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YHWH Nailgun (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 2026) [DRY CLEANING] [rescheduled date]

Posted in Dry Cleaning, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, YHWH Nailgun on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 6, 2026] YHWH Nailgun [rescheduled from February 1, 2026]

I hadn’t heard of YHWH Nailgun (pronounced Yahweh Nailgun) before this tour.  They are a noise/experimental band from New York who originated in Philly.  I’m not sure if they were especially excited to play Philly since no one said anything before during or after the set.

Zack Borzone came out to the mic and made some noises–coos or barks or some such.  And he only got stranger from there.  Once the music started, he flapped his arms, he squatted down and stomped his feet.  He danced and swung his arms around and looked like he might fall over any second.  But he never did–controlled chaos.  Were there words?  I assume so.  Were they understandable? No.  Was it mesmerizing?  Absolutely.  He was also content to stare out at the crowd, making eye contact with everyone.  Unsettling.

Since I didn’t know anythig about them I didn’t know if the songs were as short as they seemed (they are–the longest song on their new album is 1 minute and 20 seconds.  And most of the time when the songs ended abruptly after 75 seconds with no indication that they were ending, there was a pause before everyone applauded. (more…)

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Bloodywood (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2026)

Posted in Ankor, Bloodywood, Ladrones, Philadelphia, PA, The Pretty Wild, Theatre of Living Arts on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 5, 2026] Bloodywood

My wife and I saw Bloodywood open for Babymetal about a year ago.  We loved everything about them–their intensity, their positivity and just how heavy they were.  So when they announced a headline tour I grabbed a ticket for myself, my wife and my son.  My son had a final exam the next morning so he opted not to come.  (Smart kid).   So that left my wife and I.  Normally I love seeing opening bands–some of my favorite live bands are band I first saw when they were an opener.

But I looked at this lineup and saw three openers–bands that I have never heard of–and told my wife that we could skip them all.  She had something to do until around 6:45, so we left a little around 7.  I figured we’d get into Philly with a bunch of extra time and then stroll in around 9 right after the third band finished.

Well, we didn’t realize it was Cinco de Mayo and had no idea that South Street was blocked off in a number of places because of some kind of free taco festival.  And we got caught in the middle of it.  We drove about a mile in 45 minutes, finally escaped the chaos and found a parking garage.  When we walked to South Street, there were crazily drunken people everywhere and police on every corner.  We negotiated the cops and entered the venue at around 9:15.  My wife later told me she thought they were going on at 9 so she was panicky and didn’t understand why I wasn’t.  Well, there was no merch line, so I bought a shirt and we headed into the packed room.

I don’t really like being so far back, but TLA is fairly small, so even being n the back isn’t so bad.  Aside from the guy who inexplicably felt the need to put both his hands over he head for most of the songs, I could see fine and the sound was great.

So Bloodywood is a metal band from New Dehli who started out as a band making heavy metal parodies of Bollywood songs.  In 2016, Katiyar quit his job as a corporate lawyer and together with Jayant Bhadula formed a two-piece band with the intention of “destroying pop songs”.

Now, live, the band is a six-piece.  Katiyar plays guitars and flute!  Bhadula sings and growls.  Raoul Kerr officially joined in 2019 and does rap vocals.  The touring band since 2019 includes Vishesh Singh on drums, Roshan Roy on bass and Sarthak Pahwa plays the dhol (an Indian drum that sounds amazing). (more…)

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The Afghan Whigs (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, May 1, 2026)

Posted in Mercury Rev, Philadelphia, PA, The Afghan Whigs, Union Transfer on May 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 1, 2026] The Afghan Whigs

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

Upon entering the venue, a sign said that the Whigs and Mercury Rev would like us to enjoy the show with out eyes, not with our phones.  Now, I like to take some pictures and I like to grab clips of songs here and there, but I try to be very considerate in my camera usage.  I never hold mine above my head.  So I was on board with this request–it didn’t forbid some photos but it didn’t want a lot.  And for the most part the audience around me was good–but it seemed like Greg Dulli was getting annoyed by some of the people up front who were filming a lot of the show.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the show.  I didn’t think they’d do anything fancy, and they didn’t.  I also had the idea that Greg Dulli had a devoted fanbase of women of a certain age.  He does and they were there in force and they were loud!  And it was a great show.  Sure the ladies screamed a lot but it was in good fun and Dulli seemed to enjoy it.  At one point he winked at someone in the front row and tossed her a pick.

I had listened to some of the newer albums, and, basically, they all have the same tone and vibe, which I like and that meant that any song they played would sound good.  And they did.  I didn’t know most of the songs in the set very well, but the band was great, Dulli sounded great and I have a really good time.  They only played one song from their most recent album (which they toured not too long ago, so that makes sense.  They played the most songs from their previous two albums, but touched on their entire catalog. (more…)

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Mercury Rev (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, May 1, 2026) [THE AFGHAN WHIGS]

Posted in Mercury Rev, Philadelphia, PA, The Afghan Whigs, Union Transfer on May 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 1, 2026] Mercury Rev

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

And I was even more excited that the opener was Mercury Rev.  I really liked their weird first albums but I really loved Deserter’s Songs (from 1998).  Their newer stuff (alright, everything since Deserter’s Songs, I’ve found kind of boring (I admit I haven’t listened to all of it but what I have has been pretty bland).  So I haven’t wanted to see them headline a show.  But seeing them as an opener sounded grand, because surely they’d play at least a few of the songs I loved.

So it’s pretty odd that I literally just realized that I saw them 26 years ago.  I guess the show wasn’t that memorable (although 26 years is  a long time).  I really wish I had a better memory of it because it’s a setlist I would kill for (even if they didn’t play anything from their then two middle albums).

But here they were (I was much closer for this show, to be sure), 26 years later with Jonathan Donohue singing and Grasshopper on guitar as the only continuous members.

What struck me immediately is that in front of the drums which were on the side of the stage, there was a small step and Jonathan climbed up it, creating quite the striking figure as he conducted the drummer.  Donohue was wearing a big hat (that reminded me of the Waterboys for some reason) and a tightly buttoned peacoat with white sleeves (unbuttoned, sticking out of the sleeves of the coat).  It was quite the look and immediately told us that he was an artist.

Now, I haven’t paid much attention to Donohue in the last 25 years, so I was really surprised when he sang… differently. (more…)

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Stick Men (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, April 29, 2026)

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Pat Mastelotto, Stick Men, Tim Motzer, Tony Levin on April 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 2, 2024] Stick Men 

About a year and a half ago I saw Stick Men for the first time and it was fantastic.

I was able to get up close to the stage to see Tony Levin (the main reason I wanted to go) play the Chapman Stick up close.  I have seen him play with King Crimson but have never been THIS close.  I didn’t know much about Markus Reuter, who also plays a kind of Stick–his own U8 Touch guitar.  But wow, he was amazing.  And he made playing these crazy complicated song so easy.  And I can’t forget Pat Mastoletto, who I’ve seen several times playing drums with King Crimson.  He’s amazing to watch, but I laughed to myself at what an amazing show this was if he was the least interesting thing on stage.

I enjoyed the show so much last time and I was really looking forward to this show as well.  The lineup was the same as last time.  And I was able to get nice and close.

I don’t know many of their actual songs.  And it doesn’t matter.  They mostly play instrumentals that are complicated and fantastic to watch.  Much like saying you could listen to a favorite singer sing the phone book–whatever the instrumental equivalent is, I was happy to watch it.

In fact, they opened this show with a relatively brief impov–almost a warm up–and it was fun to see them noodling on their instruments.  But it tunrs out that they played ten of the same songs as last time (in a different order) and that actually worked out really well, because  recognized them from last time, so it was even more fun knowing what was coming next.

They started with Cusp.  Reuter’s guitar is so fascinating because he holds it upright like a cello and both hands are just moving all over the fretboard.  Like a Chapman Stick but shaped like a guitar.  For this song, he was playing most of the bass line while Tony played lead on the Stick.

They followed it with the title track from their new EP Brutal–it was great–very heavy and rocking and featuring Tony going “uh!” (more…)

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Tim Motzer (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, April 29, 2026) [STICK MEN]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Pat Mastelotto, Stick Men, Tim Motzer, Tony Levin on April 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 29, 2026] Tim Motzer 

About a year and a half ago I saw the exact same lineup in the exact same place.  Tim Motzer opened for Stick Men.  Last year I hadn’t heard of Tim, but this year I had a much better idea of what to expect.  Last year I wrote

Tim Motzer is a Philly-based guitarist.  For his live show, he plays acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.  He loops his melodies and creates percussion by tapping on the hollow bodied acoustic (and gets a lot of different sounds from it).

Last time he played four songs.  This time it was five.  But the show started the same way (actually this time, someone in the front row said, “Take us on a journey, Tim.”

The first song was on the acoustic guitar.  It was fun to watch him build and then deconstruct the melodies and work within the drum beat that he created.

This year he said he had some new pedals.  One of the seemed to make his acoustic guitar sound like a glitchy electronic concoction. It was pretty neat.  Last time eh didn’t say the names of any songs.  But his year he told us he was working on an album and he was going to play songs that he was working on.  The first was Chaos Resolution.   He didn’t name the next one. (more…)

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Fishbone (Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, April 23, 2026)

Posted in Crossroads, Fishbone, Garwood, NJ on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 23, 2026] Fishbone

A little over two years ago I saw Fishbone open for Parliament.  I had been a big fan of their earlier stuff but hadn’t paid much attention since the mid 90s.  They have gone through an astonishing amount of line up changes.

Back in 2023, the lineup was pretty close to the original with

  • Angelo Moore – vocals, saxophones, theremin, percussion (1979–present)
  • John Norwood Fisher – bass, vocals (1979–present)
  • “Dirty” Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet, vocals (1979–2003, 2010–present)
  • Christopher Dowd – keyboards, trombone, vocals (1979–1994, 2018–present)

The other two guys on stage were

  • John Steward – drums (1999–2016, 2021–present)
  • Mark Phillips – guitar (2019–present)

But evidently last year nearly the entire lineup left for one reason or another and so the only two original guys are Angelo and Christopher:

  • Angelo Moore – vocals, saxophones, theremin, percussion (1979-present)
  • Christopher Dowd – keyboards, trombone, vocals (1979–1994, 2018–present)
  • Tracey “Spacey T” Singleton – guitar (1997–2003, 2024–present)
  • Hassan Hurd – drums (2024–present)
  • JS Williams – trumpet, vocals (2024–present)
  • James Jones – bass (2025–present)

I hadn’t realized this upheaval before this show, but I am glad that I got to see the previous lineup at least once.  Now in fairness, Angelo Moore pretty much IS Fishbone, so he’s the guy that you really want to focus on.  But having said that, the rest of the band was great.  First, it was funny that Hassan’s drumset faced the wall (as if he were in a timeout).  I’m pretty sure this was because of the size of the stage.  But he was a beast on double bass drums (and I could see that he was barefoot).  I loved James Jones’ five strig bass sound.  Fishbone has always had great bass and his was perfect.

Spacey T was on the far side of the stage so I couldn’t really see him all that well, but he played killer riffs and solos. JS Williams was a fine replacement for Walter Kibby–his trumpet was great and he was a perfect hype man. (more…)

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Sir Chloe: Forgiving Tour continued (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2026)

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, Sir Chloe, Suzy Clue on April 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 22, 2026] Sir Chloe [rescheduled from December 7, 2025]

This show was initially scheduled for December, but Dana had appendicitis and had to postpone the east coast shows.  This worked out for me because I couldn’t get to the December show.

I was pretty pleased when I arrived that the people in front of me were (possibly) older than me.  They had gray hair but she was wearing a Sir Chloe shirt.  Sir Chloe is pretty much a TikTok sensation so her crowds tend to be young (my daughter introduced me to her–in fact I think I liked her shows more than she did so I went to this one without her).

I enjoyed being behind the older folks because she was very short.  But she left (bathroom?) at the end of Suzy Clue and a young woman pushed her way into he spot, followed by a much taller woman.  So, my view was blocked, and to make it worse, the first woman was an arm raiser–the worst affliction after loud talkers.  Luckily I was able to schooch over away from them–but I missed seeing how the older woman enjoyed the show.

Sir Chloe’s band came out on stage and by the end of the set I was blown away by them.  Alina Sloan was on bass.  She was the furthest from me, but–especially toward the end–her bass was great–exciting and rumbly.  I was in front of guitarist Soph Shreds and does she ever.  It was really fun watching her rock out and play some great loud chords.  She also had a few tricks up her sleeve which I enjoyed quite a bit.  But mostly I was blown away by drummer Maya Sepansky.  Holy shit, she was fantastic–she played all kinds of fills, played different rhythmic patterns and generally blew me away.

But as they started Squaring Up, Dana was singing from behind the curtain.  She came out on stage midsong wearing a Mannequin Pussy T-shirt and cargo pants.  A very different look from her red suit from the previous tour.  Like last time, she was deadpan and understated.  Unlike last time, she seemed to walked around a lot more, getting close to us on the edges of the stage.  Her on stage persona is so fascinating because unlike say Suzy Clue, she is not doing anything on stage.  No dancing, no writhing, just singing.  And I love that she has the confidence in herself and her music to just sing her songs.  And yet, despite not doing a lot, she is totally engaging–charismatic and weirdly engaging.

This tour was for her relatively new album Swallow the Knife. She played 8 of 11 songs from it (skipping The Hole (the opening song!), Complicated and Too Much).  And the fans were just as into the new stuff–it’s super catchy, like the ahha ahha of Forgiving.

She didn’t speak very much between songs–she’s very hard to figure out.  Although she did ask “who likes to Kiss” as an intro to Kiss (the woman next to me shouted “I volunteer!”)  The catchy “right-ee-ight-ee-ight” is fun as is the end, “I don’t want love, I want revenge.”

She only played 4 songs from her previous album.  But she chose good ones and played three in a row.  I love the noisy squealing of Salivate and that she followed it with the quieter Obsession.  I was really happy that she played Hooves (I don’t wanna hold hands)–one of my favorite songs that seemed well used near the end of the set to get everyone really pumped.

One of my favorite songs is Sedona, which has two catchy parts, the nicotine/amphetamine part and the Sedona/Arizona part gives you two sing alongs in one song.

She played 7 of 9 songs from her first album (Skipping Easy on You and Wrath), which still gets the biggest applause, I think.  People went nuts for July. She ended the set with two songs from the album.  I enjoyed the loud/quiet mix of Untie Me and Animal.  And then she told us she had time for one more song and everyone got excited when the dude who wanted Michelle so badly shouted Michelle!  But she messed with everyone by playing the very mellow Candy

The encore break was short and she came back out for Michelle which made everyone go crazy.  It’s not my favorite of her songs to be sure, although it’s what all the kids like.  I was happy that she ended the show with the ass kickng Too Close which features two great sing along moments, “I think it’s time for you to go ” and the stellar: “Don’t tell me to listen when you’ve got nothing to say.”

Sir Chloe songs feel kind of understated on record, like Passenger, but live, the band really rocks out.  The guitars are loud, the drums rumble and the bass throbs.  And the songs are fairly short so a 21 song set can run about 75 minutes and it feels like a much longer show.  I’m so glad I went and it was even fun to get home early.

Brooklyn Bowl 2026 Asbury Lanes, June 2024 The Foundry, April 2024
Squaring Up ¶ Should I Õ Should I Õ
July ¶ Salivate Õ Salivate Õ
Take It ⊗ Center Õ Center Õ
Passenger ⊗ Know Better Õ Know Better Õ
Kiss ⊗ Mercy ∇ Mercy ∇
Salivate Õ July ¶ July ¶
Obsession Õ Untie You ¶ Untie You ¶
I Am the Dog Õ Animal ¶ Animal ¶
Sedona ¶ Company ∇ Company ∇
Eyes ⊗ Hooves Õ Hooves Õ
Forgiving ⊗ Seventeen π Seventeen π
Forget It ⊗ Obsession Õ Obsession Õ
Company ∇ Over Again π Over Again π
Hooves Õ I Am the Dog Õ I Am the Dog Õ
Holy ⊗ Sedona ¶ Sedona ¶
Mercy ∇ Michelle ¶ Michelle ¶
Untie You ¶ Feel Again Õ Feel Again Õ
Animal ¶ encore encore
Candy ⊗ Easy on You ¶ Easy on You ¶
encore Forgiving ⊗ Forgiving  ⊗
Michelle ¶ Too Close ¶ Too Close ¶
Too Close ¶

⊗ Swallow the Knife (2025)
π Single (2024)
Õ I am the Dog (2023)
∇ Single (2022)
¶ Party Favors (2020)

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Catbite (Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, April 23, 2026) [FISHBONE]

Posted in Catbite, Crossroads, Fishbone, Garwood, NJ on April 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 23, 2026] Catbite

I have known about Catbite for a while–WXPN plays them a lot.  They’re part of, I guess, a fourth wave of ska bands.  Although they might be the only one at the moment.

I was a big fan of the third wave of ska, so this is a welcome comeback.  While Catbite is a bit more No Doubt than Mighty Mighty Bosstones, they do embrace everything about ska (except the clothes).

I never wanted to see them as a headliner, but I had always hoped they’d open for someone.  And what better band to open for than Fishbone?

Catbite took the stage and jumped right into some bouncy ska with Not Ur Baby.  It was fun being up front with a band dancing around on stage–there wasn’t much dancing on the floor, though which kind of stunk.  I was intrigued that their drummer Chris Pires was facing the wall.  This was because Fishbone is huge and that was the best way to fit everyone.  How strange it must be to not be facing the rest of the band.

I didn’t realize they had 3 albums out, but they played a song from their debut–which was a little more ska.  I also realized that they didn’t have horns.  I don’t know if they normally do. I didn’t really miss them, but ska is definitely horn-friendly. (more…)

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Suzy Clue (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2026) [SIR CHLOE]

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, Sir Chloe, Suzy Clue on April 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 22, 2026] Sir Chloe [rescheduled from December 7, 2025]

This show was initially scheduled for December, but Dana had appendicitis and had to postpone the east coast shows.  This worked out for me because I couldn’t get to the December show.

Suzy Clue was supposed to open the previous show and she opened this one as well.  When I looked her up last time I discovered that Suzy Clue

is the internet’s newest “hot emo girl.” Her music is angsty but not overly precious, breathing fresh life into traditional shoegaze sound palettes. As a self-taught musician, Suzy is reminding the music industry what it’s like to start from scratch. She’s gone from not knowing what a bassline is to writing and producing a song that thrashes and shatters your heart over and over again.

I was intrigued to see her.  When the band came out I was fascinated by the set up.  Bass and guitar were really far apart with the drums tucked in behind the guitar. I thought that it was odd that Suzy on bass would be way over to the side of the stage.  And t hen as the first song started, I realized my foolish mistake.  Because they were leaving room for Suzy herself, who came out looking far sexier than I expected with “hot emo girl” taking on a very different meaning.  I was genuinely surprised at how oddly sexual her performance was (especially since Sir Chloe is totally not that).

I had listened to a few of her songs before the show (she has 4 songs released at this time) and they were cool–heavy guitars and soft vocals.  But live, I found the soft vocals to be “sexy” rather than “dreamy.”

Love Me the Same opened with a quiet guitar part and Suzy danced around the stage before singing her sultry vocals.  And then the song exploded with guitars and bass and Suzy danced around some more.  It was weird–like she didn’t know what to do, so she danced like she was trying to seduce us all.

I really liked the drum part of Holy Touch and there were some cool effects on the guitar.  In fact I liked a lot of the sounds the band generated.  But it honestly felt like she was trying way too hard to be sexy.  At one point she dropped to the floor and did something I couldn’t see and then said “oops, my pants slid down, I hate when that happens.”  She also did a sexy thing where it looked like she might make out with the bass player (but didn’t).  It was just too much.

There was also a funny moment when she said this was all so surreal because she used to work here (Brooklyn Bowl), well, not this one, the one in New York.  Hmmm.

So overall, I liked the music and I still like her recorded songs, but the live show just felt off to me.

Love Me the Same (2026)
Holy Touch (2024)
*Froze*
*No Defense*
*Feed* (2026)
*Attached*
*Rest My Mind*
Remember Me (2023)
Uneasy (2025)

All songs were released only as singles.  Songs with * are unreleased.

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