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Archive for the ‘Ringo Deathstarr’ Category

Ringo Deathstarr / The Veldt / SOLD (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Ringo Deathstarr, SOLD, The Veldt on May 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 19, 2024] Ringo Deathstarr

I saw Ringo Deathstarr back in 2019 and they were fantastic.  They play heavy shoegaze in all of the best ways.  I really wanted to see them again.

But this show happensto be on the same night as a show that I already had tickets for–MC Lars, who I have tried to see on many many occasions but have never been successful.  So I’m afraid Ringo Deathstarr loses out (and maybe I do too).

I hadn’t heard of The Veldt even though they’ve been around since 1986 (!)

Spotify describes them as a soul-powered rock band on the heavier end of the shoegaze spectrum, the Veldt are dream pop at their core yet just as known for driving riffs and stirring vocals. Led by Daniel and Danny Chavis, the Veldt were misunderstood from their late-’80s beginning.

I like their music but really don’t like the singer’s voice for this style of music.

SOLD is a Philly band that’s been around for a few years.  They descibe themselves as

Philly Post-Punk that’s fast and hard but then soft and lame too. Lot of bass, some spooky organs and a guitar all on top of drums. So yeah.

I listened to a few songs and they rock.  But when the cheesy synths come in, it’s quite a surprise (in a good way).

This would have been a fun show.

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Mary Jane Dunphe  (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, November 29, 2023) [DEAFHEAVEN]

Posted in Deafheaven, Mary Jane Dunphe, Philadelphia, PA, Ringo Deathstarr, Theatre of Living Arts, Touché Amoré on November 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 29, 2023] Mary Jane Dunphe

I didn’t know there was an opening act for this show until a few hours before the show.  I looked up Mary Jane Dunphe, listened to a song and didn’t much like it.

So, according to The Creative Independent

Mary Jane Dunphe is a poet and musician who tells stories—not through direct narrative but through embodied presence and performance, through cinematic and fragmented memory, the wild transmission of feeling. Her versatile songwriting has garnered critical acclaim in past projects such as the visceral punk of Vexx and Gen Pop, the minimal dream pop of CCFX and CC Dust, and the lonesome country-rock of The County Liners—and now Dunphe’s debut solo album, Stage of Love (out now on Pop Wig), is the start of a captivating new chapter.

Mary Jane came out on stage wearing a Sinead O’Connor T-shirt with FIGHT THE REAL ENEMY on the back.  A very promising start.  Then she told us it was her birthday.  When someone started singing happy birthday to her, she held up a finger and said “No.  I’m the singer,” and then laughed.

Then she hit a key on a device behind her, strapped on a guitar and sang a very mediocre song.  The music was okay and the lyrics were hard to decipher.  I see now that she is a poet, so I suspect that means the words are more important than the music.  When the song ended, she played chords on her guitar for a few more measures, eventually sliding up the neck to make a wall of noise.  When that stopped, she put down the guitar, tapped the device again and walked to the mic.

The music–even more spare without the guitar–filled the room.  Mary Jane swayed and spun and danced and hopped and occasionally sang.  It occurred  to me that the singing wasn’t really in tune or on time.

And her performing wasn’t particularly interesting either.  A lot of spinning, some stomping, occasionally touching herself.  There was even a somersault at one point.  It just felt a lot like what a little kid thinks performance is.  And since you couldn’t really hear the words, it wasn’t very impactful.

I honestly wondered if she was like the local promoter’s daughter who was getting her first shot at being on stage.  And then I discovered  that she has been in bands for years.

I am a very forgiving viewer, but I had a really hard time with this one.  I also assumed she’s be done after 20 minutes (12 was enough), but she was allowed to stay up there for 30.  Oof.

She received decent applause after each song, but I don’t know if people were entirely genuine about it.  Both Touché Amoré and Deafheaven sang her praises during their set, with Touché Amoré really hyping her.  But I didn’t get it.

I have also seen that Ringo Deathstarr opened for them on a few shows.  I would have 200% preferred to see them.

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Ringo Deathstarr (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2019)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, Ringo Deathstarr on November 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2019] Ringo Deathstarr

Ringo Deathstarr is the kind of bandname that makes people either smile or groan.  Obviously it makes me smile.  It does not really tell you what they’ll sound like though.  I first heard of them back in 2011 on NPR when they played the fantastic “Swirly.”  I was immediately hooked by the woozy guitars and the juxtaposition of heaviness.

I never forget the band name, but I never really thought too much more about them.  Until I saw that they were coming to Boot & Saddle.  I’m not sure if they have played Philly before (I assume so), but the crowd was really into it and excited from them.

Ringo Deathstarr is the project of Elliott Frazier (on guitar and vocals), Alex Gehring on bass and vocals and Daniel Coborn on drums.  For this show I was parked right in front of Frazier and got to watch him do all kinds of wonderful and weird things to create fantastic sounds from his guitar.

When the band walked up on stage, the lighting was decent and it was nice to get a good look at the band before the stage people turned the lights blue.  After a couple of songs, they begged for the lights to be changed and were told that there was no one there who could fix them.  What?  What kind of crappy way to treat a band!  I really like Boot & Saddle as a venue but lately their lights have been terrible.  So they were bathed in deep blue all night long with never a change.  (It’s better than magenta, but just barely). (more…)

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Lovelorn (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2019) [RINGO DEATHSTARR]

Posted in Blushing, Boot & Saddle, Creepoid, Lovelorn, Philadelphia, PA, Ringo Deathstarr, Rock duo, Underground Arts on November 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2019] Lovelorn

Just after the Blushing set ended, a woman squeezed past me and put some stuff on the stage.  Turns out she was Anna Troxell, bassist and vocalist for Lovelorn.  A few moments later a guy with an enormous table full of gear climbed up on stage.  That was Patrick Troxell, knob twiddler and drummer for Loverlorn.

And yes, this was the second band of the night where the band members were married.

Lovelorn formed out of the dissolution of Creepoid, a Philly punk band with a legendary history.  When Lovelorn first assembled, it was with three of the members of Creepoid (singer guitarist Sean Miller did not join them).  I was unfamiliar with Creepoid, but when I listened to them recently I rather liked them–shame they broke up.

they were a trio with guitarist Pete Joe Urban joining them.  They played slow dreamy noisy pop like latter Jesus and Mary Chain.  Somewhere between early 2018 and late 2019. Lovelorn became a duo and switched their emphasis to darkwave music.

There’s no guitar.  Patrick makes all of the sounds on his table of gear.  He also had a cymbal and possibly a snare drum–I couldn’t tell.  Anna played bass on most of the songs, putting it down for one or two tracks.  They both sang lead. (more…)

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Blushing (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2019) [RINGO DEATHSTARR]

Posted in Blushing, Boot & Saddle, Cocteau Twins, Philadelphia, PA, Ringo Deathstarr, The Cure, The Dead Milkmen on November 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2019] Blushing

I hadn’t heard of Blushing before this show, but as soon as I found out they were a shoegazey type of band, their name made perfect sense.  Then I read a little bit more about them and was even more fascinated.

Here’s a little bio from For the Rabbits

Blushing are a band formed of two husband and wife pairs, although it didn’t start out that way. Back in 2015, singer and guitarist Michelle Soto plucked up the courage to share some songs she had been working on with friend Christina Carmona. From that friendship, a creative partnership was born, Christina adding her classically trained vocals and bass-playing to the mix, shifting Michelle’s rough sketches into fully formed compositions. Recruiting their spouses, they set about recording the songs that would become their debut EP, Tether.

Since that EP, the band has released another EP, Weak, and a full lengthg album, Blushing.  They played 7 songs during our show.  All of them were from the album except “Hidden Places” which came from Weak.

The band has a great classic shoegaze sound.  Waves of guitars with Christina Carmona’s beautiful voice often sounding more like an instrument than a voice.  But there was also some heaviness involved–some crashing guitars, big riffs and loud drums.

It was also evident right from the start was how much fun this band was having.  They told us they were excited to be in Philly for the first time.  Michele Soto on guitar was wearing a Dead Milkmen shirt (Big Lizard in My Backyard) just for the occasion. (more…)

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