most Free at Noon shows are. But I was planning on taking some time off and driving to Ardmore and STILL going to the Baroness show that evening.
And then I tested positive for COVID. Ugh.
This sounds like it would have been a great short spell of seeing Darlingside again. Although it’s not the same Darlingside anymore, as this review from WXPN’s The Key says
Darlingside’s core four-piece — Paseltiner on guitar and cello, Don Mitchell on guitar and banjo, Auyon Mukharji on mandolin and violin, and David Senft on bass — is augmented on this run by Molly Parden on bass, Benjamin Burns on drums, and Deni Hlavinka on keys. Putting Darlingside in more of a rock band configuration adds energy and atmosphere to new cuts like “Green and Evergreen” and “Green Light,” but their exquisite harmonies soared on older favorites like 2015’s “The God Of Loss.”
One of the best things about Darlingside (aside from the music) is the banter. And it was in evidence at this show:
As usual, the band used its copious tuning and re-tuning breaks for playful conversation: describing the venue to the radio audience at home, arranging the band intros by hometown and number of syllables in each member’s last name.
And this sounds like an amazing moment
And when they stepped offstage and into the crowd for a breathtaking off-air off-mic encore of Everything Is Alive‘s “The Breaking Of The Day,” played “directly under the disco ball,” they had the room enthralled.
[POSTPONED: July 13, 2022] Bikini Kill / Brontez Purnell [rescheduled from November 22, 2020 and October 2, 2021; moved to April 7, 2023]
About a week before this show was supposed to happen we got another update that the show was postponed yet again.
I like to note that I bought ticket to this show on November 10, 2019.
The reunited riot grrrl stars were originally set to play a host of North American shows across June and July this year, but had to postpone them due to a positive COVID case in their touring party.
Original support act Alice Bag is long gone replaced by Brontez Purnell who is still slotted to support next year.
Brontez Purnell is an American writer, musician, dancer, and director based out of Oakland, California. He is the author of several books, including Since I Laid My Burden Down, and the zine Fag School; frontman for the punk band The Younger Lovers; and founder of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company.
[DID NOT ATTEND: July 12, 2022] Barenaked Ladies / Toad the Wet Sprocket / Gin Blossoms [rescheduled from July 14, 2020 and July 13, 2021]
I haven’t seen Barenaked Ladies in a while. They always put on a good show, although i feel like I’ve enjoyed the last few a little bit less than the previous ones.
I always consider going to their Last Summer on Earth tours, but i typically dislike the other bands that are playing with them–usually 90s bands that I assumed were broken up. Which doesn’t really speak all that well of BNL (unless it speaks well of them trying to boost old bands).
I never liked Gin Blossoms.
I liked Toad the Wet Sprocket for their name (which comes from Monty Python) but couldn’t tell you a single song they sang.
So, it was very unlikley that I was going to this one. And I didn’t.
~~~~~~
As recent as mid-May this concert was still listed as happening in 2021, but when you clicked to buy tickets, the ticket pages said 2022.
I know that the whole “Last Summer on Earth” thing is a joke, but it’s getting a little creepy now.
I was kind of hoping they’d switch opening bands by now but, instead of this show, I think I’ll be seeing them at the Festival of Ballooning on July 24th instead.
~~~~
I have seen Barenaked Ladies almost more than any other band. I’ve seen them from way back in the early days to a few times in the last few years. They are reliably solid live (if not a bit predictable with their setlists).
We didn’t see them for last year’s “Last Summer on Earth” tour. They have been using that name for the last several years, it may be time to think of a new name, especially given the current state of the world. I wasn’t planning on going to this show mostly because I don’t really like the opening acts. And, honestly, unless the show was something special and different, it would entirely depend on the opening acts whether I went or not. Maybe they’ll mix them up for next year.
Toad the Wet Sprocket got their name from a Monty Python skit which immediately made me like them. I think I ha a cassette of their first album, maybe. I haven’t really thought of them in years and remember them being kind of inoffensive. Oh, wait, they had a pretty big hit with “All I Want,” a sweet slightly alt folk rock song. I’ll bet there would be lots of lighters up for that song.
I really hated Gin Blossoms back in the 90s. They were so overplayed and hardly qualified as alternative or college rock, but they were lumped in that category. They had a number of songs that I probably know all the words to even though I never listened to them on purpose.
With a lineup change I’d consider seeing them next summer, especially if they changed the name of the tour.
[POSTPONED: June 16, 2022] They Might Be Giants [rescheduled from March 13, 2020, September 8, 2020, April 15, 2021 and March 22, 2022 moved to January 12, 2023]
COVID is over, right? Let’s rock, right? What could go wrong?
Never, ever, tempt fate:
Hello –
We have some unfortunate news to share, John F from TMBG was in a serious car accident after their show last evening. The upcoming Philly show (and next two months of their tour) is now *postponed* to some time later in 2022.
Unreal, right? Things were finally looking up for our intrepid warriors. And then this.
Greetings from the hospital. I am writing to you with my glasses a crumpled memory, while under a thick cloud of pain medication. In spite of that, I wanted to write to all of you to explain what exactly happened to me.
Last night in a car service on the way my to my apartment after the magnificent Bowery Ballroom show, I was in a rather dramatic car accident. Crossing into an intersection, our car was t-boned by a vehicle going at a very fast speed. The force of the impact actually flipped our car over to its side. While the driver and I oriented ourselves to our new sideways, broken glass and airbag-filled reality, we sensed the ominous smell of motor oil and smoke. Remarkably, just a moment later it seemed, a dozen NYC firemen arrived and set their minds on finding a way to liberate us. To them and the fantastically efficient EMS who whisked us to a trauma center, I will be forever grateful.
While sitting in the CT scan machine, I was working out how much more time I would need to get to DC for the next show in my diminished state. When I explained my plan to the doctor, he explained I had broken seven ribs (a majority of the ribs on my right side) and some of them in multiple places, and I wasn’t going to be anywhere but in a bed for the foreseeable future.
While the pain in my side has only gotten worse since, it is my heart that is really breaking over these events. The entire band and crew have been working so hard to create a new show worthy of your interest and your endurance over these miserable COVID years. Last night was such a victory, and with unplayed new songs in the works and rearrangements of older material with the horn section, it was all feeling like a new beginning. But today I am in the hospital. I would understand anyone thinking we are just a band born under a bad sign and giving up hope, but I also know someday we will rock again —and for me, that day couldn’t come soon enough.
Until then I will be watching reruns of Sex in the City until I am strong enough to reach the remote. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fifth time’s the charm?
After what seemed like a wholly sensible rescheduled date of March 22, 2022, the virus reared its head again, and TMBG decided to push things back one more time. This time they broke their tour into small chunks to avoid having to cancel a huge tour in the future.
Hello everyone. We have rescheduled all of our Spring 2022 shows. The new batch of shows begin in June and run all the way to May 2023 (proving that 2020 is the first year to last for three!).
And the venue has added
Hello! Thank you for purchasing tickets to see TheyMight Be Giants. We know that this has been a journey and after two+ years their long awaited tour will finally happen! The Philly show scheduled for March 10 has been moved to June 16 2022.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This show was originally scheduled for March 2020 and it now being rescheduled to March 2022. It’s hard to believe that it will be two years.
So, with no opening date in sight, this is where we ask you for a big favor. Without a doubt our biggest expense has been refunding tickets for shows with new safe dates in 2021/2022. The They Might Be Giants show has been officially moved to March 10 2022! With a date this far out, it ensures there will be no issues with TMBG touring and most important – we are near guaranteed to have a safe and normal show (finally!)
This was one of the first shows that was postponed because of the coronavirus. The new date was scheduled very quickly and, as it turns out, too soon.
Now, like most shows, it is being pushed back about a year from its original date. Boy I hope it holds out.
I am still very much looking forward to it. Don’t give up on us yet, Johns!
March was going to be a very busy concert month for me. This was to be the first of four shows in five nights. This show was going to be for me and S.–a night of They Might Be Giants performing Flood!
It turned out to be the first of dozens of shows cancelled or postponed by the coronavirus.
Obviously, my main concern is for everyone’s safety, including the bands!
My selfish concern though is that once the shows are rescheduled that all of these shows will be scheduled on the same day!
Let’s hope the rescheduled dates also do some social distancing.
[CANCELLED: May 27, 2022] Afghan Whigs : Free at Noon
I love The Afghan Whigs’ album Gentlemen. I should love more by them, but I like them just fine (never been in the cult of Dulli). I’ve never really been interested in seeing them live. But a Free at Noon is a great way to get a thirty or so minute show without committing to an evening out.
I grabbe a ticket for this show, but on the Wednesday before the show, a member of the band tested positive for COVID and they cancelled the appearance.
They had a show planned that night for New York (he last of the tour), so there was no point in them sticking around.
[DID NOT ATTEND: May 18, 2022] Deftones / Gojira / VOWWS [rescheduled from August 22, 2020 and August 27, 2021]
I was pretty excited to see this Deftones show. But I was even more excited when my son said he wanted to go to the show with me. Well, it had sold out a long time ago and I couldn’t get a Pit ticket for a reasonable price. I didn’t want my son to be in the balcony while I was in the pit. But I also didn’t want the reverse.
But then, what happened was that I got a ticket to see Beach Bunny across town on the same night. And so, my daughter and I went to the Beach Bunny show and I gave my son the Deftones ticket. Yes, he would be by himself in the pit.
The timing actually worked out just fine, because while Wednesday bailed on our show, VOWWS bailed on their show. This meant I had to do some mathematical time keeping to see if I’d have to leave Beach Bunny early to get him so he wasn’t hanging around on the streets of Philadelphia.
But it turned out that his show ended almost exactly the same time as our show. Since our show was only ten minutes away, there was still plenty of foot traffic when I went to go get him.
He said the show was great. And Markit Aneight kindly recorded the entire Deftones set.
~~~~~~~
I was pretty excited to see this show this summer. It turned out, however, that the show was the night that we returned home from vacation. Ie, it would have been a pretty exhausting day. So, the fact that Deftones decided to postponed until May was fine with me.
I’m bummed that Poppy is no longer part of the tour because I’d really like to see her. But she is now headlining her own tour–which I don’t really want to see. I’m not sure a full show of hers would be that much fun. But hey, maybe she’ll be back on board
~~~
I saw Deftones at a lousy location (Sands Bethlehem hall), but it was one of my favorite shows that year. The crowd was pushy and shovey, but Chino came within five feet of me and the energy was amazing.
Plus at the end of the show, when a roadie threw out a drumstick, I actually got it.
I knew I’d want to see them at least one more time, but wow was I surprised to see that they were going to play The Met in Philly, which I think of as a more “delicate” hall. I’d be slightly afraid for the seats at a Deftones show.
The opening acts were really intriguing as well.
Gojira area French heavy metal band whose 2012 album I loved. Heavy and very technical I’d imagine they put on a great show.
Poppy is an absolute mystery. She’s an internet creation whose every song is is a different genre. Her latest album was really really heavy but with that fake internet sheen on it (in a Babymetal kind of way but less sincere, if that’s possible). I’ve been intrigued by here since I first heard about her, but I wouldn’t want to see her show if she was headlining. This seemed like a great way to experience her weirdness. I hope that she is still on the bill next year and that she is still into metal, otherwise it could be kind of awkward.
I really thought that this show at the end of August might go on but on May 19, they sent this note.
Due to the current regulations, and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, we must reschedule our North American summer tour dates with special guests, Gojira and Poppy. We’re currently rescheduling the dates for 2021, and you’ll be the first to know once they are confirmed. All tickets will be honored or refunded upon our next announcement regarding the tour.
I’m glad they are promising to come back And by then, their new album (due in September) will be familiar to all of us.
I saw Speedy Ortiz back in September and the show was fantastic. I already had tickets to see Phish on New Year’s Eve, so it was unlikely that I’d be going to this show.
I love The Afghan Whigs’ album Gentlemen. I should love more by them, but I like them just fine (never been in the cult of Dulli). I’ve never really been interested in seeing them live. But a Free at Noon is a great way to get a thirty or so minute show without committing to an evening out.
I Just Read About That... 