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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Circle Jerks | Repo Man screening (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, August 14, 2026)

Posted in Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Glenside, PA, Keswick Theatre, Repo Man on August 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 14, 2026] Ciʀcle JƎʀᴋs

Circle Jerks are a legendary punk band.  They’ve been around since 1979 with various lineup changes and hiatuses. They more or less finished in 2011, but then started playing again in 2019 and have come to Philly every two years since then.  I thought about seeing them at the TLA in April playing with Gorilla Biscuits.  But we were out of town.

So when this event came up, I was really intrigued.  The band are in the movie Repo Man–playing a lounge version of themselves.  And the current bassist Zander Schloss was a main character in the movie.  And here they were–playing some songs, doing a Q&A about the movie and then showing the movie.  I’ve seen the movie a few times but haven’t watched it in a long time.  So I asked my brother-in-law if he wanted to go and he said YES, but then couldn’t make it.  So I asked my son and he said sure.

I don’t think he knew any Circle Jerks music, but he had heard of them.  And he had never seen the movie.

I waited till the day before the show to buy a ticket because I wanted to be in an area where there weren’t many people. I wound up getting the back row and it was pretty perfect for Keswick–you’re up ice and high and can see over the heads below you.  And the venue is small enough that the back row is only 34 rows back.

The band’s gear was set up and then someone came out singing the Feelin’ 7Up song.  I had totally forgotten that that’s how Zander Schloss’ character in the movie is introduced.  So he is singing the song and a guy in a tuxedo tells him to stop singing, man. Why so tense, guy?

Then the band launched into the song Repo Man and the man in the tux sang the song.   The man was Repo Man director Alex Cox.  He sang the song and left the stage.

Then Keith Morris came out on stage and the band launched into a barrage of songs totaling about 5 minutes. And I liked that security allowed anyone who wanted to to rush the stage (it’s not like any of us old people were going to cause too much trouble).  Although one person did climb in stage and dance around (and then slowly climbed back down off the stage). (more…)

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Finn Wolfhard / Sleeper’s Bell (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, July 24, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Finn Wolfhard, Philadelphia, PA, Sleeper's Bell, Stranger Things, Union Transfer on July 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 26, 2026] Finn Wolfhard / Sleeper’s Bell

Just how many of the cast from Stranger Things are also musicians?  Well, just about all of them, it seems.

And so here comes Finn Wolfhard.  He played The Foundry a couple of years back and here he’s at Union Transfer.  I have no idea how well the show sold, and I didn’t have any intention of going, but I’m fascinated by the whole thing.

I checked out his solo stuff and its kind of fun–I imagine he’s a great frontman.  But I didn’t care enough to look into it any further.   But in fairness, his sound is good–a Pavement-adjacent sonic palette with hints of other genres poking in.  And his songs are really short.

Okay, so this review from Get Alternative says

The show was nearly sold out and super packed, a line around the block snaked down the street, to get inside the venue.  Finn Wolfhard, a Canadian actor/musician … is 23. He released his second solo album on July 10th.  He had a full band backing him up and their scrappy indie rock was fun and energetic. The lighting was excellent, mostly blue with bits of yellow shining through, and candelabras spread throughout the stage as a backdrop. This was a memorable show and an exciting night of music.

The review also mentions Sleeper’s Bell, who I didn’t know.

Opening up the show was Sleeper’s Bell, a band from Chicago who are in their mid twenties. They play indie folk and are fronted by vocalist Blaine Teppema and guitarist Evan Green, and played with a drummer and bassist as well for this tour. They seemed grateful for the opportunity to open for Finn and played a few songs from their latest album ‘Clover’ from 2025, as well as a smattering of new and unreleased songs. They had a quieter vibe to them and Blaine’s pretty voice shone through the instrumentation. A highlight of the set was the song ‘Corner’ a single from 2024. They finished up the set by playing ‘Hey Blue’ the final track from Clover.

They are definitely too quiet for me.

(more…)

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Ilana Glazer (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, June 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Broad City, Ilana Glazer, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on June 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 4, 2026] Ilana Glazer

I loved Broad City.  But I haven’t really been that interested in seeing Ilana Glazer live.  Not sure why.  But these show announcements haven’t excited me that much.

And yet, she’s really funny.  So after missing the show at Helium in April, I thought about seeing this show at the Wellmont.  The Wellmont is not my favorite venue, although we’ve seen some comedians there and it’s not bad if you’re seated on the floor.

But then this show turned out to be on the same night as an Awards Night at my daughter’s school.  So, obviously that takes priority.

I’ll have to watch a bit of one of her specials to see if I like her stand up.

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Dethklok (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, May 14, 2026)

Posted in Amon Amarth, Bethlehem, PA, Castle Rat, Dethklok, Metalocalypse, Wind Creek Event Center on May 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 14, 2026] Dethklok

So I was aware of the show Metalocalypse, but didn’t know much about it.  When Dethklok toured last time, I read about how interesting it was to have a cartoon band like Gorillaz (but heavy metal) play live.

I didn’t know much about their music.  I listened to a few songs and was cool with them.  I expected a funny kind of show with the band playing behind or beneath animated versions of themselves.

But instead, what we got was the band in darkness (literally, you couldn’t see their faces at all) and clips from the show on the screen behind them.  So it was kind of the worst of both worlds.  It wasn’t new animation of the band playing these songs, it was just random clips–or maybe clips from the show when they played these songs?  But there were lots of repeated clips, so that wasn’t as much fun.

It also meant that those of us who didn’t know the show really had no idea what was going on.  My son, who didn’t know anything about the show thought they were villains and not the world’s most favorite band

The set opened with a video–Is Dethklok Back?  And it was pretty funny.  So I assumed the whole show would be funny in some way.  But it wasn’t.  It was serious death metal–fast, heavy and completely ununderstandable.  The songs were short and there were definitely songs that people liked more than others, but it was more or less a blur of noise. (more…)

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Ilana Glazer (Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA, April 21, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Broad City, Helium Comedy Club, Ilana Glazer, Philadelphia, PA on April 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 21, 2026] Ilana Glazer

I loved Broad City.  But I haven’t really been that interested in seeing Ilana Glazer live.  Not sure why.  But these show announcements haven’t excited me that much.  This show happened to be between two nights when I was already going out, so I didn’t really consider it.

Although now that I have been to Helium, and I see how small it is, I think it would be really fun to see someone like Ilana there.    Especially since she did at the much larger Miller Theatre last year.

By the time I realized that we should probably go to this, it was sold out (no surprise there).

She’s playing in New Jersey in a few months though so, maybe we’ll go there instead.

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King Tuff / Morgan Nagler (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, April 18, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in King Tuff, Morgan Nagler, Philadelphia, PA, Punky Brewster, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on April 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 23, 2023] King Tuff / Morgan Nagler

King Tuff is Kyle Thomas.  Thomas was a member of Ty Segall’s band for a time (and Segall plays on his albums).

I really enjoyed his Black Moon Spell album, but I haven’t listened to him all that much since.  When this show was announced I put it on my radar, but knew that I was pretty busy this week.  When my weekend opened up because a scout trip came up, I seriously thought about getting a last-minute ticket t this show.  But it was already sold out.  So that’s okay.

Morgan Nagler is a singer from Los Angeles.  She plays slowish fuzzy indie rock.  Her voice is pleasant and cool.  She is also the singer for Whispertown.  In a fun backstory that seems to be popping up from time to time, Nagler worked as a child actor, appearing on Punky Brewster and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  But she’s got the musical bona-fides (she wrote a song for Rilo Kiley and did a single with Kim Deal).

I think this would have been a really fun show.

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John Malkovich in The Music Critic Created and Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 17, 2026)

Posted in Aaron Wolff, Aleksey Igudesman, Astor Piazzolla, Claude Debussy, Eric Silberge, Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe, Frédéric Chopin, Gia Kancheli, Hyung-ki Joo, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Malkovich, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mario Gotoh, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Robert Schumann, Sergei Prokofiev, The Music Critic, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 17, 2026| 2 Comments »

[ATTENDED: April 17, 2026] John Malkovich in The Music Critic Created and Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman

Are you kidding me?  John Malkovich in Princeton?  Of course I’m going.

I had no idea what this show was about, but John Malkovich was going to be starring in it, 30 minutes from my house!  SO I grabbed us tickets.

So what is this exactly?  Well, it’s kind of a comic musical piece.  But it’s not exactly funny and it’s more musical.  Basically, a string quartet (and piano) plays some beautiful music and then John Malkovich tears it apart using actual quotes from critics at the time.  The criticism back then are brutal and, consequentially quite funny, especially when said to the performers directly.

Igudesman wrote this piece which includes some famous musical pieces (by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ysaye, Kancheli, and Piazzolla) as well as one of his own.

Aleksey Igudesman has created a sardonic mix of the most evil music critiques of the last centuries written about some of the greatest works of music.

I didn’t know Aleksey Igudesman, but he performed with the show and his violin playing was terrific.  I have no idea if this show was written with Malkovich in mind (I assume so, see the end).   But Malkovich luxuriates in the role of the evil critic who believes the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev and the likes to be weary and dreary: “Schumann fancies himself a “composer”, while Brahms is a “giftless bastard” and Claude Debussy is simply ugly.”

Malkovich sat for much of the performance, listening to the music.  And then he would recite the scathing reviews.  By the middle of the show, the musicians started to argue back.  Especially pianist Hyung-ki Joo who directly addresses the critic and at one point even storms off. (more…)

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Nick Offerman (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 12, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Nick Offerman, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 12, 2026] Nick Offerman

Whenever I think about comedians that I like, they’re usually British.  Because I receive ads for comedy clubs, I feel like there are hundreds of American comedians and I don’t know any of them. So I forget that there are quite a few American comedians who I really like.  Nick Offerman makes me laugh in anything he does and yet for some reason I have never really thought about going to his stand up show.

I had gone out the night before, but my wife wasn’t really interested in going out on a Sunday night, so we blew him off.  I’ll have to put him on my list of comedians to make sure I see at least once.

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Mae Martin (Kimmel Center/Miller Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, March 27, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Mae Martin, Philadelphia, PA, Taskmaster on March 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 27, 2026] Mae Martin

I decided I would like to see my favorite Taskmaster contestants if they came to the United States.  I have seen a few of them already and Mae Martin was a favorite contestant for me.  But we had recently watched Mae’s TV show Feel Good and it was funny but very dark as well.  I didn’t really investigate any of Mae’s standup, but I kind of got the feeling that it was all kind of dark and I didn’t think I wanted to go to that kind of comedy show.

It turned out to be on the same night as the Lucius show that I was super excited to go to, so it was a moot point anyhow.  I might reconsider if they come back around–but I will have to see just how dark the show gets before I commit.

Of course I have just watched a few clips and it looks very funny and not dark at all, so what do I know?

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Patton Oswalt (Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA, March 19 & 20, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Helium Comedy Club, Patton Oswalt, Philadelphia, PA on March 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 19 & 20, 2026] Patton Oswalt

I didn’t realize how much I like Patton Oswalt until recently.  He’s sort of always been there and I’ve always enjoyed him, but since I started following him on Instagram, I realized how funny his stand up is.

When they announced these two shows I was surprised that he was playing at The Helium Club which seems really small for someone of his stature.  Of course I don’t know how comedy touring works at all, so maybe this is the size venue he normally plays.  Well, anyway he sold out both nights, so it clearly works for him.

I wanted to go but I already had tickets to an event on the 19th and when I saw there was a show on the 20th, it was already sold out.

I hope he comes back around, but in the meantime, I have Instagram.

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