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Archive for the ‘Brooklyn Bowl’ Category

Julien Baker / Lucy Dacus / Katie Malco (Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn NY, October 8, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY, Julien Baker, Katie Malco, Lucy Dacus, New York City, Webster Hall on October 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 8, 2024] Julien Baker / Lucy Dacus / Katie Malco

My daughter and I saw Julien Baker at Webster Hall on Sunday night, the night that Julien got sick and left early.  

She immediately announced a new show two nights later in Brooklyn.

We would have loved to have gone to this show but there were a few reasons we couldn’t.  My wife and I had tickets to see Kishi Bashi and we were pretty excited to go to that one.  Plus, Brooklyn is much harder for us to get to than NYC (which is much more challenging to get to than Philadelphia).

So, we missed out on this show which featured a “surprise” set from Lucy Dacus.  My daughter and I assumed that Lucy would be the surprise, and yeah we’re bummed we missed the show, but at least we got to see some of Julien on the first night.  (Plus, a video that I saw made it sound like the crowd was really noisy and rowdy–and consequently very distracting).

And, most likely we would probably have been too late to see Katie Malco, just like Sunday.

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Sweet Loretta (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, October 8, 2024) [KISHI BASHI]

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Kishi Bashi, Philadelphia, PA, Sweet Loretta, Tall Tall Trees, The Beatles on October 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 8, 2024] Sweet Loretta

Sweet Loretta is from England.  They’ve been around for a while but only recently released their first EP/album.  When I looked them up, the first song I heard featured Kishi Bashi.  How odd, I thought.  I liked the song–it reminds me of Kishi Bashi’s more dancey stuff.

We arrived a little later than I thought we would, so we were in the bathroom when the first song started.  Midway through the song we heard the beginning of the Star Wars theme song.  I’m not sure why, although a few songs later, guitarist/singer Fraser Blanchflower said it was singer/guitarist Quinn Humphreys’s birthday and the Star Wars bit was for him.  Very curious what happened there.

Fraser and Quinn were very funny frontmen.  I enjoyed their banter quite a lot.  Bassist James Stickland was quiet for the whole show and drummer James Clark was from time to time a maniac behind the kit, which was fun.  Quinn said that Kishi Bashi stipulated that they needed to have an album or EP out as a stipulation of touring with him.  Not sure if that’s true, but they played the entire EP (except the opening soundscape).

Musically, they were very retro in style and sound.  I felt like their songs could have been on a John Hughes movie soundtrack.   They have great harmonies with all three guys up front singing together at times in a wall of sound. (more…)

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Daði Freyr: I’m Doing a Tour (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, March 7, 2024)

Posted in Atomic Kitten, Backstreet Boys, Blusher, Brooklyn Bowl, Daði Freyr, Philadelphia, PA on March 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 7, 2024] Daði Freyr 

I saw Daði Freyr about a year and a half ago on his first tour of the United States.  So now I’ve seen ALL of his appearances in Philadelphia (two).  I enjoyed the first one so much I grabbed a ticket for my wife and daughter as well.  Turned out that my daughter had a school thing she couldn’t miss.  And had I looked up the details, I would have seen the the show was sold out and I probably could have sold my ticket.  I never would have guessed it had sold out, but look at that poster–sold out up and down the country.

To my knowledge, Daði Freyr was only known from his Eurovision songs.  I had no idea that he made any kind of inroads into the US.  When I saw him last time there were some die hard fans at the show.  But this was crazy. There was a woman in front of us who, when he sang “Sunshine” nearly passed out saying “I can’t believe he’s real.”

Fascinating.

I went last time as a lark.  I went this time because I enjoyed his show and thought my family might too.  It was quite eye opening.

Like last time, the band was a trio–Daði is on synths, guitar and bass, Ylva Øyen on drums and keys and Pétur Karl on guitars and synth.

Center stage was a giant inflatable head of Daði and there were two giant hands on either side of the stage.  There was an announcement before the show in which Daði thanked us for coming and told us to look into the eyes and the souls of the people around us and get ready to dance with them.

They came out on stage and the crowd went nuts.  Appropriately, they started with “Thank You,” a classic synth pop song.  His voice is surprisingly deep and yet very warm at the same time.

last time, he followed this up with the rather amusing “Shut Up” but this time he jumped right into an older Icelandic language song–and the crowd went even crazier. (more…)

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Blusher (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, March 7, 2024) [DAÐI FREYR]

Posted in Blusher, Brooklyn Bowl, Daði Freyr, Nelly Furtado, Philadelphia, PA on March 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 7, 2024] Blusher

I was pretty excited to see Daði Freyr again.  I didn’t pay much attention to the opening act.  Last time it wa a local musician whom I hadn’t heard of.

This time it proved to be an up and coming megastar band from Australia called Blusher.

Of course, when they came out, my wife and I thought that they were a local group of teenage girls.  They sang well, the song was catchy, but they seemed so young!

Then they introduced themselves (Jade, Lauren, and Miranda) and Jade’s Australian accent was terrific and we agreed that we instantly liked them at least 5% more.

I’ve now looked them up and learned they are not teenagers (or maybe they are, but they’ve been making music for a pretty long time, anyhow).  They opened for Aurora last year.  Jade Alice (her solo name) has been making music since 2015.

I enjoyed their lyrics, which weren’t profound but were more than standard pop lyrics.

Dead End has a really catchy pause mid-verse that draws you in.  I really like Limelight–super catchy chorus

They announced a cover that we might know (I didn’t), and then played their new rocking single “Rave Angel.”    It was followed by another new song “About You.”

Then came their first hit “Softly Spoken.”  I hadn’t heard of it but it has had a million streams.  The worldplay is pretty clever.  At the end of the song Miranda sang into a mgeaphone.  Unfortunately, it cut out while she was yelling at the end.

“Hurricane Chaser” was a fun song with a cool metaphor.  But the new song “Accelerator” had a mad fast dance beat and was super catchy.

They ended with “Backbone,” a catchy song about your friend hating your boyfriend: “You said you’d punch him in the chest if you ever met him.”  Super catchy, but an odd place to punch someone…ouch.

For this song they did some basic self-defense move choreography, which was cute.  The whole show they did very simple choreography–the kind that teenagers come up with when they’re singing in their bedroom.  It made them somehow even more adorable.

And the crowd ate it up. I felt like the crowd might have been a bunch of rubes or a bunch of plants–massive shrieking when all three waved their arms at the same time, and massive screams of pleasure when they all turned around to reveal they were–gasp–all wearing sunglasses.  It was a little weird, but it made the band feel great and I think their first show in the States was a huge success for them.

I’ve decided to follow them online to see how big they get, so I can say that I saw their first show in the States.

  1. Dead End ¿
  2. Limelight ¿
  3. Say It Right (Nelly Furtado cover)
  4. Rave Angel §
  5. About You §
  6. Softly Spoken ¿
  7. Hurricane Chaser ¿
  8. Accelerator §
  9. Backbone ¿
§ new songs (2024)
¿ Should We Go Dance? EP (2023)

 

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Lucius (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, January 29, 2024)

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Jeff Taylor, Lucius, Philadelphia, PA on February 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: January 29, 2024] Lucius

I’ve had a ton of opportunities to see Lucius in the last two years.  My count is 5 (plus two at festivals I wasn’t going to).  For one reason or another (sometimes inertia) I just didn’t go.

Then they announced this ten year anniversary of their debut album and I thought that that would be really fun to see.  I really liked about half of the album a lot.  The rest was good.  And I figured in a live setting all of the songs would be great.

The strange thing is I had no idea that Lucius has released only three albums (and various other remixes and stuff).  So when they played in NJ last year, had I gone, I would have seen half of this album anyway!  In fact, had I gone to that show, I would have heard them play one of their newer songs that I love, “Next to Normal.”  Serves me right.

But there was something neat about going to this little mini-tour and being one of the select cities that got to see it.

It took them a while t o come out.  In fact, they turned the lights out at 8:45 and we sat in the dark until like 9:10, which is just weird.  But whatever.  The guys came out first and then Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig came out in matching outfits–berets and bold colored jackets00primary colors splitting the coats in half with brighter colors on the pockets.  They looked great.

There was a (tall) family in front of me and they were pretty good when they started singing “Wildewoman.”  There was a woman behind me who was singing very loudly.  She had a good voice, but honestly we are here to hear these two women with incredible voices.   Fortunately she was mostly in tune and easy to ignore. (more…)

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Jeff Taylor (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, January 29, 2024) [LUCIUS]

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Jeff Taylor, Lucius, Philadelphia, PA on January 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 29, 2024] Jeff Taylor

Jeff Taylor is an old friend of Lucius.  He is from new Jersey but lives in Pittsburgh.

He opened his set by humming a kind of dissonant sound as he strummed his guitar.  It went on for far longer than it should have and became kind of funny, but not actually funny.

Then he finally sang a line “We lost my dad,” and seemed to start the whole song over.   Whether he messed up or just wanted that line to hang there is unclear.

Jeff played an electric guitar and sang and I just couldn’t get into it.

By the end of his set I feel like he warmed me up a bit and I enjoyed the last few songs more.  But most of his songs were about breaking up with someone and they just weren’t that interesting.

I mean “Flashes” goes

Just push me away
Let me be free of you
You weren’t my kinda girl

So, yeah. (more…)

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Kishi Bashi (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, October 8, 2024)

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Kishi Bashi, Philadelphia, PA, Sweet Loretta, Tall Tall Trees on January 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 8, 2024] Kishi Bashi

This was our SIXTH (!) time seeing Kishi Bashi and it was so different from the last time!

The previous show was an anniversary show of his debut album.  This one was supporting his new album.

The previous show was at the tiny Foundry and this one was at the (relatively) huge Brooklyn Bowl.  And, K. came out with a fantastic outfit (stunning jacket and pants) and a kick ass keytar!

Tall Tall Trees was on banjo and keys, but his backing band was the guys from Sweet Loretta!  And they suited him perfectly.

K. busted out a violin of course, and stayed with some of the newer dancier songs for a while.

There was a couple in front of us who were pretty grossly all over each other (their elaborate dance routines took up way too much space).  But they were also huge fans and knew all the songs, so I couldn’t be too annoyed.

Although the first songs were new, he didn’t leave out the old stuff, jumping right into It All Began with a Burst (and he still builds the songs with a looping pedal).

I loved the way he mixed up the albums he played from, with a dancey and lovely Can’t Let Go Juno, followed by a beautiful (fantastic harmonies from Sweet Loretta) Marigolds.

After playing Colorful State from the new album, he did a fun beat boxing improv which he said he hoped someone recorded and might send it to him so he could develop it later (I did, but he didn’t acknowledge it).

The rest of the band stayed away as he did a fantastic solo rendition of I am the Antichrist to You.  K. has always had a great voice but it has gotten even better over the years.  Then he busted out an acoustic guitar for the lovely, gentle Summer of ’42.

The band returned for the appropriately large Violin Tsunami and then played the Talking Heads cover.

And  then things got crazy.  The band returned dressed in costumes including one of the crew dressed in golden wings like Icarus for Escape from Knossos/Icarus with some seriously heavy rocking from the Sweet Loretta guys (some killer guitar soloing) and some wicked use of the keytar.  The chaos settled into a big dancealong of Hahaha Pt. 2 a very unexpected (but welcomed) song choice!

Lilliputian Chop continued the dancey/funky vein and then we were joined by Mr Steak (how much I love how silly Kishi Bashi shows can get).  Mr. Steak danced to his song and we all danced along.

Kishi Bashi has not gotten to the point where he’s not going to play some of my favorite songs because he has so many songs.  But he didn’t leave out the fantastic Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! (complete with beatboxing and looping).

The set ended with a fun clapalong of Honeybody.  And yes everybody was in the best mood after that.

For the encore, K and  the band all moved to the center of the floor (we hung back away from the throngs.  They gathered round and stood on a chair and sang the sweetest Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear.  It was like a campfire in the dimly lit room.   It was followed by a more soaring Manchester.

Then they ended with a fun cover of Rod Stewart’s Ooh La La with the chorus I wish that I knew what I know nowwhen I was younger.  They continued to sing the song from the middle of the floor to backstage.

What a fun-filled night.  I’m only surprised more people don’t know about him.  We look forward to show number 7!

 

2024 Brooklyn Bowl 2022 The Foundry 2019 Union Transfer
Violin Akai € Intro / Pathos, Pathos ∇ Marigolds Ø
Chiba Funk € Manchester ∇ F Delano Ø
Late Night Comic € Bright Whites ∇ Hey Big Star $
It All Began With a Burst ∇ It All Began With a Burst ∇ Say Yeah $
Can’t Let Go, Juno $ Wonder Woman, Wonder Me ∇ Carry on Phenomenon ∠
Marigolds Ø Atticus, in the Desert ∇ Honeybody $
Colorful State € I Am the Antichrist to You ∇ Honeybody Remix $
solo improv Beat the Bright Out of Me ∇ Can’t Let Go, Juno $
I Am the Antichrist to You (solo) ∇ This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads cover) Theme From Jerome (Forgotten Words) Ø
Summer of ’42 (solo) Ø Q&A ∠ I Am the Antichrist to You (solo) ∇
Violin Tsunami Ø Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear Ø This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads cover) (solo)
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads cover) (solo) Marigolds Ø Violin/Banjo improv
Escape from Knossos € I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) (Meat Loaf cover) Bright Whites ∇
Icarus IV € The Ballad of Mr. Steak ∠ Q&A ∠
Hahaha Pt. 2 ∠ Honeybody (began with studio arrangement which bled into performing in the style of the Mattsoro remix) $ Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear Ø
Lilliputian Chop € encore Angeline Ø
The Ballad of Mr. Steak ∠ Violin Tsunami Ø Violin Tsunami Ø
Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠ Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠ Ode to My Next Life $
Honeybody $ Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠
encore Atticus, in the Desert ∇
Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear (acoustic, in crowd) Ø (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life (Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes cover)
Manchester (acoustic, in crowd) ∇ The Ballad of Mr. Steak ∠
Ooh La La (Rod Stewart cover) (acoustic, in crowd) It All Began With a Burst ∇
encore
Annie, Heart Thief of the Sea (acoustic, in crowd) Ø
Manchester (acoustic, in crowd) ∇
Summer of ’42 (acoustic, in crowd) Ø

 

 

 

2016 Union Transfer 2015 TLA (opening for Guster) 2014 New Brunswick (opening for Rod y Gab)
Stranger Things Theme [recordong] violin improv violin improv
Statues in a Gallery $ Atticus, in the Desert ∇     It All Began With a Burst ∇
Hey Big Star $ Bright Whites ∇ Bittersweet Genesis for Him AND Her ∠
m’lover $ Bittersweet Genesis for Him AND Her ∠ Atticus, in the Desert ∇ 
Atticus, in the Desert (featuring extended banjo percussion solo) ∇     The Ballad of Mr. Steak ∠ Bright Whites ∇
Bright Whites (with improv interlude featuring flute solo) ∇ Q&A ∠ Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠
Carry on Phenomenon ∠ Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠ Manchester ∇
Who’d You Kill $ Manchester ∇
Can’t Let Go, Juno $
Say Yeah $
Ode to My Next Life $
I Am the Antichrist to You ∇ (solo)
The Ballad of Mr. Steak (featuring Mr. Steak) ∠
Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! ∠
It All Began With a Burst (with “Don’t vote for Trump” vocal loop) ∇
encore
Honeybody $
Q&A ∠
Manchester ∇
€ Kantos (2024)
Ø Omoiyari (2019)
$ Sonderlust (2016)
∠ Lighght (2014)
∇ 151a (2012)

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The Damned / Baby Shakes / Fucked Up (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, October 29, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Baby Shakes, Brooklyn Bowl, Fucked Up, Philadelphia, PA, The Damned on October 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 29, 2023] The Damned / Baby Shakes / Fucked Up

It’s hard to believe I had three opportunities to check out his show.  I had originally blown it off thinking I didn’t care for The Damned enough to go to any of them.  But then the first show was situated right between two other shows–three nights in a row is a challenge.  Then the next two, including this one, were scheduled for nights that I already had a ticket to a show.

And maybe I wanted to see The Dammed, now, but I wanted to see Hooveriii much more.

I doubt they’ll come back again, but who knows.

~!~~

I saw the Damned in 1998 at Coney Island High (RIP) with my friend Garry.

I honestly don’t remember all that much about the show.  Although Setlist actually has the details from that show! (see below).

I was never really a fan of the band.  I like “Neat Neat Neat” but don’t know much else. When this new tour was announced I was mostly interested in seeing Fucked Up again.  (more…)

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Boris (Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 21, 2023)

Posted in Boris, Brooklyn Bowl, Mr. Phylzzz , Philadelphia, PA, The Melvins on September 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 21, 2023] Boris 

I can’t believe it has been four years since I last saw Boris.  Their shows leave a powerful impression on a person.

I couldn’t make their last tour back in 2022, but that’s okay.  Their last show tided me over for four years clearly.

This tour announcement was interesting because they had just released an album called Heavy Rocks, but this tour was them playing Heavy Rocks, the album they released in 2002, in its entirety.  [They have released three albums called Heavy Rocks, all different–in 2022 they played the 2022 Heavy Rocks in total].

I’m pretty delighted that with the three shows I have seen such a variety of songs.

I don’t really have a favorite Boris album, but this one is pretty fantastic.  With several really heavy songs, several sing a long moments (whether or not you know Japanese) and even a few mellow, quieter moments.

As with each time I’ve seen them, Takeshi stands to our right with his double neck bass/guitar.  Atsuo is in the middle with his drum kit and gong and Wata stood on our left with her guitar and effects pedal.  The previous two shows she had more gear, but since this show was for a twenty year old record, she didn’t need anything else.

The show started, as it should, with Atsuo smashing the gong.  And then the sludgy riff of “Heavy Friends” introduced us to Heavy Rocks.  The lights were still way too red, but it didn’t impact the sound, which was immense and awesome. (more…)

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Melvins: Twins of Evil Tour (Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 21, 2023) [BORIS]

Posted in Boris, Brooklyn Bowl, Mr. Phylzzz , Philadelphia, PA, The Melvins on September 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 21, 2023] Melvins 

Despite everything in the world indicating that I should be a Melvins fan, I have never really gotten into them.  I mean, I’ve loved thigns about them for decades.  I loved that they put out three “solo” albums that looked just like the Kiss solo albums.  I love that Boris got their name from one of their songs.

And yet, for whatever reason, I just never followed them. They may just be a little too much in every way for me.   Love them in theory nut not in reality.

So I’ve never wanted to see them live.  And when this dual bill with Boris was announced, it made sense, but I wasn’t that excited about it.  I actually thought that if Melvins were headlining, I might leave to get home early.  Although, honestly, how could I leave without at least laying eyes on Buzz Osbourne in the flesh.

So Melvins were playing their Bullhead album in its entirety.  I didn’t know it. I don’t know if it’s special in any way in their catalog.  But it does contain the song “Boris” so…. (more…)

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