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Archive for the ‘Enterprise Earth’ Category

Hanabie (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026)

Posted in Enterprise Earth, 花冷え。, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Hanabie

I saw Hanabie [花冷え。] a year and a half ago when they opened for Jinjer.  They were great and they blew me away with their heaviness and with their mixture of heavy growls and J-Pop moments.

Hanabie [花冷え。] cpmbines loud and heavy music with Harajuku aesthetics in a style self-described as “Harajuku-core.”  They have been around since 2015 (when they started as a Maximum The Hormone cover band).  They have clean vocals and unclean vocals and the most fascinating thing is that singer Yukina does both!  She can sing in an incredibly high pitched voice and then shifts to a growl that would impress anyone.

Guitarist Matsuri also sings–and has a lovely voice.  She often sings super catchy chorus and bridge parts while Yukina adds to them.  Bassist Hettsu sings too and she has a lovely clean vocal style.  The three of them together are a dynamic force.  Drummer Chika is the newest member (they’ve had several drummers over the years).

Last time I wrote: Their fashion sense was pretty great too.  They were a great opening act and I would absolutely see them again–I hope as a headliner.

And here they were headlining.   They said it was their first time in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia was ready for them!  They had sold out the show and the crowd was 100% into it–pits and crowd surfing galore. (more…)

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Nekrogoblikon (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026) [HANABIE]

Posted in Enterprise Earth, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Nekrogoblikon

My son and his friend went to see Nekrogoblikon back in 2023.  I had wanted to see them, but opted not to tag along.  So I was pretty happy that the goblin band were opening this set.

I didn’t know much about them except that they had a goblin in the band.  And, indeed, they do.  They inflated a giant goblin head in the middle of the stage and after a few minutes the band came out.

I couldn’t see the keyboardist on the far side at all (because of the goblin head), but I was on the perfect side for seeing John Goblikon.  Evidently the band has changed over the years.  I assumed that John Goblikon was just a mascot or something.  But now he actually sings.  And the really surprising thing is that he sings clean vocals while the human singer sings insanely unclean vocals. And, actually that’s where the problem was for me.  Dickie Allen doesn’t growl or sing in a deep way.  Instead, his vocals are at the higher end of things and sound kind of strangled.  On record it’s weird and maybe a little funny.   But live, he sang so fast that I genuinely didn’t know if he was singing words or just making off-putting goblin sounds.

But when John Goblikon sang, he had a really good voice and his parts were surprisingly catchy.  In fact, most of the songs were pretty catchy. I just hated hearing the main singer sing.

Because John Goblikon was pretty funny–a convincing goblin mask and hands and he danced around and made rude gestures.  There was someone near me with a Nekrogoblikon hat (green with pointy ears), so there were definitely some fans.  (more…)

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Enterprise Earth (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026) [HANABIE]

Posted in Enterprise Earth, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Enterprise Earth

I was surprised that this show was scheduled to start at 7.  I made it to South St and realized I hadn’t been to a show on South St on a Saturday night in a really long time. On a weeknight it’s usually not too hard to get a decent spot, but on a Saturday night–yikes.  I was lucky to score the last ADA spot a few blocks away.

By the time I got to the venue it was like 6:45.  I had actually thought that if I missed Enterprise Earth it would be fine, but the place was PACKED, so I’m glad I got there so early–I was able to sneak up to near the stage on the side safely away from a potential mosh pit.

I didn’t know Enterprise Earth who are from Spokane WA.  They are a deathcore band and have been around since 2014.  Huh, interestingly, none of the original members are in the band anymore.  And their singer and bassist joined in 2021.  And their drummer joined in 2024.  Fascinating.  The longest tenured member joined in 2017.

They are very heavy with growled vocals, but a lot of high guitar riffs thrown into the overall heaviness.  The crowd was properly into them.

They were pretty great as an opening band because they did everything they could to get the crowd moving.  During every song singer Travis Worland, encouraged or demanded either horns up, or a circle pit or crowd surfing or whatever else he could demand of people. (more…)

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