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Archive for the ‘Starcrawler’ Category

Garbage (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2025)

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Garbage, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler on September 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 16, 2025] Garbage

Back in the 90s Garbage was my favorite band.  I loved everything about them.  I saw them twice when I lived in Boston (and wish I remembered those early shows better).  I’d seen them twice in the 21st century (but was surprised to see that the last time was eight years ago!).

Like a lot of people I don’t like the newer stuff quite as much as the older stuff.  I’m not sure what’s different–maybe it’s just me.  I like individual songs but don’t love listening to the albums front to back as much.

But the individual songs are still great.  And they sounded fantastic as they opened the show with two killer new tracks.  The band sounded huge and Shirley Manson’s voice was great.  She was wearing a leather jacket which she took off after the first two songs to reveal a jump suite with a handwritten Free Gaza on the back.

They handled the loud/quiet transitions on a song like Hold perfectly–even the lights were perfect.

The band members (aside from Shirley) don’t do a lot on stage (I just found out that guitarist Duke Erikson is 74 years old–no wonder this is their last big tour).

After the first two songs, they moved on to Empty–a super catchy song from a few albums back.  Guitarist Steve Marker (only 66) played the opening chords and like last time it was cool being able to hear the different guitar sound the guys had. (more…)

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Starcrawler (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2025) [GARBAGE]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Garbage, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler on September 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 16, 2025] Starcrawler

I wanted to see Starcrawler for a few years before I finally got to.  And the buildup was more than the band could live up to.

I saw them last year open for Boris (a strange fit) when they played for an hour and I found them more or less unpleasant.  They really make me like the and hate them at the same time.

Last time I quoted someone else as saying “they strike me as rich kids cosplaying as punk rockers,” which seems fairly apt.  Also that

singer Arrow DeWilde tried to irk the crowd by referring to San Francisco repeatedly as “Frisco” after commenting, “Last night in Fresno was better than this shithole.” I have a friend who had seen them in Fresno the night before who said that Arrow said something similar onstage then.

This was one of the things that I found so irritating about them in the past, they are strangely confrontational.  It may be part of the schtick, but it’s weird–especially for an opening band.

Arrow was less confrontational than in the past, although she did yell at the audience for not bouncing their heads along to their song (weirdly, that was to the slowest song they played–we certainly bounced for the faster songs). (more…)

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Starcrawler (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2024) [BORIS]

Posted in Boris, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler, Union Transfer on October 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Starcrawler

Starcrawler goes down as probably the biggest let down from a build up for me at a concert.

I had wanted to see Starcrawler for about 5 years because I had heard such great things about their live show.  Since then, their show had evolved (as it probably should) and instead of the crazy rockers I thought I was getting, instead, I got a cocksure LA band who were snotty to the crowd and way overconfident in an unpleasant way.

So, while I might normally have been really excited to see them, I was a little bummed that they were opening for Boris without hearing anything new from them.

There’s a few songs by them that I really do like.  And they didn’t play either “Hollywood Ending” or “No More Pennies.” But the did play the two songs that I liked least when I saw them last time, covers of two genuinely terrible songs, If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough and Pet Sematary (easily the worst Ramones song ever).

The one thing that made me happy was when Wata from Boris came out and played guitar on Kick Me. (more…)

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Starcrawler (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 8, 2022)

Posted in Full show video, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler, Underground Arts, Vixen77 on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2022] Starcrawler

I found out about Starcrawler in 2018, a few months after they played their first Philly show at Johnny Brenda’s.  They had also played the Non-Commvention a few months later, which where I decided I really wanted to see them live.

Their stage show was supposed to be insane with lead singer Arrow de Wilde being a force to be reckoned with (who seemed to always end up bloody–fake or otherwise).  I was super excited to see them open for The Distillers in 2019, but Brody Dalle hurt her back during warm up and the show was cancelled a few minutes before the show started.  Later Distillers shows had other opening acts.

They played a show in 2019 at Boot & Saddle, but I had other plans for that night.  Then they were supposed to open for Red Fang in 2021, but that show was cancelled.  So, basically, I’ve been wanting to see them for a pretty long time.

I actually don’t know a lot of their songs. I absolutely love two of them, but as for the rest, I was there more for the spectacle than the actual songs.  I was concerned that the 2022 Starcrawler would be different from the 2018 version.  And, well, it was.  This version of the band is all dressed up in tuxedos. Not a drop of blood to be seen. (more…)

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Vixen77 (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 8, 2022) [STARCRAWLER]

Posted in Full show video, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler, Underground Arts, Vixen77 on November 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2022] Vixen77

Vixen was (I see is) a glam metal band from the late 80s.  They broke up in 1992 and then reunited with crazy drama) and are still active.

Vixen77 are a Philadelphia punk band.  They chose the name Vixen77 as a reference to the energy and the musical influence of late 70’s punk.  The band consists of guitarists Caitlin and Liz (I’m not sure who was who, but one of them was wearing a Flyers sweater and lost her glasses twice during the set!  I think it was LIz), bassist Jaz, drummer Sarah, and singer Samantha,

The band came out on stage and proceeded to rock their asses off.  It was a solid set of simple, fast, angry rockers.

Samantha has a great stage presence (the day-glo hair was a nice touch) and even though she screamed and snarled, she had a really powerful voice and could hit some pretty high notes.  Both guitarists sang backing vocals, although Liz sang most of them–and she had a powerful voice too.

I couldn’t really see Sarah on drums, but when I did she was smiling the whole time.  Jaz on bass hung in the back (but that may have been due to the size of the stage) and while she didn’t do anything fancy, for a couple of songs she had a nice rumbling solo section that kept the song rollicking on. (more…)

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Red Fang / Starcrawler / Warish (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 3, 2021) [CANCELLED]

Posted in ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Quarantine, Red Fang, Starcrawler, The Distillers, Underground Arts, Warish on November 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: November 4, 2021] Red Fang / Starcrawler/ Warish

indexI have wanted to see Starcrawler for several years now.  I missed them when they came around the fist time.  Then they were supposed to open for The Distillers.  The only reason I bought a ticket to the show was for Starcrawler.  Then the show was postponed (in pre-COVID days) and when it was rescheduled, Starcrawler was no longer on the bill.  [Distillers were great by the way].

Then Starcrawler was announced as the opening band for Red Fang.  And they were going to be at Underground Arts, a perfect venue for them.  I’d never heard of Red Fang (I’ve looked them up and they seem fun).  I bought the tickets in June.

Then on September 8, Red Fang cancelled their whole Fall tour.

Band Statement: 

Unfortunately, our cautious optimism has turned into stark realism and we have decided to cancel our appearance at the Louder Than Life festival and our upcoming Fall US tour in the interest of public safety.  We feel it’s not realistic to play shows in a safe/responsible manner and the best thing to do is hang back and wait until the situation improves. Until then, take care of each other.  Love, Red Fang.

So that sucked.  But what sucked even more was that Starcrawler didn’t reschedule anything on the East Coast. (more…)

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour [No Retreat, No Surrender & Circus of Horrors] (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, October 26, 2019)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Bruce Lee, Circus of Horrors, Conor McGiffin, Emily Marsh, Jean Claude Van Damme, Joel Hodgson, MST3K, MST3K Live, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Nate Begle, New Brunswick, NJ, No Retreat, No Surrender, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Set in New Jersey!, Starcrawler, State Theatre, The Karate Kid, Wellmont Theater, Yvonne Freese on October 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2019] MST3K Live

I didn’t realize it was exactly one year ago that I went to the previous MST3K Live experience.  How funny.

I have enjoyed both of the two previous MST3K Live shows quite a bit.  So when it was announced that they were going to do it again and this time it was going to be in New Brunswick instead of Glenside, PA, I got tickets right away (and wound up in the third row).  I only wish I had picked the other side of the stage, because Joel and the bots did their movie watching from over there.

I have been very lucky to have gotten two movies each time I’ve seen the performance.  It seem like a lot of locations get only one movie.  I’m not sure why I’ve been so fortunate.  (And State Theatre offered a discount if you bought seats for both movies!).

Last time the riffing was done by Joel Hodgson and Jonah Ray as well as many of the actors from the show.

This time things were very different.

Jonah Ray was not there.  Nor was Rebecca Hanson as Synthia Forrester.  And of course, no Felicia Day nor Patton Oswalt (not even on video).

But the big announcement was that this was going to be Joel Hodgson’s last MST3K Live tour.  I don’t know if that means there will be more, or if this is the end of them entirely. (more…)

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The Distillers (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 7, 2019)

Posted in Brody Dalle, Death Valley Girls, Edith Piaf, Full show video, Philadelphia, PA, Queens of the Stone Age, Spinnerette, Starcrawler, The Distillers, Union Transfer on October 7, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 7, 2019] The Distillers [rescheduled from June 1 & August 14]

The Distillers and Starcrawler were supposed to play a show at Union Transfer on June 1.

I bought tickets because I wanted to see Starcrawler–a band whose live show is becoming legendary.  I thought I didn’t even know The Distillers.  This turned out not to be true.  About a year earlier I had watched an NPR Field Recording with Brody Dalle.

Dalle (who is Australisn, which is hard to imagine given her speaking/singing voice which has no accent) has been in a bunch of bands.

First was The Distillers who broke up in 2006.
Then she formed Spinnerette who put out a couple of records until roughly 2011.
Then she did a solo album in 2014.
She has done all kinds of guest appearances, especially with Queens of the Stone Age.

Then she reconvened The Distillers in 2018.

I listened to a couple of their songs and was pretty excited to go to a old good punk show with a legendary singer. (more…)

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Death Valley Girls / The Distillers (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 14, 2019) [POSTPONED AGAIN]

Posted in Death Valley Girls, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Starcrawler, The Distillers, Union Transfer on August 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[NOT ATTENDED: August 14, 2019] Death Valley Girls/The Distillers [rescheduled from June 1, moved to October 7]

On June 1, I drove to Union Transfer to see Starcrawler and The Distillers only to learn:

“Brody has a herniated disc and can not stand. She’s at the hospital getting treatment now.”

So I went home with the knowledge that the show was going to be rescheduled for August 14.

Then on August 3rd, I received this email

Hello Distillers fans,

Unfortunately another member of The Distillers was recently injured and they have to postpone their Philly date again. They are dedicated to make it back to Philly and play for you!!! So all tickets will be honored. Including tickets originally purchased for the original June 1st date.

(more…)

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Starcrawler / The Distillers [Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 1, 2019] [POSTPONED]

Posted in Brody Dalle, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Starcrawler, The Distillers, Union Transfer on June 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[NOT ATTENDED: June 1, 2019] Starcrawler/The Distillers [moved to August 14]

I got a ticket for this show more for Starcrawler than The Distillers.

I have heard that a live Starcrawler show is not to be missed and I was ready to watch them!

I wasn’t even really sure if I knew who The Distiller were, in fact.  Then I remembered I had seen an NPR Field Recording with Brody Dalle.  I didn’t love her solo song, but it got me to listening to a few songs from The Distillers, which I liked a lot more.

So I was pretty excited to go and I made sure that I got there early since I assumed there’d be a lot of Starcrawler fans there, too.

But when I drove past Union Transfer, there was a huge line out front.  Was I earlier than the doors opening time?  I found a parking spot and as I walked to the venue I saw people walking away.

When I got up to the doors, I saw the merch all set up, but the guy at the door politely said that Brody had herniated a disc in her back and the show was postponed.  And not for later in the night–she was in the hospital. (more…)

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