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Archive for the ‘Keswick Theatre’ Category

Sparks (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, September 8, 2025)

Posted in Glenside, PA, Keswick Theatre, Sparks on September 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 8, 2025] Sparks

Back in 2022, I dragged myself all the way to New York City (which seems to get harder and harder to get to every time I try) to see Sparks at Town Hall.  I had never seen them and I was convinced they’d never play anywhere closer.  It was worth the grief because the show was wonderful.  Imagine my surprise when one year later they announced a show at the Keswick Theatre.  But I had tickets for another show that night, so I missed them.

And now a year later they are back at the Keswick! to tour their new album Mad!

Sparks is, without question, a weird band–they have a song about a Jansport backpack after all.  I got into them back in 1997 when they released an album of re-recorded versions of their best songs and called it Plagiarism.  Despite the occasional hit, they remain largely unknown in the States.  They are from the States even though many people assume they are from Europe.  Sparks are Russel Mael (vocals, aged 76) and Ron Mael (everything else, aged 80).

Before the New York show they hadn’t toured the U.S since 2013.  So I guess seeing them is a rare opportunity.  Perhaps I should have gone last year.  But at least I went this year and, amazingly the setlist was almost entirely different!

I walked into Keswick and the place looked like a fire had just been put out.  There was SO MUCH FOG!  There was an amusing sign that said “tonight’s show special effects FOG.”  And all the employees were joking how they couldn’t see anything.

I sat in the middle of an aisle and waited for the band.  The backing musicians came out first: Evan Weiss – guitar ; Eli Pearl – guitar ; Max Whipple – bass ; Darren Weiss – drums.

Then Ron sat in front of a keyboard, the letters of Roland rearranged to spell Ronald.  And Russel came out in a floral print suit.  And they began, as they should, with the song “So May We Start” from Annette.

They started that way last time too, so I assumed the show would be much the same.  But it wasn’t! (more…)

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The Musical Box (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, June 14, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Genesis, Glenside, PA, Keswick Theatre, The Musical Box on June 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 14, 2024] The Musical Box

I’ve said many times that I don’t go to see cover bands.  But this cover band who plays early, prog Genesis, was an exception.

I saw them earlier this year (my first show of the new year) and loved it.

As I said,

I’m so glad I went to this show.  And I would absolutely see them again.  It’s crazy to think that they have been together for 30 years.  A cover band that is older than most other bands!

I didn’t go to this show for two reasons.  The first was that I don’t really love Keswick Theatre.  It’s also really inconvenient to get to.  The second, later reason, is that Kim Gordon played the same night, and I wasn’t going to miss her.

 

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Sparks (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, June 28, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Glenside, PA, Keswick Theatre, Sparks on June 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 28, 2023] Sparks

Last year I dragged myself all the way to New York City (which seems to get harder and harder to get to every time I try) to see Sparks at Town Hall.  I had never seen them and I was convinced they’d never play anywhere closer.

It was worth the grief because the show was wonderful.

So imagine my surprise when one year later they announced a show at the Keswick Theatre.  Keswick is kind of a pain to get to but it’s a nice enough venue.  And for Sparks I was willing  to make the effort.

And then Sloan announced their local show for the same night–I’m honestly shocked how often bands winds up in Philly on the same night.  It’s a little weird, frankly.

So even though I have only seen Sparks once and I have seen Sloan four times, I assumed the Sparks show would be very similar while the Sloan show would be quite different.  Plus, my wife and I have been enjoying seeing Sloan together the last few times.

And so, I blew off Sparks for Sloan. (more…)

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Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark / In the Valley Below (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, April 27, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Glenside, PA, In the Valley Below, Keswick Theatre, OMD, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on April 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 27, 2022] OMD / In the Valley Below

Really I was never going to attend this show.  I don’t really like going to the Keswick.  And OMD is probably my third favorite British 80s synth duo.

I did see them open for Barenaked Ladies in 2016 and that’s probably good enough.  I did enjoy them though and it’s nice that they are still touring.

In the Valley Below is a band I’ve never heard of although they’ve been around a decade or so and apparently had an indie hit with “Peaches” (not the “Millions of peaches, peaches for me” song) back in 2014.  They are described as indie rock and dream pop and would probably work very well with OMD.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: 30th Anniversary Tour [The Brain & Deathstalker II] (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, October 26, 2018)

Posted in Deathstalker II, Hampton Yount, Jonah Ray, Keswick Theatre, MST3K, MST3K Live, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Patton Oswalt, Rebecca Hanson, The Brain on October 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2018] MST3K Live

A year ago I went to see MST3K Live and it was a ton of fun.

I assumed it was a one-off thing, but they announced a 30th Anniversary Tour this year and came back to the same theater I saw it at last time.

Once again, I got tickets for both movies.  This year’s turkeys were to be The Brain and Deathstalker II.

When the show started, Synthia Forrester (Rebecca Hanson) came out on stage and introduced the cast.  But this time there was no Joel Hodgson.  Could they really do this with no Joel?  Last time, Joel came out from time to time to mess with audience.

Then she gave us the surprise: Joel was going to be a part of the riffing!  For the first time in forever, Joel Robisnon was shot into space to riff on movies. (more…)

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: Watch Out for Snakes! Tour [EEGAH! & Argoman: The Fantastic Superman] (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, July 7, 2017)

Posted in Argoman The Fantastic Superman, Baron Vaughn, Eegah!, Hampton Yount, James Bond, Jonah Ray, Keswick Theatre, MST3K, MST3K Live, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Patton Oswalt, Rebecca Hanson on July 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 7, 2017] MST3K Live

I first discovered MST3K when I lived in Boston (on The Comedy Channel) in 1992 (just before it merged with Ha! and became Comedy Central).

Holy cow, did I love that show.  I eventually watched every episode and had every episode on tape.  I even made and sold (at break even price), audio tapes of all of the “songs” in the episodes.  It was a time-consuming labor of love (I wonder how hard it would be to convert them to CD), but I was a fanatic.

I could never choose between Joel or Mike because I liked them both for different reasons.  I admit that by the last few seasons I didn’t enjoy the scenes with the Mads as much, but the movie jokes never wavered.

And then the show was over in 1999.  And we all wept.

Well, 16 years later in December 2015, we were all blown away when we saw that Joel was going to try to resurrect the show.  Of course I pledged on Kickstarter (but still haven’t been able to watch any episodes for various reasons).  I was happy to be part of the new experience.

But I was even more excited when in May (after all of the new episodes had aired) it was announced that there would be a LIVE TOUR!  And that my location would get not only the announced show  ‘Eegah’ but also a “secret surprise film.”

Eegah! happens to be one of my all time favorite MST3K movies, so I was thrilled to hear that that was the movie they would do.  And I was even more thrilled to hear that they were making all new jokes (no mean feat).  But then to get a “Secret surprise film” never before seen by MST3K?  That was spectacular.

Some of the reason why I hadn’t watched the new episodes is because I didn’t want to ruin my awesome memories of the old episodes.  What if the new stuff wasn’t as good?  And who were all of these new people anyway?  Obviously I knew who Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day were, but I’d not heard of Jonah Ray or Hampton Yount (Crow) or Baron Vaughn (Tom Servo) or Rebecca Hanson (Gypsy).

I was a little nervous when I got to the theater–would it be good?  Would it be fun?  Would I actually enjoy watching this with other people?

Well, it was a blast. (more…)

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Squeeze (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, October 14, 2016)

Posted in Glenside, PA, Keswick Theatre, Squeeze, The Easybeats, The English Beat, Tom Waits on October 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 14, 2016] Squeeze

2016-10-14-22-01-21Squeeze’s 1982 Greatest Hits album 45s and Under is my favorite Greatest Hits record of all time.  And yet, I don’t actually own any other Squeeze records.

But over the last year or so my friend Amy has been posting pictures of all the Squeeze and Squeeze-related shows she’s been going to.  And I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  So when they announced they were playing The Keswick Theatre (which I’d never been to before, but which I knew was an intimate venue), I snatched up tickets.

And as their T-Shirt says (see bottom) I’d forgotten how much I like Squeeze. (more…)

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The English Beat (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA, October 14, 2016) [SQUEEZE]

Posted in Andy Williams, Dave Wakeling, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, General Public, Keswick Theatre, Ranking Roger, Squeeze, The English Beat on October 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 14, 2016] The English Beat

2016-10-14-20-21-09I’ve been a fan of The English Beat (and other luminary ska bands) for years.  When I saw that The English Beat with Dave Wakeling was touring the States (apparently non stop) I thought it would be fun to see them.  They played the New Hope Winery once in a while, but I thought the tickets were a little pricey.  So I was thrilled to see that they’d be opening for Squeeze–a great double bill!

The band played for a solid hour and covered most of the songs of their career.  It was non-stop dancing and fun.  Well, it would have been except that the Keswick Theater is seated, so most of us couldn’t really dance, but we could stand.  And the  aisles and were packed with people who didn’t want to sit down and just danced instead.  (more…)

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