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Archive for the ‘Musikfest Cafe’ Category

Richard Thompson (Musikfest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA, May 17, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Musikfest Cafe, Richard Thompson on May 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 17, 2023] Richard Thompson

I wanted to see Richard Thompson, although we had seen him fairly recently.  Actually, I’d really like to see him with his band rather than solo.  But I’m not sure if he’ll be bringing a band with him on tour much anymore–maybe is he releases a full band record again?

When his first local show was announced at McCarter, I was pretty excited about it.  But it turned out to be the one night that I had other shows lined up.

Then he announced this show at Musikfest Cafe.  It’s a great venue and I would have loved to have seen him there.  But I had a few things going on this week and it just wasn’t going to happen.

I’m sure he’ll be playing nearby again soon–maybe even with his band.

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Wetface (Musikfest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA, September 4, 2022) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Musikfest Cafe, Wetface on September 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 4, 2022] Wetface

When I realized that I was going to be late for this show, I hoped beyond reason that Wetface would go on first and I would miss his set instead of Blood Lemon.  I realize that Blood Lemon bassist Melanie Radford plays bass in this incarnation of Built to Spill and probably needs some downtime between sets, but I really did not want to sit through Wetface again.

I considered leaving the room and looking at merch or just going for a walk but I didn’t really want to lose my place.  Although, realistically, my place kinda sucked because the people around me were awful.  I should have stuck with my guts.

The drunken Bethlehem crowd absolutely loved Wetface.  And I’m going to say that I found him more entertaining at this venue than the first time.  Perhaps because my expectations were so low.

He had a lot of technical difficulties which he played up and which he had fun with.  I also got a kick out of him throwing his last three T-shirts (that’s all that left of my merch) into the crowd.  “But, hey, they are all smalls, so if you’re a big person and you just grabbed that shirt, I am happy for you that you got something free at a concert, but kindly give it to someone who will fit it).

He played a song and when it was done, someone requested that he play it again.  So he did.

I am quite aware that I need to lighten up at shows, but yes, I would have been very happy to have missed this set.

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Blood Lemon (Musikfest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA, September 4, 2022) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Blood Lemon, Musikfest Cafe, Wetface on September 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 4, 2022] Blood Lemon

I had seen this very lineup just a few months ago.  I assumed that seeing the show in May and then in September would be a different experience.   I was especially excited to see Blood Lemon again because I missed most of their set last time.

Unfortunately, the traffic into Bethlehem was terrible (there was a torrential downpour as well).  And between that and the loud, drunken crowd all pressing to get in, I missed half of Blood Lemon again.  The lighting was much better for this set, so it was nice actually seeing consisting of singer/guitarist Lisa Simpson, singer/bassist Melanie Radford and percussionist Lindsey Lloyd.

The sound seemed to be a little off.  Or, maybe it was just that there were some remarkably loud talkers at this show.  The last time we went to shows here, the crowds were good.  I’m guessing this was a college night/end of school year/loud rocking band kinda show.  Because this crowd was really shitty to be around.

They didn’t even seem to show much respect when Blood Lemon called Doug Martsch out on stage to jam with them on their last song.

The band was great again, and the few songs I heard made me really want to see them again–an actual full set even!

This show wasn’t even listed on setlist, so I’m just guessing their set was something like this.

  1. Master Manipulator ß
  2. High Tide
  3. Perfect Too
  4. The Stone Castle ß
  5. One More Time ß
  6. Her Shadow
  7. Burned ß
  8. Whistleblower ß

ß Blood Lemon (2021)

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Mountain Goats (John Darnielle solo) (Musikfest Cafe, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA, June 27, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Coronavirus, John Darnielle, Musikfest Cafe, Postponed, Quarantine, Steelstacks, The Mountain Goats on June 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: June 27, 2021] Mountain Goats (solo) [rescheduled from June 4 and October 12, 2020; moved to September 26, 2021]

indexI thought this date might go on since things are starting to reopen, but presumably it wasn’t going to be 100% capacity, so it was pushed back just a few more months.

Unfortunately, the new date conflicts with another show, so 18 months of waiting for nothing.

When this show was rescheduled there were still a few chairs left. Musikfest Cafe seems like  a pretty safe venue–lots of distancing available.  But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to a show yet.  Having it postponed, made the decision for me.

I like The Mountain Goats quite a lot.  I think John Darnielle is a great songwriter.

I’ve never seen them (or him) live and I’ve often thought it would be an enjoyable night, but they’re usually just under my radar.

I’d usually prefer to see a band rather than its lead singer solo, but in this case, I don’t know if it would make that much of a difference to me.  Seeing him at the Musikfest Cafe would be pretty fantastic–a great venue with excellent acoustics.

The biggest surprise to me is how quickly his shows sell out.  If this one hadn;t sold it, it was very close, by the time it was postponed.

2425316-1591535737

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Mountain Goats (John Darnielle solo) (Musikfest Cafe, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA, October 12, 2020) [rescheduled date–POSTPONED]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Coronavirus, John Darnielle, Musikfest Cafe, Postponed, Quarantine, Steelstacks, The Mountain Goats on October 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: October 12, 2020] Mountain Goats (solo) [rescheduled from June 4; moved to June 27, 2021]

indexWhen this show was rescheduled there were still a few chairs left. Musikfest Cafe seems like  a pretty safe venue–lots of distancing available.  But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to a show yet.  Having it postponed, made the decision for me.

I like The Mountain Goats quite a lot.  I think John Darnielle is a great songwriter.

I’ve never seen them (or him) live and I’ve often thought it would be an enjoyable night, but they’re usually just under my radar.

I’d usually prefer to see a band rather than its lead singer solo, but in this case, I don’t know if it would make that much of a difference to me.  Seeing him at the Musikfest Cafe would be pretty fantastic–a great venue with excellent acoustics.

The biggest surprise to me is how quickly his shows sell out.  If this one hadn;t sold it, it was very close, by the time it was postponed.

2425316-1591535737

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Mountain Goats (John Darnielle solo) (Musikfest Cafe, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA, June 4, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Coronavirus, John Darnielle, Musikfest Cafe, Postponed, Quarantine, Steelstacks, The Mountain Goats on June 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: June 4, 2020] Mountain Goats (solo) [moved to October 12]

indexI like The Mountain Goats quite a lot.  I think John Darnielle is a great songwriter.

I’ve never seen them (or him) live and I’ve often thought it would be an enjoyable night, but they’re usually just under my radar.

I’d usually prefer to see a band rather than its lead singer solo, but in this case, I don’t know if it would make that much of a difference to me.  Seeing him at the Musikfest Cafe would be pretty fantastic–a great venue with excellent acoustics.

The biggest surprise to me is how quickly his shows sell out.  If this one hadn;t sold it, it was very close, by the time it was postponed.

2425316-1591535737

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Steven Page Trio (Levitt Pavilion Steelstacks (Musikfest Cafe), Bethlehem PA, November 6, 2019)

Posted in Aerosmith, Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Craig Northey, Kevin Fox, Musikfest Cafe, Odds, Steven Page, World Cafe Live on November 6, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 6, 2019] Steve Page Trio

I saw the Steven Page Trio about a year ago in Philadelphia.  When he announced that he was touring some more and coming to Bethlehem, I grabbed tickets for me and S. right away.

S. doesn’t really know his solo stuff at all, but she is a fan of BNL and has always said how much she liked his voice, so I thought it would be a fun, relaxing, seated event.

We were so close, we were literally right next to the stage.  When you’re standing, its a coveted spot, but when you’re seated, it’s terrible!  Luckily, they moved Dean Friedman’s giant monitor out of my way so I could actually see them all.  But in hindsight, sitting a few seats back would have been far preferable.

The weirdest thing is every time he picked up or put down his water bottle I thought he was going to talk to me (he didn’t).

I love being up close, the angles were just all wrong.  Any pictures I took were going to be of Steven’s crotch (!).   Fortunately, the vocals sounded fine.

I have learned from past experiences that seeing an artist a few months apart often means the same or a similar setlist.  And that’s what happened here.  Although when I look at other recent shows I see that he seems to have a kind of rotating setlist of some of the songs.  I saw that the night a few nights before us was amazing with “Alternative Girlfriend” (the song I really wanted to hear!) and “Someone Who’s Cool” an Odds cover!  They also played “Manchild,” my favorite new song of his and “Break Your Heart” both of which I have heart before but, come on, they are awesome.  Incidentally Odds opened for Steven Page in Canada.  Once again I wish I was above thee border not for political reasons. (more…)

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Dean Friedman (Levitt Pavilion Steelstacks (Musikfest Cafe), Bethlehem PA, November 6, 2019) [STEVEN PAGE TRIO]

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Dean Friedman, Loudon Wainwright III, Musikfest Cafe, Paramus, NJ, Steelstacks on November 6, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 6, 2019] Dean Friedman

I was really excited to see that Steven Page was going to play in Bethlehem.  I grabbed seats immediately.  And when I saw the set up of the room, I grabbed seats right in the front.

In my head, this room was going to be set up with a short stage (maybe a foot high) and a series of tables around it.  Instead, what we had was a full-sized stage (four feet tall) and a series of tables that went right up to the stage.  So, in fact, I could rest my arm on the stage if I wanted to.

It was also unexpected that you could order food at these tables–with waitstaff service!  Evidently you could have arrived at 6 and ordered a proper dinner.  We arrived at 7:15 and had (rather yummy) Parmesan fries.  It was also awkward having strangers sitting across from us.  They really didn’t seem like people we wanted to talk to either.

When the usher seated us he told me I did a great job getting seats.  But he was wrong.  We were actually too close!  And the way that Friedman had his gear setup, his monitor was literally blocking my view .  I couldn’t see him at all when he played the piano and I could really only see his face and guitar when he played guitar. (more…)

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Barenaked Ladies (Levitt Pavilion Steelstacks (Musikfest Cafe), Bethlehem PA, June 19, 2017)

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Levitt Pavilion, Musikfest Cafe, The Big Bang Theory on June 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 19, 2017] Barenaked Ladies

It was almost exactly a year ago that we saw Barenaked Ladies.  And it was almost exactly a year ago that I decided that even though their shows are a ton of fun, I didn’t really need to see them again (it’s been like 7 times now), because they have gotten kind of samey.

And then I saw that they were playing Steelstacks–the place where I have gotten unbelievably close to quite a few bands.  So this was the chance to go out with a blaze of glory and see them up close for the first time.

But then there was the threat of torrential thunderstorms.  So they moved the show inside to the Musikfest Cafe.  We were pleased about that as the thought of standing in the rain isn’t appealing.  The rain all ended by about 7 so it was moot, bit whatever.  This meant that we could see this band in a teeny tiny club where the sound was amazing.  A local paper says that the outside show approximates 3,000 tickets.  The Cafe holds about 1,000 people.  The paper said that 1,032 tickets were sold for the show.  That’s not much for a fairly large band like BNL, but I have to wonder (and hope) that a lot of people came as walk-ins and were turned away. (more…)

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Gary Jules (Levitt Pavilion Steelstacks (Musikfest Cafe), Bethlehem PA, June 19, 2017) [BARENAKED LADIES]

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Gary Jules, Levitt Pavilion, Musikfest Cafe, Tears for Fears, The Big Bang Theory on June 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 19, 2017] Gary Jules

I wasn’t aware that there was an opening act for Barenaked Ladies until I received the email that the show would be moved inside and that Gary Jules would be going on at 7:30.  Normally I like to get there for an opening act (I mean we did pay for the act, right?).  So I looked up who he was.

If you search Google videos, 8 of the first ten hits are for “Mad World.”  This is a cover of the Tears for Fears song (which I really like).  Jules’ cover strips everything out of it and makes it really slow and really, really depressing.  The original is certainly dark but with the synths it’s more ironically dark.

I listened to one other piece by him and decided that, no I didn’t need to see Jules.  And I couldn’t think of a worse opener for the manic intensity of BNL. (more…)

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