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Archive for the ‘Swirlies’ Category

Snail Mail / Swirlies / Sharp Pins (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, April 16, 2016) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Lifeguard, Philadelphia, PA, Sharp Pins, Snail Mail, Swirlies, The Fillmore Philadelphia on April 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 16, 2016] Snail Mail / Swirlies / Sharp Pins

I have been wanting to catch Snail Mail since 2018, when I missed her opening for Alvvays at Union Transfer.  You don’t always get to see a singer progress so clearly up the ranks of popularity.

In 2018 she was opening for someone at Union Transfer and now 8 years later she was headlining The Fillmore.

I haven’t actually listened to her in a few years so I don’t know if I even like her music anymore, but I’ve enjoyed watching her succeed.

Swirlies are a band that I knew back in the late 90s.  I have their first album (they are a Boston band and I was living in Boston at the time).  I don’t really know why I got the record in the first place, although it’s kind of in my wheelhouse–noisy, not exactly shoegaze, very weird.  Not a chance of making it big.  And yet, they persisted.  Well, Damon Tutunjian persisted.  He’s the only person to have remained in the band from 1990 on.  And the sound is much different on their more recent recordings.  Seana Carmody was in the band in the early days and she went on to form Syrup USA who I had also forgotten about but have a fond memory of.   Although it turns out they play mostly stuff from their earlier days, so I probably would have enjoyed this.

I didn’t realize I knew anything about Sharp Pins, but it turns out I have seen the mastermind of this band, Kai Slater, in his other band, Lifeguard (who I loved) and I had singled out Slater as a great guitar player.  Imagine my surprise to find out he is the driving force (and sole member, I think) of Sharp Pins.  And, in fact, I love one of their songs that I hear on the radio a lot, I Don’t Have the Heart.  It has a retro pop feel and is a totally tasty pop song.  Indeed, Kai writes a lot of wonderful retro pop songs.  Although I did find that a full album was too much for me, I’ll bet seeing him live would be great.

So I think overall this would have been a really enjoyable show, but I had been to two shows in a row the nights before and had another event for the following night.  Maybe some day I’ll get to see them all.

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Slide Away Philadelphia: Nothing / Swirlies / Loveliescrushing / Tagabow / Mint Field / Knifeplay / Astrobrite / Glixen (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 9, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND–COVID]

Posted in Astrobrite, Glixen, Knifeplay, Loveliescrushing, Mint Field, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Slide Away, Swirlies, Tagabow, Union Transfer on March 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 9, 2024] Slide Away

When this day-long event was announced, I grabbed a ticket because I knew a couple of the bands.  Amazingly, perhaps, I didn’t know Nothing, the headliner.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to spend an entire day at Union Transfer, but the lineup was pretty great.  The recently sent the proposed schedule

3:00pm Doors Open
4:00pm Glixen
5:00pm Astrobrite
6:00pm Knifeplay
7:00pm Mint Field
8:00pm TAGABOW
9:00pm Lovesliescrushing
10:15pm Swirlies
11:30 Nothing
w/ DJ set by Full Body 2, Kip Berman and Vyva Melinkolya between bands

And it sounds like most of the sets were going to be about 30 minutes, at least until Loveliescrushing.

But then my son came home from college for Spring Break and I REALLY didn’t want to spend most of the day away.   I mostlu wanted to see Knifeplay and Mint Field, but as I listened to more of the bands, I realized I quite liked them all.

Glixen is from Phoenix.  Now, pretty much all of these bands are shoegaze, so the descriptions are going to be quite similar, but here we go

Glixen is a shoegaze band from Phoenix, Arizona whose sound consists of tender melodies encased inside chrome walls of grungy textures and heavy guitars. Founder and lead vocalist, Aislinn Ritchie, began the project in 2020 enlisting guitarist Esteban Santana, drummer Keire Johnson, and bassist Sonia Garcia.

I really liked the Glixen vibe–lots of soft guitars and thick cottony sounds.  Aislinn Ritchie has a beautiful soaring voice that suits the music really well. (more…)

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