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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

Will Johnson (SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, January 25, 2020) [BOB MOULD]

Posted in Centro-Matic, Marie/Lepanto, Molina & Johnson, SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, South San Gabriel, Will Johnson on January 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »

2020-01-25 20.04.54_preview[ATTENDED: January 25, 2020] Will Johnson

I didn’t know who Will Johnson was before this show although I see that he played drums and toured with Monsters of Folk–we have the CD but never saw them.

Wikipedia tells me that Will Johnson is “called ‘one of the most prolific artists in American indie rock.'”  He is the singer of the bands Centro-matic and South San Gabriel as well as Molina & Johnson and Marie/Lepanto.  I have heard of none of these bands.

Johnson came out on stage with an acoustic guitar, told a story or so and then started playing. (more…)

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Temples (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2020)

Posted in Mew, Philadelphia, PA, Temples, The Foundry, Union Transfer on January 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 24, 2020] Temples [rescheduled from November 10, 2019]

2020-01-24 22.38.08_previewTemples were supposed to play Union Transfer back in November.  For some reason, their show was moved to this month and moved from Union Transfer to The Foundry (this is quite surprising considering one venue is a Live Nation property and the other isn’t).  In fact even though my Union Transfer ticket was honored, I had to go through a rather laborious process to get it switched to an official Live Nation ticket (glad I got there early).

I’m still not sure why the show was moved or why it was downgraded to a much smaller venue because Temples was fantastic and the fans were totally into it.

I loved Temples’ first album and hadn’t quite realized that they’d put out two albums since that one.  Their new sound is a bit more keyboardy/dancey instead of the big retro sound of the first album.  But the overall vibe (and excellent riffmaking) hasn’t changed from album to album. (more…)

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Art d’Ecco (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2020) [TEMPLES]

Posted in Art d'Ecco, Canadian Music, David Bowie, Philadelphia, PA, Sparks, Temples, The Foundry, The Retinas on January 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 24, 2020] Art d’Ecco [rescheduled from November 10, 2019, replaced Mattiel]

2020-01-24 20.43.21_previewArt d’Ecco is a band from Vancouver.  Well, technically, Art d’Ecco is the singer and it is his band.  Either way it is a fantastic name which perfectly encapsulates the look of he and style of dandies from the Pacific Northwest playing excellent garage glam.

I didn’t realize that there were going to be two opening acts.  So when The Retinas finished I assumed that Temples were coming out next.  (I also assumed I’d be getting home really early if the headliners were going on at 9:15).

I was surprised when Art d’Ecco came out because, while I didn’t exactly know what Temples looked like, I was fairly certain they weren’t a glammy band.  Plus, what happened to the singer’s big curly hair?

I was happy to discover that this wasn’t Temples because I didn’t think I could have been that off in my expectations.  But I was even happier to discover this new (to me) band who were fantastic. (more…)

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The Retinas (The Foundry, Philadelphia PA, January 24, 2020) [TEMPLES]

Posted in CHAPPO, David Bowie, Philadelphia, PA, Temples, The Foundry, The Retinas on January 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 24, 2020] The Retinas [rescheduled from November 10, 2019, replaced Mattiel]

2020-01-24 20.04.27_previewThe Retinas are a Philly band. I hadn’t heard of them before this show.

They are a guitar/bass/drum trio with a great sound.  In fact sometimes there were sounds and I’m not sure where they were coming from–loops?, samples? pedals? who knows.

They opened with a synth line (from where?) while singer Tom McHugh sang an opening lyric in his distinctive voice.

I loved the way the song built with some really impressive drumming from Anthony Filgnitti–whom I was standing in front of.  I couldn’t really see bassist Andy Silverman because of the people next to me, but his low end was essentially to anchoring the overall sound.

McHugh had great stage presence.  It helped that there were a lot of people  there to see them (at least McHugh said there were–and I actually saw someone with a Retinas jacket in the crowd). (more…)

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Richard Thompson (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, January 18, 2020)

Posted in Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson on January 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 18, 2020] Richard Thompson

After seeing Richard Thompson back in 2016 (three times in a short span) I decided I could take a break from seeing him a bit.  Although when he announced an electric trio tour I was really excited to check it out.  Sadly, I couldn’t make that show.  But when he announced another show at McCarter (I believe his 20th show there?) I figured it had been four years and was time to see him again.

This was my tenth time seeing Richard Thompson (first time in 1997).  I tend to focus a lot on the songs that Richard plays at every show.  I’m sure I’ve seen “Beeswing” and “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” ten times.  But in this set he played 13 songs that I hadn’t seen in at least the previous two shows and that’s pretty awesome.

We had some amazing seats (center stage about eight rows back) and we could see his fretwork absolutely clearly. (more…)

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Ryley Walker (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, December 31, 2019) [Electric in the Village: Phish After Party, show began at 12:30 AM]

Posted in Calexico, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Garcia Peoples, Interpol, Le Poisson Rouge, New York City, Phish, Ryley Walker on December 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 31, 2019] Ryley Walker

I saw Ryley Walker open for Calexico in May of 2018.  He played with a trio–second guitar and bass.

Even though I was at the show, I clearly didn’t remember it very well, because I was puzzled why he was on this jam band bill.  The confusion is because I mostly remembered him singing the song “Telluride Speed,” a mellow folky song.

But re-watching some of the videos from that show I realize that much of the show was instrumental jams between he and his co-guitarist Bill McKay.  So I should have realized it made sense.

But I was so puzzled when he came out and started playing that I genuinely wasn’t sure if it was the same guy.

In part because the music he was playing was abstract and noisy and utterly experimental.  (It makes sense that his jamming for Calexico would be a bit more folky).  Plus, he looked completely different. (more…)

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Chris Forsyth + Garcia Peoples (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, December 31, 2019) [RYLEY WALKER-Electric in the Village: Phish After Party, show began at 12:30 AM]

Posted in Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Garcia Peoples, Le Poisson Rouge, New York City on December 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 31, 2019] Chris Forsyth + Garcia Peoples

I was blown away the first time I heard Chris Forsyth’s album Dreaming in the Non-Dream.  When I saw his Tiny Desk Concert I was convinced that he was someone I wanted to see live.

Forsyth is based in Philly which means I should be able to see him a lot.  And, in fact, he does seem to play in the area quite a lot. But always when I’m unavailable!  So, if it meant travelling to NYC to see him so be it.

Garcia Peoples’ set ended at around 1:15 and, since they were backing up Forsyth, there was no take down/set up to deal with.  At around 1:30, Forsyth came up on stage and made sure his stuff was in order. Then he called back Garcia Peoples to the stage and off they went.

Like the GP set, Forsyth only played three songs.  And like the GP set, it lasted 45 minutes of awesomeness.

They started with Forsyth’s new song “Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today.”  It’s got a great opening riff and the song just takes off from there.  The song is only 4 minutes on the record (his latest record Mystic Mountain), but they jammed it out for a few minutes more.  Forsyth’s soloing was just fantastic. (more…)

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Garcia Peoples (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, December 31, 2019) [RYLEY WALKER–Electric in the Village: Phish After Party, show began at 12:30 AM]

Posted in Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Garcia Peoples, Grateful Dead, Heron Oblivion, Le Poisson Rouge, Meat Puppets, New York City, Ryley Walker on December 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 31, 2019] Garcia Peoples

I saw Garcia Peoples about a year ago when they opened for Heron Oblivion.  I really liked them and knew I’d want to see them again.  The fact that this year they were on a bill with Chris Forsyth, who I also really wanted to see, and it was an after-party show after the final Phish show I’d be seeing of the year made it even more cool.

I was even willing to stay in NYC until 3 AM to see it!

I arrived at Le Poissin Rouge early enough to get a slice of pizza in the Village (yum) and even get a drink at LPR (the bartender assumed my change was a tip, apparently).

I parked myself on the right side of the stage (I usually prefer the left side, but it was a little crowded there).  I wound up being right in front of GP’s guitarist Tom Malach (who looked different since last time he wore a toque the whole night).

The big difference between these shows was that last time Andy Cush was on bass, but this time it was Derek Spaldo, who also sang lead vocals much of the time.  I understand Andy is still in the band–do they alternate venues?  Well, whatever the case, I thought Cush was great last time and I thought Spaldo was great this time.

This band is so much fun to watch.  Spaldo is often playing a great grooving bassline while Malach and other guitarist Danny Arakaki trade amazing licks. (more…)

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Phish (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, December 30, 2019 [night 3 of 4])

Posted in Kasvot Växt, Kurtis Blow, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Newport Folk Festival, Phish, Taj Mahal, The Velvet Underground on December 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 30, 2019] Phish

After last night’s show, I really didn’t have high hopes for knocking out a bunch of songs.  I realize they don’t know what’s on my list, but it sometimes feels like they do and they keep spacing them out to make sure I come back.

For this show I had seats that I bought in the lottery.  I never get good seats in the Phish lottery, but the tickets themselves are very cool–colorful and quite lovely.  But I was up in the 200s for this show.  And once again my row-mates were lame.  Or maybe I’m the lame one.  Whatever the case, this was my first show where I could see the video screen.  The video screen is pretty terrible because the audio and video are out of synch.  However, it did allow me to take a few good pictures of the guys.

Tonight’s trip into the city was much better.  I’d picked a garage in the village, six blocks from Le Poisson Rouge, and this time I knew I’d be able to make the afterparty (Garcia Peoples, Chris Forsyth, Ryley Walker).  I also managed to go into MSG through a different entrance (I really wish I could keep track of which entrances are the best).  I managed to get the shirt that I liked (sold out last night) and get to my seat with ample time to spare.  Let it be known that there is FAR LESS ROOM in the 200s than in the 100s!

But the lights soon dimmed and Trey played the four opening notes that can only mean one thing–“Wilson!”  The very first time I saw Phish, they opened with “Wilson” and it was a wonderful moment.  And sure, I’ve seen it four times, but it is such a great, exciting song live–so much crowd interaction–that I knew it would be a fun night. (more…)

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Phish (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, December 29, 2019 [night 2 of 4])

Posted in Kasvot Växt, Lee Dorsey, Madison Square Garden, Marco Benevento, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Richard Strauss, The Beatles, Trey Anastasio, TV on the Radio on December 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 29, 2019] Phish

I blew off two of the three Phish shows I had tickets to this summer.  (I really should have gone to that Sunday show).  Camden is such a hassle.

Somehow, I find getting to Madison Square Garden much less of a hassle–which makes literally no sense.  These were my fourth and fifth times seeing them at MSG (compared to two in Camden).  But this MSG trip involved driving into the city ($15 tunnel toll?) and then getting a garage.  And, because I planned to go to an after party at Le Poisson Rouge with Marco Benevento, I decided to park in the village and subway it up.  That’s actually a lot of hassle.

But it was worth it.

This was my eighth Phish show (I could be in double digits by now if I didn’t sell those Camden tickets).

The theory is that the Sunday night of the New Year’s Eve run is always great.  And boy howdy was it. (more…)

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