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Archive for the ‘Festivals’ Category

Philly Music Fest 2022 (October 10-15, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Dolphin Tavern, Echo Kid, Empath, GHÖSH, Johnny Brenda's, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Low Cut Connie, Mannequin Pussy, Max Swan, Philadelphia, PA, Philly Music Fest, REC Philly, Riverby, Screaming Females, Stereo League, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Ire, Underground Arts, World Cafe Live on October 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 10-15, 2022] Philly Music Fest 2022

Every year since 2019 I have participated in Philly Music Fest in some way.  But this year I wound up giving the whole thing a miss.

Philly Music Fest is a non-profit endeavor focused exclusively on local bands, with all proceeds donated to local music education charities. Philly Music Fest features both established and up and coming artists, showcasing the diversity of the Philadelphia music scene.

It wasn’t because of a bad lineup or anything, it was that I had tickets to other shows every night.  I wound up not going to all of those shows anyway, but basically I was already booked for the whole Fest.

This year’s line up was even bigger than last year’s

October 10, 2022 at Ardmore Music Hall 

  • Marielle Kraft is a poignant indie pop singer-songwriter
  • Electric Candlelight is a heavy psychedelic band that I was supposed to see open for Fuzz
  • Mt. Joy is a band I’ve heard on the radio a bunch who I don’t particularly like, so not so great in the headliner here.

October 11, 2022 at Ardmore Music Hall 

  • Stereo League is apparently impossible to describe using concrete words as I can’t figure out what their music sounds like from the blurbs I’ve read.
  • Salika is an R&B singer
  • Mt. Joy of the two nights I wouldn’t have picked this one anyhow.

October 12, 2022 at World Cafe Live

  • Perpetual Motion is described as dynamic acoustic jazz who play blues, rock, jazz, and world music
  • Kayleigh Goldsworthy is a folk singer who I saw open for Frank Turner.  She was great.
  • Ron Gallo is not Vincent Gallo, which is what I think every time I see his name.  Ron is an indie guy who I’ve never heard but who must be pretty popular or interesting if he keeps popping up.
  • Lady HD is a kind of psychedelic pop band whose name reminds me too much of that Lady A fracas that bubbled up a few years ago.
  • Low Cut Connie is one of the bigger bands at the festival.  I’d never want to see them, but I like some of their songs.

October 13, 2022 at Johnny Brenda’s

  • This was the night I would have gone to
  • The Ire is a four-piece goth-tinged post-punk band.  I like their overall sound.
  • Ghosh is a band I’ve wanted to see: they’re pissed off, informed, and ready to party.
  • Screaming Females are terrific and even better live.  I thought this would sell out in a second.

October 14, 2022 at REC Philly

  • This was a free show.  A night of hip hop and beat curated by Working on Dying who I’ve never heard of of

October 14, 2022 at The Dolphin

  • The Dolphin is a new-ish venue that I’ve yet to check out.
  • Max Swan is saxophonist, vocalist, and producer influenced y likes of Stevie Wonder, James Blake.
  • Echo Kid is two guys from RFA.  This is a hazier, no-holds-barred, psychedelic reimagining of the way they’d approach their songwriting process with a languorous sense of ease, effortless genre-blending, and an amalgam of intentional recorded conversation
  • Shamir is an artist I’d like to see live.  They keep popping up as an opening act and then something happens and I don’t see them.  Here’s another miss.

October 15, 2022 at Underground Arts

  • This would have been my pick for show of the Fest, if I hadn’t already been overbooked.
  • Justmadnice is blues-dipped psychedelic jazz.
  • Riverby are a fun indie rock band with a loose sound (and a cover of “Walk Through the Fire” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Empath is a band I was supposed to see open for Fucked Up but the couldn’t make the rescheduled date.  They are kind of noisy and poppy and punky and are probably very fun live.
  • Mannequin Pussy is one of my favorite new(ish) bands.  They are amazing live and are always worth seeing.

The 2023 Fest is bound to be great too.

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Frantic City 2022 (Orange Loop Amphitheater, Atlantic City, NJ, September 24, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Car Seat Headrest, Control Top, Frantic City, Fred Armisen, Protomartyr, Snail Mail, Superchunk, Titus Andronicus, Yo La Tengo on September 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 24, 2022] Frantic City 2022

When I saw this show listed, I knew that it would be a fun opportunity for my son and I to go to a Festival. Only one day, kinda far but not too far, and headlined by his favorite band Car Seat Headrest.

The whole lineup was pretty exciting, in fact,

  • Car Seat Headrest
  • Yo La Tengo
  • Snail Mail
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Superchunk
  • Rocket from the Crypt
  • Protomartyr
  • Murder City Devils
  • Shannon and the Clams
  • The Raveonettes
  • Samiam
  • Control Top

And Fred Armisen will serve as host, so you can expect his specific brand of musical comedy to move the acts along.

I wasn’t sure what time we were going to arrive.  I wanted to see Control Top, who it looked like would go on first, then I was kind of okay with not seeing some of the other bands.

I feel like I should know Samiam, but I don’t exactly.  I feel like I don’t like The Raveonettes.  I didn’t really want to see Shannon and the Clams.  I don’t know Murder City Devils.  I have seen Protomartyr, and would have been happy to see them again.  I liked the first Rocket from the Crypt album, but haven’t thought of them in years.  I have seen Superchunk twice in the last few years and don’t need to see them again, although they are great.  I have not see Titus Andronicus who I don’t love, but who I understand are amazing live.

I do want to see Snail Mail (who I was supposed to see in April, but didn’t).  I have liked Yo La Tengo for years and have never seen them.  And then there was Car Seat Headrest, whom we had both seen in April.

Then on September 17, Car Seat Headrest pulled out of the Festival because of Will Toledo’s health.

I probably should have turned in the tickets right then, but I didn’t want the Festival to crumble from people returning their tickets–I do hope it comes back next year.

But that really put the kibosh on my son’s desire to see the festival.

On the day of, he said he really didn’t want to go and honestly that was fine by me.

 

 

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xponential music festival (Wiggins Park, Camden, NJ, September 16-22, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Camden, NJ, Marina Stage, Wiggins Park, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA, XPN Fest, Xponential Music Festival on September 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 16-22, 2022] Xponential Music Festival

We went to this festival with the family back in 2016.  It was really hot.  The kids were in the in-between age where they didn’t really like the music but were too old to just enjoy being outside.

But we saw some really good bands.

It has felt like since then, the bands haven’t been all that interesting.  Although I do like that it’s in September and not July.

These headliners were not interesting to me at all.  We had seen The War on Drugs and it was a great show, but I didn’t need to see them again.  And the rest just weren’t very interesting to me.

In fact, usually the headliners are kind of irrelevant because the fun is in the side stages.

There were certainly a few performers I would have enjoyed seeing.  But most of them we have seen fairy recently.

The only band I haven’t seen who I’d like to is Catbite and maybe Sarah Shook & The Disarmers.  But neither one was worth going to a festival for.

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The Menzingers (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 9, 2021) Philly Music Fest Night 4

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Marco Benevento, Philly Music Fest, Weezer on October 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2021] The Menzingers

I saw The Menzingers open for Weezer back in 2016 and really enjoyed them.  I’d been wanting to see them again mostly because I was really far from the band when I saw them and couldn’t really get into it the way I might have liked.

So when they were listed as headlining two nights of Philly Music Fest I knew I had to see them.  Especially in a small place like Ardmore Music Hall.

I have only been to Ardmore a couple of times.  My favorite show there was Marco Benevento where the sound was outstanding.  Even right up against the stage.  Well, for this show I was right up against the stage (although as more and more people crowded into the place, I moved away from the band’s more devoted (and a little crazy) fans.  But apparently I never got far back enough because literally all I could hear the whole show was Tom May’s guitar.  And May tends to play lead licks and solos, so I never really got the backing chords of Greg Barnett unless May wasn’t playing anything (which happened from time to time).

Obviously it was more fun being able to see bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino (who I couldn’t see at all last time), but it was weird having the sound so disjointed.  Throughout the set I tries moving further and further away from the stage, but I was never able to get further to the middle. (more…)

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highnoon (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 9, 2021) Philly Music Fest Night 4 [THE MENZINGERS]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Control Top, highnoon, Philly Music Fest, The Menzingers on October 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2021] highnoon

Philly Music Fest started in 2017.  I went to a show in 2019–a great line up!  Last year was online only, but this year it was back.  The lineup was different and wonderful.  And, thankfully, the two bands I wanted to see most were on the same bill.

I hadn’t heard of highnoon.  Artist Kennedy Freeman launched Highnoon in 2019.   Now Highnoon is led by Kennedy Freeman with longtime collaborator, Justin Roth on drums, Brendan Simpson on guitar, and Nathan Avila on bass.

I listened to their music and found it pretty and quiet.   Their new EP, Divers is their first body of work since their debut record, Semi Sweet.

I wasn’t expecting a pretty rocking set from this seemingly quiet foursome.  Actually, singer Freeman maintained a pretty quiet level throughout, but she was counterbalanced by some pretty wild guitar shredding from Simpson.  I took some really cool videos of Simpson’s playing, but at this time, Instagram decided that it would no longer allow me to move my video up or down to get the main part of the video into focus. (more…)

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Kathleen Edwards (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, September 25, 2021)

Posted in Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Kathleen Edwards, Late Night with David Letterman, Le Poisson Rouge, New York City, Newport Folk Festival, XPN Fest on September 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 25, 2021] Kathleen Edwards

I’ve enjoyed Kathleen Edwards’ music for years.  Her album Voyageur is just stunning.

But when that album came out back in 2012, I wasn’t really going to many shows.   It wasn’t until a few years later that I got the concert bug again and put Kathleen on my “gotta see” list.

But Kathleen had other ideas.  After Voyageur, she took a break from music.  In 2014, she launched a coffee house in Stittsville, Ottawa called Quitters.  And it seemed like she might never play again (even though she said she would).  So I left her on my “maybe, someday” list.

Then in 2019, she played the WXPNFest (the same weekend that we were going to the Newport Folk Festival–I was a wee bit surprised she didn’t play Newport too).  I kind of assumed that it was a one-off return and that would be that.

But an album soon followed.  And then earlier this year it was announced that she was playing The Met Philly.  But as an opening act for Jason Isbell, who I did not want to see.  [It’s one thing going to a show for the opening act, but it’s another if you don’t actually like the headline].  So, again, I was out of luck.

But then she announced a show in New York City at Le Poisson Rouge.  And even though LPR is hugely inconvenient for me and it cost extra in tolls and parking, I’m so glad I went to the LPR show rather than the other two.  If for no other reason than the other two shows were all of 9 songs while this one was 16.  And the LPR crowd were there to see her!  And they sang along, and she was pretty tickled with us all. (more…)

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Richard Rayner–“After the Movie” (New Yorker, April 30, 2007)

Posted in Aurora, Massive Attack, New Yorker, Norway, Richard Rayner, Short Story, Suicide, The Beatles, Verftet Festival on July 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 20, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

Aurora played a 45 minute home concert for Verftet which you can see online.

The show starts with her at the piano (an unusual sight), playing the lovely ballad “Animal Soul.”  Then the drums start and Aurora and her band play a fantastic cover of the Massive Attack/Liz Frasier song “Teardrop.”  It sounds pretty cool on piano and even though Liz Frasier’s voice is unique in the world Aurora sounds terrific.

“Warrior” sounds very different from the recorded version, because it’s still rather quiet (although louder than the other songs).  Silja Sol has taken over piano and sings absolutely gorgeous harmonies.  Hearing the song stripped down shows what a powerful song it i

“All Is Soft Inside” opens with quiet echoing guitars and features more great backing vocals from Silja.  Although when Aurora sings a capella for a few beats it shows how great her voice is.  This song is really terrific.

Then she says something very Aurora: “I’m itching on my bum but I don’t want to do it on camera,  can you just film Magnus while I scratch my butt.”

Followed by some sage advice for pandemic times: “Its okay to be worthless, no not worthless, unproductive… we don’t have to do more than just exist sometimes.”

“Through The Eyes Of A Child” is a beautiful with just her and Silja on the piano.  The a capella verse with the deep and high harmonies sounds wonderful.  The song builds with the rest of the musicians adding in the guitar and drums.

“The River” grows bigger but is still restrained.  As is “Queendom,” her huge dance hit.  But even in this stripped down very it is still catchy and super fun.

“The Seed” is a wonderfully dark and powerful song.  For this quiet version, Silja plays quiet echoing guitar and the song builds into an intense climax (which is still quite restrained compared to the original).  But we can’t overlook the deep vocals from Magnus on the drums.

The set ends with a beautiful cover of The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” a song that will “take us away, a dreamy song… a perfect world… a beautiful hippie paradise.”  It’s a lovely gentle cover with amazing harmonies from Silja.

[READ: July 20, 2021] “After the Movie”

This is a very dark story.  It’s about Ed, a writer and filmmaker whose recent books have flopped.

He and his wife had just come back from the movies and his mood was foul.  He went to bed without saying good night to the kids.  Instead of falling asleep, he found himself sitting up and crying,

He genuinely considered killing himself.  He had no money coming in, they had borrowed against the house.  They had nothing left.  He was nothing,

Muldoon had called him this afternoon from Amsterdam.

Ed sat in bed and remembered back to when he was trying to perk up his friend Muldoon who was then having a similar slump. Ed encouraged him to hang in there.  And look at Muldoon now. (more…)

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Built to Spill (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, July 30, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in Cancelled, Coronavirus, Jersey City, NJ, Kraftwerk, Marshall Poole, Newport Folk Festival, Philadelphia, PA, Prism Bitch, Quarantine, The National, Union Transfer, White Eagle Hall on July 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: July 30, 2021] Built to Spill [rescheduled from July 31, 2020; moved to May 13, 2022]

indexI’m not entirely sure if this show was even scheduled.  It seemed to show up on their website and then was taken down.

Whatever the case, they are officially on the calendar for 2022, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this new line up.

~~~~

I’ve seen Built to Spill a bunch of times. The last time I promised myself I wouldn’t get too close to the stage, but I did.  The problem with being so close is the way Doug Martsch has his guitar set up.  His amp is right next to him and it is so loud.  From where I was you could barely hear anything else.  Of course I’m there to watch Doug play, so it’s not too bad.  But I promised myself I would stand back to fully appreciate his band.

On this newly announced tour, his whole band was going to be different.  In fact, I have seen at least three different lineups for the band over the years.  This tour was going to feature drummer Teresa Esguerra of Prism Bitch (who opened for Built To Spill last time) and bassist Melanie Radford of Marshall Poole.  I knew it would be a very different show.

Unfortunately, I had tickets to Kraftwerk on July 30 and tickets for The national on July 31 (not to mention we were supposed to leave for the Newport Folk Festival on the night of the 31st as well).  So I sure hope he keeps this line up when he;s ready to play again.  And I will stand back and take it all in.

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David Sedaris–“Road Trips” (New Yorker, November 27, 2006)

Posted in David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Hitchhiking, Iris, Lars Vaular, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Norway, Sex, Verftet Online Music Festival on July 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: IRIS-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 1, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

I was completely unfamiliar with Iris, but she was the only other singer whose set was still streaming.  Because Aurora is a Norwegian singer in the same range, I feel like Iris’ voice sounds similar to hers.  But that’s a lazy comparison.

I suspect that she is a bit more poppy than this set lets on.  Like the Silja Sol set, it feels like a more “unplugged” kind of show.

It opens with “crawl for me” with she her singing to a guitar.  It’s quiet and powerful.  The rest of the band comes out for “mercy” which is “how i would like to to not show me any.”  There are washes of guitar s and keys, including a very cool, almost sinister keyboard sound in the end.

A cellist arrives for “kroppsspråk” which is a cover of a Lars Vaular song.  It’s kind of rapped–but in Iris’s more singing way.  It seems like the original is very dancey and she has dialed it back.

After a gentle piano solo version of “giving in” (her voice is lovely in the spare setting), she played “from inside a car,” my favorite song of the set which  has a breathy quality that I really like.

Then she throws in a Beatles cover.  “Here, There and Everywhere” is a beautiful gentle cover with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.

“hidden springs” stays with the acoustic sound, but she moved to a more techie processed vocal for “your mind, the universe.”  She has a few technical glitches for this song but when they are resolved her voice sounds very cool as it starts and then turns into a much bigger song.

As they prepare the next song she jokes that you shouldn’t eat crackers in bed, which proves to be the opening line of “hanging around you/crackers,” a sweet sounding breakup song.

Before the final song she mentions that all of her band is wearing band T-shirts: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Kiss and um, Reservoir Dogs(?).  It’s an amusing look for such a gentle show.

Before starting “romance is dead” she encourages everyone to visit my You Tube channel for recipes.  This set ending song is soft and lovely, just piano and strings and her beautiful voice.

[READ: July 15, 2021] “Road Trips”

When David was a kid, his father rallied the families on their street in Raleigh to plant maple trees.  For years they were tiny, pathetic things.  Now, decades later they are tall and majestic creating a canopy down the street where his father still lives.

He was home visiting his father who brought him to a block party.  At the party a teenager saw David’s father and groaned “Lou Sedaris, who invited her?”

“My son is gay,” the boy’s mother announced as if none of us had figured this out yet.  David was blown away that someone could casually announce this on the street where he grew up.  As a young homosexual David played all the games that the other closeted kids did.  Dated girls and claimed that sex before marriage was what dogs did–a true union of soles could take eight to ten years!

He kept his secret until he was twenty.  But he would have kept it longer had a couple not picked him up when he was hitchhiking.  It was 1 AM and he was picked up by a Cadillac with people his parents’ age in it. (more…)

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Claudio Magris–“Curving Time in Krems” (Harper’s, June 2021)

Posted in Anne Milano Appel, Aurora, Claudio Magris, Huh?, Norway, Philosophy, Romance, Short Story, Silja Sol, Translation, Verftet Online Music Festival on July 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SILJA SOL-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 5, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

Sadly, most of the performances are unavailable, but this one from Siljia Sol (who is also Aurora’s backing vocalist) is streaming.

She plays ten songs in about 40 minutes, singing entirely in Norwegian.

“Kometen” is a two minute opener.  It has trippy synths and feels like an introductory lullaby.  Silja has an amazing voice, with quite a range.  Here it is soft and childlike.  But “Superkresen” turns into a fully 80s dance song.  It fits perfectly with the totally80s visuals of her set.

“Hatten” continues the bounciness.  This song feels poppier with a quietly soaring chorus.  “Hultertilbult” is more guitar-based and feels more organic.  As does “Ni Liv” which has a more prominent bass line.  This song has nice soaring backing vocals from her guitarist.

I don’t know the originals of these songs at all, but this feels like a restrained rendition.  Not quite unplugged, but perhaps more suitable for watching on your couch.

For “Stemning” she moves to the piano and plays a quiet ballad–her voice is lovely here.

The dancing returns for “Løgneren.”  Throughout these songs, Silja’s voice reminds me of Aurora’s, probably because her voice is essential to all live Aurora songs (and because they are both Norwegian).  With Aurora Silja hits incredibly high soaring notes and she really doesn’t do that in her own songs.  Although she does hit some high notes here.

“Semmenemme” has a more rhythmic approach–with almost a rapping vibe.  “Eventyr” cranks up the guitar more with a nice groove behind it.

“Dyrene” ends the set with the most catchy song of the bunch.  It is more subtle but features some nice soaring high vocals in the chorus.

It’s fascinating listening to ten songs and having no idea (at all) what they are about.  I’m very curious to hear if her recorded output has a more or less 80s vibe going on.

You can stream the set here.

[READ: July 10, 2021] “Curving Time in Krems”

This story was really cerebral and metaphysical. as such it took a really long time to get to the point.  It was also an incredibly long story for what amounts to: boy calls girls he had a crush on and wished he had done so sooner.

The main character is an academic invited to a dinner party in Krems, a city that “resembles Vineta, the city submerged by waters.”  Snow had fallen making the oblivious old town even more deserted.

A woman at the dinner insists that her cousin attended classes with him and spoke about him recently.  He tells her this is impossible as he did not have female classmates.

He figures out that the woman is talking about Nori S.  But Nori was a grade ahead of him and there’s no way she would remember him.

For a seventeen-year-old boy, a beguiling eighteen-year-old girl is more inaccessible than a Hollywood diva is to a professor [that’s a weird simile, there].

(more…)

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