Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Gustaf’ Category

[CANCELLED: October 16, 2022] Yard Act / Gustaf

Yard Act are from that peculiar line of art punk that features noisy guitars and a lead vocalist who mostly speaks/yells/gripes.  Sometimes a little of that goes a long way and sometimes it works really well.

I actually didn’t know them all that well.  Although I know some people who hate them passionately–probably because they are much heralded.

At any rate, I was far more interested in seeing Gustaf who I saw open for Idles last year.  They were weird and artsy and amazing live and I need to see them again.  It seemed like a great opportunity to see what Yard Act was all about at the same time.

Then all of a sudden the show was cancelled.

I actually posted on the Gustaf Instagram to discover that Yard Act had been invited to appear at the Mercury Prize Awards on the 18th.  So we lost out on the show.  Good for them.  Bad for us.

Read Full Post »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 14, 2022] Gustaf / Pedazo De Carne Con Ojo 

I saw Gustaf open for Idles and they were weird and wonderful and someone I definitely wanted to see live again–preferably headlining.  They have a very late 1980’s punk aesthetic with spoken words and random sounds.  Plus a lot of humor.  I was really excited for this show.  But by the tuime it came around, having misse da whole bunch of shows that I was really looking forward to, I wound up blowing off this one as well.

Shame, really.

Pedazo De Carne Con Ojo is the project of Steven Perez, a Philadelphia musician with sincere love for hip hop, poetry, punk and hardcore, pop, R&B, salsa, bachata, merengue, and even more. Perez has lived in Philly since 2016, writing, playing punk and indie, and he started releasing solo material under the Pedazo moniker in 2019 after years of struggling with doubts about sharing his own music.  Pedazo is a kaleidoscopic project, pinned on samples from past recordings of pop and merengue, salsa, bachata and other styles of Caribbean music, all of which Perez heard in his family’s home in Florida growing up.

Read Full Post »

[ATTENDED: October 13, 2021] Idles

I saw Idles two years ago and the show was amazing.  A raw, raucous punk show with all kinds of slam dancing, crowd surfing (including the band), and shouting.  But also an incredible feeling of warmth and love from the band.

I’m gathering that the band always opens with “Colossus.”  A loud, slow, rumbling repeating bass note from Adam Devonshire shook the whole place.  And then Joe Talbot came out and started singing the slow, quiet introduction.

But the band and the crowd were just waiting in anticipation for the BOOM, when the song took of and the pit started flailing around.

Since I saw them last, they put out a new album, with another one on the way.  The only played one song from the forthcoming album, but they did play a bunch from Ultra Mono.  They sprinkled the songs throughout the set, interspersing classic tracks with the new ones.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

[ATTENDED: October 13, 2021] Gustaf

I had not heard of Gustaf when this show was announced, but when I looked them up, they promised to put on a fun show.  And boy did they ever.

Gustaf is a five-piece from Brooklyn: Guitarist Vram Kherlopian, lead singer Lydia Gammill, bassist Tine Hill, vocalist/percussionist Tarra Thiessen and drummer Melissa Lucciola.  They are a classic old school art-punk band.

They make weird music and they have a lot of fun.  It was a terrific set.

The band was spread out across the stage with guitarist Kherlopian in front of us on the left.  It was fun watching him playing and not playing.  The kind of guitar work that is sparse and punchy.  The other side of the stage had the rhythm section.  Lucciola and Hill were the backbone of the band, keeping things grounded while the rest of the band did their weird things.  Thiessen might have been having the most fun as she played a Chock Full O Nuts Coffee can for percussion and often had her voice manipulated to sound deep and slow. (more…)

Read Full Post »