[ATTENDED: August 4, 2023] Speedy Ortiz
I feel like I have seen Speedy Oriz a few times. But I had only seen them once before. It was a very memorable show, though, with me getting to stand right in front of Sadie Dupuis as she played and sang.
Here it is five years later (after they opened for Foo Fighters in Fenway a few days after I saw them), with a new album out soon. I bought a ticket for their Johnny Brenda’s show in a few weeks, but I decided to give the Free at Noon show a go. (This time it only cost me 3 hours of sick time).
I was pretty no nonsense about this one. Sucked it up and paid for parking (it had just started raining) and I felt like I was cutting it a little too close to be driving around. I was bummed for them that it was so sparsely attended, but maybe they’re just not that big of a band.
But it meant I could get up nice and close and watch them play.
They were so spread out on the big stage. I felt like bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides (now a permanent member of the band) was miles away. I was in between Saide and Andy Moholt. Last time I couldn’t really see Moholt but he was fun to watch this time, playing weird chords and lots of solo frills 9as well as a keyboard). Initially his lead guitar was way too loud, but they mixed it down pretty quickly.
I’m guessing my location was to blame for how loud Joey Doubek’s drums sounded. Or more specifically, his one cymbal. When he crashed it a lot, it really drowned out everyone else. I’m sure you won’t hear that when it gets uploaded to the streaming playback, but it was quite loud to me (I probably should have moved).
They played 8 songs in half an hour. Four from the new album (released Sept 1) and four oldies.
I was surprised and delighted that they started with “The Graduates” a favorite of mine.
The new songs sound great–a bit heavier and a bit more unusual with the guitar chord choices and whatnot. And Doubek’s drumming was much louder and more intense on the new songs. Sadie said that Scabs had something to do with striking postal workers. I’ll have to listen to the playback to get the details (she was drowned out by the applause).
The folks around me were definitely fans as they sang along to the older songs like “Silver Spring.”
Audrey said that the last time they played World Cafe, they played all of Twerp Verse. They didn’t want to do any duplicates for this show, but they did want to play a song from each album, so they played “Lucky 88” my favorite off of Twerp.
They ended with the new song “You SO2” (which continues the album’s trend of Sadie’s lyrics being more narrative than rhyme based) and finished with “Plough” a great song from their debut.
Seeing this made me wonder if I still needed to go to Johnny Brenda’s, but it’s a few weeks away and I expect they’ll probably play at least twice as many songs, right?
It’s great to have them back. I’m looking forward to more new music from them.
| Free at Noon 2023 | PhilaMOCA 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| The Graduates € | Buck Me Off ⇓ | |
| Scabs ¥ | Lean In When I Suffer ⇓ | |
| Ghostwriter ¥ | Lucky 88 ⇓ | |
| Silver Spring ⊗ | Raising The Skate € | |
| Plus One ¥ | The Graduates € | |
| Lucky 88 ⇓ | Silver Spring ⊗ | |
| You SO2 ¥ | Plough ♠ | |
| Plough ♠ | Alone With Girls ⇓ | |
| I’m Blessed ⇓ | ||
| Taylor Swift [single] | ||
| You Hate The Title ⇓ | ||
| Moving In ⇓ | ||
| Villain ⇓ | ||
| Swell Content € | ||
| Dvrk Wvrld € |
¥ Rabbit, Rabbit (2023)
⇓ Twerp Verse (2018)
€ from Foil Deer (2015)
♠ from Major Arcana (2013)
⊗ from Sports EP (2012)
[single] from (2012)
I Just Read About That... 