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Archive for the ‘Transviolet’ Category

[CANCELLED: April 9, 2025] Transviolet / Annabel Lee / Mixie

I had missed Transviolet when they opened for Mother Mother.  But I started following them on Instagram and I found them really interesting.  They announced a headlining tour and were going to play The Foundry, which was pretty ideal (although lead singer Sarah McTaggart is really energetic and I wonder how she would have coped with such a small stage).

The show was cancelled inexplicably at the last minute.  I posted a question as to why on their Instagram and Sarah wrote back: it rhymes with smive smation

A last minute change allowed Sarah to play a solo show at Ortlieb’s which is pretty awesome.  I didn’t know about it though.  But as Sarah wrote:

love you philly, sorry we couldn’t play our show as intended, but glad we got to share this special moment together ❤️‍🩹 special thanks to @ortliebsphilly for coming through and being so kind to let us set up a lil merch pop up for the diehards/fans who flew in to see us

Annabel Lee was one of the openers.  I didn’t know them, but their bandcamp bio says

Annabel Lee is a Los Angeles rock and roll artist known for her unhinged stage persona and “high octane” (Earmilk) vocalsGetting her start performing at hardcore shows around New England, Annabel brings that kind of unbridled energy to her shows, where everyone is on the cusp of losing their shit while also bringing senstitivity and tenderness with her heavy, imagistic lyricism. 

Mixie is an LA based artist who pushes the boundaries of pop.  Her music is pretty poppy but she throws in some interesting twists as well.  She seems like she’d be fun live as well.

Shame this show was cancelled.

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[ATTENDED: October 14, 2022] Mother Mother

Back in February (all of 8 months ago), I took my kids and one of their friends to see Mother Mother at TLA.  We all loved it.  The kids had a great time and I was really blown away by their show.  They were supposed to play at The Foundry, which of course would have been neat, but they put on a BIG show and the TLA was the superior venue.  TLA holds about 1,000 people (Foundry is 450).  So I was really surprised to hear that they were coming back to Philly in 8 months to play the Fillmore (capacity 2,500).

And, as I say, it was PACKED.  We were all very happy  to have seen them at TLA where we were super close.  But this show was also fun because the crowd was totally into it and the band seemed bigger and more intense.

Although the setlist was largely the same, the order of the songs was quite different.  In fact, they opened with a song that last time was way near the bottom of the set.  At TLA, Ryan said

they were going to play a song that they knew was weird when they recorded it.  But they had to put it out there.  And now, it sounds like the non-binary community has embraced “Verbatim” and made it their own.

They opened with “Verbatim” and the crowd went nuts.  After a rollicking “O My Heart” (the album that their most popular song is on and which has been revitalized by TikTok), they played a couple of songs that they didn’t play last time.  In all they played five different songs from the previous show (and didn’t play six songs that they played last time).

One of these new songs was “Creep” by Radiohead, which was a huge surprise.  When we saw them last time, Molly Guldemond sang “Pure Love” a nearly a capella song that highlights her voice nicely.  For this show, she did “Creep,” instead.  The crowd really responded to it.  The only problem for me was the guy right behind who wanted to prove that he knew all the words (like everyone else) by singing them very loudly in my ear.  It was especially crappy because Molly has a great voice and really hit all the notes perfectly (this guy didn’t). (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 14, 2022] Vundabar

My daughter has a Vundabar song, “Alien Blues” on her playlist and I really like it.  Turns out I’ve been aware of Vundabar since 2018 and would have enjoyed seeing them at any time.  They seem to tour a lot–at least I’ve seen their name around opening for people quite often.  I didn’t know that they were supposed to open this show.

The first opening band was Transviolet, who I didn’t know, although the lead singer Sarah McTaggart was hanging around the lobby wearing a fascinating outfit–fishnet stockings and something like leather underwear.  She was super friendly to all the fans.

Originally, Sir Sly was slated to be a second opening band.  Then one of the members had a baby and decided that he couldn’t be away from the baby (good for him) and Vundabar stepped up.

Had I known about Vundabar I would have encouraged us to arrive earlier.  We dawdled and knew that a Friday night would be very trafficky, but I didn’t really mind as I hadn’t heard of either band.  However, t turned out that Transviolet went on at earlier than 8.  And Vundabar started before 8 as well.  Or maybe they went on at 8 and between parking, buying merch and the like, we didn’t get into to see them until half way through the set.

Worse yet, the show was PACKED and we were stuck not only at the back but in the walkway, so we had to move constantly.  It wasn’t until we were really settled that I was able to enjoy whatever song they were playing.  Soon after they played “Alien Blues” and the crowd went berserk.  This is a big TikTok song apparently.  We even saw a fan face timing her friend who was dancing to the song as she streamed it.  Weird but fun.

Vundabar played one more wild song and I determined that I would very much like to see them again.

Then the crowd adjusted and we were able to get a little closer 9not a lot, but out of the walkway) for Mother Mother.

  1. Tonight I’m Wearing Silk
  2. Diver
  3. Ash in the Sun
  4. Worn / Wander
  5. Darla
  6. Nosferatu µ
  7. Petty Crime
  8. Alien Blues
  9. Oulala
∞ Gawk (2015)
Smell Smoke (2018)
µ Devil for the Fire (2022)
⇔ Either Light (2020)

 

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