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Archive for the ‘Bartees Strange’ Category

[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] Lucy Dacus 

My daughter and I saw Lucy Dacus on the first night of this tour back in April in Philadelphia.  Now, this was officially the last night of the U.S. tour (she did play other shows this year but not in the same way).  I had certainly never seen anyone on the first and final nights of a tour, and it was fascinating to see how much the show had morphed over the five months.  The set was the same, but the setlist was different.  It was shorter (festival timing rather than solo timing) but she also made some changes to what she played.

And the biggest difference was that she had a string quartet playing with her for many of the songs.

My daughter and I rushed  to the barricade to get right up close to Lucy and were then shocked that the pit remained largely empty.   It wasn’t that people weren’t into her–they were.  And the lawn was massively full.  I guess no one wanted to give up their seats after the long day?

Anyway we were right on the barrier, but pretty far to the right.  So when the quartet sat down, they basically blocked our view of the rest of the stage.  My daughter wandered around the pit (it was that empty) for a better view but determined that there wasn’t a better spot.  [Although having seen her photos, I think straight on was a much better spot].

The set was the same–a gigantic backdrop designed to look like a museum wall.  There were picture frames and columns and it looked amazing.  Although from our location off to the side, you could see the video screens that projected the mages.  Obviously we knew there were video screens, but the illusion was somewhat lost because the images were skewed a bit.

So the show opened the same way except that the Calliope Prelude had the quartet playing (instead of it being projected).  And the quartet stayed on stage for the first few songs.  Like in April, the first song was Hot & Heavy, which is a fun way to get the crowd excited.  She followed it with her biggest new single Ankles. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] Clairo-All Things Go [Day 2]

Clairo was up next.  She’s a big deal and it was almost surprising that she was so low on the bill.  But I can’t really see her headlining a big festival because she is pretty low key and doesn’t do a big show.  Although having said that, I do like that her set was designed with a theme in mind–something like lounge singer, I guess.

Clairo wore a dress that was split vertically into half balck and half white, so when she turned one way or the other she looked all in one color.

When he set started she and her band were all seated together off to the side with cocktails.  It was very funny–they toasted each other.

And the set had that vibe,  I genuinely don’t get the Clairo love by young people as she seems very old lady to me.  Or maybe they like her chill vibe.

I find most of her songs pretty boring–not a lot happens in them.   I mean how do you write a song called Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and have it be a slow song that’s 2 minutes long where nothing happens. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] The Backseat Lovers-All Things Go [Day 2]

There’s something about the name The Backseat Lovers that I find distasteful.  Which is weird because I like bands called Tropical Fuck Storm.

I had no idea what they sounded like before this show, but I assumed if the curators picked them, they must be pretty good (especially since they’re all boys in the band).

On paper they’re a band I should totally like–described as psychedelic indie rock with a bit of a jamming component.

And yet I never really got into them.  I’m not sure why

But the crowd loved them, even singing along intensely to Pool House.  And that’s all that matters.

They certainly did some fun things like the way Snowbank Blues built and then suddenly dropped the sound.  And I enjoyed the way the band rocked out the loud parts.

But there was just something…maybe too much acoustic guitar? I also feel like the songs didn’t really have a hook?  Maybe if I was in a pit I would have been more engaged with them, but I just never felt it. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] Paris Paloma-All Things Go [Day 2]

After Paris Paloma, they played Wild Rivers on the screen.  But I wasn’t that into them.

And soon enough Gigi Perez came out.  I had just seen her a few months ago opening for Hozier.  This was actually my third time seeing her since she opened for Girl in Red last year.

I have enjoyed her each time–she had a great voice and great stage presence.

This time I was really impressed with her band.  Her lead guitarist in particular really shone.

I noted last time that she was pretty confident when we saw her with girl in red, but I have to assume after several month touring with Hozier in HUGE venues, her confidence must be through the roof.  And at this event, the crowd was totally into her (one girl had a sign that said, Gigi you saved my life.”

And she did not disappoint.  In fact, I enjoyed her more this time than last time.

(more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] Paris Paloma-All Things Go [Day 2]

After G Flip, we hung in place for Paris Paloma to come out.  I knew her song Labour and really liked it but I didn’t know anything else about her.

She had a very cool backdrop–white drawings and her name in white on a black background.  I really couldn’t stop looking at it and even drew it a bit (I had brought a sketch book).

The opening from her album (a looped vocal line of “my mind (now)”).  Paris came out in a long flowing white dress.

She and her sang the lead vocals and moments later the song kicked in.

Paris played acoustic guitar and the rest of her band was a guy with a guitar.  And they made a big sound.  I love the way my My Mind turned so big with her voice so powerful.

She played an interesting mix of quiet songs (drywall) and song with bigger (somewhat darker) choruses (as good a reason).  Both guys sang harmony on the choruses and really made the vocals huge.  Her guitarist also played bass and there were definitely keys coming from somewhere–maybe triggered by the drums?

She said she’d hear the festival described as Lesbian Coachella and that was exactly where she wanted to be.

Her newest song Good Boy is great–a total diss of powerful man.  It opens with a woman saying “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down, I just didn’t expect them to be such losers.” (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] G Flip-All Things Go [Day 2]

The weather was a but threatening and we didn’t really want to see anyone at the Chrysalis Stage, so we decided to park in the Pavilion.  We missed the end of Hazlett and saw some of Bartees Strange on the video screen.  So G Flip was up next.

I had no idea who G Flip was just a few weeks ago but I saw some kind of headline that she was dating someone.  I had never heard of either of them and the way it was written I didn’t know who or what a G Flip was.  So I looked her up and was really interested to see that she is a multi instrumentalist singer from Australia.

They set up the band’s kit and her drum set had a digital screen on the bass drum head.  This is the first time I’d ever seen this and it was really fun and interesting–all kinds of images and words were projected on it.  Super fun.

She had a few pink platforms that she danced and jumped around on.  She had a ton of energy and was really fun.  She wore a sleeveless shirt and bandana on her head.  Her first song Disco Cowgirl was a big dancey disco song.  There was even a keytar (they are really making a comeback). (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 27, 2025] All Things Go [Day 2]

After yesterday’s fun we headed back to our hotel and crashed.  Saturday’s show began at 11.  We had no intention of getting there that early–but there wasn’t a lot else to do in the area but hang out in the hotel.

I didn’t care about Zinadelphia (who I feel really missed an golden opportunity to call themselves Zinfindelphia) and I didn’t care about Carol Ades.  Hey, Nothing is a folkie duo, but they didn’t intrigue me enough to get there early for.

The weather was dicey with potential rain so we decided that we would just hang out under the comfort of the Pavilion and sneak out for food from time to time.

We hung out pretty close to the stage (about twenty rows up) but off to the side quite a bit.  So we had a decent but not great view–I wouldn’t want to pay for those seats for sure.

We wound up seeing most of the bands on the Pavilion Stage and watched the Chrysalis Stage bands on video.

I would have watched Bartees Strange, but I’ve seen him a few times, so really the first person I was intrigued by was G Flip.  So we rolled in to the Pavilion Stage and caught the end of Hazlett.

I enjoyed the little of Hazlett that we saw and then we caught about 20 minutes of Bartees on the video screen. (more…)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: July 31-August 2, 2020] Newport Folk Festival

We went to Newport Folk Festival in 2019.  We’ve had a kind of understanding that we would try to go again.  So this year, when tickets were announced I jumped online and managed to score four of them!

Then it turned out that the weekend would be  massive conflict.

So, after seeing just who would be there, we felt that the whole fest was kind of a big shrug.  And it would be no loss to sell the tickets back.  Fortunately, Newport has a great system where you just put the tickets back in the pool and who ever is next gets them. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: April 1, 2022] Car Seat Headrest

I saw Car Seat Headrest four years ago at Union Transfer and it was one of the least pleasant shows I’d been to.  The music was great, but the crowd was uniformly terrible–especially near me.  

I wasn’t sure if I’d want to see them again, but then my son got really turned on to them (I had nothing to do with it) and he really wanted to see them live.  I couldn’t pass that up, and I assumed the crowd would be a little different in this much bigger venue.

And, yes, the crowd was much better–although it felt really crowded in there!

The crazy thing is that the doors opens at 7:30.  We arrived at 7:25 to an enormous line.  And we didn’t get in the venue until after 8.  I asked my son if he wanted to get up front or get merch.  He chose merch–I think getting close will win out next time.  I would have loved to have been closer for sure.

The fascinating thing about Car Seat Headrest now is that lead singer and main Headrest Will Toledo wears a modified gasmask for the entire set.  It’s pretty neat as it has a microphone in it and the eyes light up to display emotions (cute eyes, angry eyes, heart and swirly lines).  The good thing is that Toledo sounds fine through this odd system. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: April 1, 2022] Bartees Strange

I saw Bartees Strange open for Lucy Dacus back in October.   I was delighted by how well he was received by the Car Seat Headrest crowd.

His set was very similar to that last one.  He exchanged out a couple of songs for newer ones, but the general vibe was the same.

He came out by himself, wearing a bright year rain slicker and started with a quiet opening of “Far.”  After a couple of minutes, the rest of the band came out and rocked out the rest of the song.

I’m not sure if he had the same band playing with him–I assume so.  He got the crowd moving with one of his faster songs, “Mustang.”  And, like last time, he followed it with the rap of “Kelly Rowland” with the memorable refrain: “Broke ass nigga but I got Versace dreams.”

Mixing it up some more, he followed that with the bouncing “Weights.”  He looked up at the audience and chuckled, “Oh, my mom’s here.”

Then he introduced the new song “Hold the Line.”  He wrote the song for George Floyd’s daughter, and it was quite a powerful moment.

He followed that with a cover of Lemonworld by The National.  I thought last time that it was kind of mellow but the chorus rocked pretty hard.

He introduced the “jazz standard” called “Boomer” and ripped the song through the venue with everyone dancing and singing along.

He ended the set with another new song, his new single “Heavy Hearts.”  It’s a bit more mellow, and I probably would have ended with Boomer, but the set was really solid regardless.

Bartees is a great performer and I’m glad to see him getting some attention.  His merch was also really cool.

2022 2021
Far £ Far £
Mustang £ Mustang £
Kelly Rowland £ Kelly Rowland £
Weights £ Weights £
Hold the Line € 17 ∞
Lemonworld (The National cover) Flagey God £
Boomer £ Lemonworld (The National cover)
Heavy Heart € Stone Meadows £
Boomer £

∞ Horror (2025)
€ Farm to Table (2022)
£ Live Forever (2020)

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