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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

Sunflower Bean (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, August 20, 2019) [BECK]

Posted in Beck, Cage the Elephant, Debbie Harry, Holmdel, NJ, PNC Bank Center, Spoon, Sunflower Bean on August 20, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 23, 2017] Sunflower Bean

Two years ago I saw Sunflower Bean open for Pixies. I thought they were great live and I wanted to see them again.  Since then, they have put out a second album and another EP.

When I saw that they were opening the Spoon/Cage the Elephant/Beck show, I knew I wanted to get there by 6 to see them again.  They were only given 25 minutes, and there were only about 25 people in the arena (not including the lawn), but they rocked the house.

In the two years since I’ve seen them, they have grown bigger (adding a keyboard player) and more confident.  Julia Cumming was a lot louder and more brash as the frontwoman–shouting to the people in the back (and the lawn) and encouraging us all to stand for the final song.  She also sounded great, employing a few different vocal styles on each song.  As always her bass (she plays a Rickenbacker, which is awesome) sounded great.  The biggest change was in her look.  Last time she was wearing a dress and had a fairly normal hairstyle.  For this show she was all glammed out, with a cool pink tigerprint dress and her hair and make up very new wave.  She looked an awful lot like Debbie Harry. (more…)

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Death Valley Girls / The Distillers (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 14, 2019) [POSTPONED AGAIN]

Posted in Death Valley Girls, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Starcrawler, The Distillers, Union Transfer on August 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[NOT ATTENDED: August 14, 2019] Death Valley Girls/The Distillers [rescheduled from June 1, moved to October 7]

On June 1, I drove to Union Transfer to see Starcrawler and The Distillers only to learn:

“Brody has a herniated disc and can not stand. She’s at the hospital getting treatment now.”

So I went home with the knowledge that the show was going to be rescheduled for August 14.

Then on August 3rd, I received this email

Hello Distillers fans,

Unfortunately another member of The Distillers was recently injured and they have to postpone their Philly date again. They are dedicated to make it back to Philly and play for you!!! So all tickets will be honored. Including tickets originally purchased for the original June 1st date.

(more…)

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Phish (BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, June 29, 2019)

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, Mike Gordon, Newport Folk Festival, Phish, Set in New Jersey!, Trey Anastasio, TV on the Radio on June 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 29, 2018] Phish

I was very excited to see Phish again this summer.  I bought tickets for all three shows at the BB&T Pavillion.

But then my week had turned very busy with shows and other commitments.  When I heard Cate Le Bon was playing at Boot & Saddle on the Friday night, I decided to sell Friday’s ticket.  I mean, let’s be honest, BB&T is a pain in the ass to get to (and parking is insane and expensive).   (I wound up not even going to Cate Le Bon either, boo).   I also decided to sell Sunday’s ticket because Saturday was a long night and I had had enough of the late nights for a time.

But for the Saturday show I had originally bought two tickets so that S. could go to her first Phish show.  I was bummed that they were lawn seats, although I think she felt this added to the experience because she got to see all of the people dancing and milling about.  We were supposed to meet my friend Armando, which would have made the whole night really fun, but he had car trouble and wound up not making it.  (boo).

So it was just S. and I.  Traffic sucked, parking sucked and the weather was questionable.   We arrived literally as “Mike’s Song” started.  So we found a somewhat unused spot on the lawn and settled in.  Phish fans are very friendly but for some reason the group around us wasn’t very inclusive.  In what has to be a first, no one offered either of us a joint the whole night!  They must have thought we were narcs. (more…)

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Kikagaku Moyo (Monty Hall, Jersey City, NJ, June 27, 2019)

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Kikagaku Moyo, Monty Hall, Pandit Manilal Nag on June 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 27, 2019] Kikagaku Moyo

I ‘m not sure where I first heard about Kikagaku Moyo (which means “geometric patterns”), but I know it wasn’t very long before this show.

I have more or less gotten to the point where any Japanese psychedelic band that comes to town I’m going to want to check out.

I’ve loved Acid Mothers Temple, I’ve loved Boris (heavy psychedelic, but still) and now I’m adding Kikagaku Moyo to the list.

The band consists of Go Kurosawa (drums/vocals), Tomo Katsurada (lead guitar/vocals), Daoud Popal (guitar), Kotsu Guy (bass) and Go’s brother Ryu Kurosawa (sitar).  They’ve been around for about 6 years and have developed a dedicated following here in the States (everyone at the show appeared to be buying their vinyl).

One of the reasons that Monty Hall is such a fun venue is because while I was waiting online to get into the place, the five guys from the band walked in the same door carrying a pizza.  At first I thought a group of people was just pushing in the line, but their outfits pretty much gave away that they were the band. (more…)

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Sarah Louise (Monty Hall, Jersey City, NJ, June 27, 2019) [KIKAGAKU MOYO]

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Kikagaku Moyo, Monty Hall, Sarah Louise on June 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 27, 2019] Sarah Louise

I had heard of Sarah Louise through NPR, although I didn’t know all that much about her.

The NPR page says, “Henson’s career so far has largely hinged on her unmatched prowess as a fingerpicking guitarist. Solo, she’s made a handful of excellent albums of 12-string acoustic guitar music.  But on Deeper Woods, she branches out into all kind of different sounds.”

Having read that she was a master of the 12 string, I was genuinely surprised that surprised that so much of the show was on electric guitar.  (I assume her 12-string prowess is on the acoustic, but I may be wrong).

It was also strange because she didn’t do a lot on the guitar.  The first couple of songs were sparse guitar playing coupled with complex and presumably improvised drumming from Thom Nguyen.

At times she fleshed out her sound with samples, including in this song which was as much about the birds as it was about her guitar playing. (more…)

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Astronoid (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2019)

Posted in Astronoid, Bad Books, Frost Giant, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Foundry on June 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 26, 2019] Astronoid

I had not heard of Astronoid until I saw that Frost Giant was playing this show with them.  I actually had tickets to Bad Books this same evening and I posted a poll to see who I should check out live.  Of the 5 replies (including one from someone in Astronoid), 4 said Astronoid.  Sorry Bad Books.

Astronoid are from Boston and they play what has been described as “a buoyant mix of metal, thrash, punk, prog-rock and shoegaze.”  They cite as influences the Norwegian black metal band Emperor and the Danish band Mew (two very different bands indeed).

And all of that is evident in their music and their set.

They played every song from their new album (not in order) and a few from their debut from 2016.  The crowd around me was definitely more excited by the older stuff, but the guy next to me seemed to know every drum part to every song. (more…)

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Infinity Shred (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2019) [ASTRONOID]

Posted in Astronoid, Frost Giant, Infinity Shred, Philadelphia, PA, Starscream, The Foundry on June 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 26, 2019] Infinity Shred

I had not heard of Infinity Shred before this show although it seemed like many people were very excited they were opening.

If you look up Infinity Shred you will find a few genres associated with them: electronic, dance, post-rock.  I saw synthwave and chiptune as describers as well.

I don’t know the last two, but I think they all do a good job of describing this band (although synthwave is pretty amorphous, honestly).

Basically the band is a trio from New York.  Clara Warnaar plays drums.  I was standing in front of guitarist Nathan Ritholz and on the other side of the stage was keyboardist Damon Hardjowirogo.

In addition to their instruments, they also had three bright LED panels.  These panels were synchronized to flash red white or blue.  They each lit up a member of the band (with the drummer’s inside her bass drum.  I assumed they were programmed along with some of the sounds?

Damon introduced the band but his mic wasn’t working so he just shouted.  The band began, the lights started flashing and off they went. (more…)

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Frost Giant (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2019) [ASTRONOID]

Posted in Arkona, Astronoid, Frost Giant, Korpiklaani, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry on June 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 26, 2019] Frost Giant

Can you be epic in a tiny space?

If you are Philadelphia’s Frost Giant, the answer is hell yes!

I was supposed to see Frost Giant play with Arkona and Korpiklaani at the TLA, but the promoters put Frost Giant on before the start time of 8PM (!) and I missed their set entirely.

I have wanted to check them out, so when they were listed as playing the Foundry with Astronoid, I figured I’d go.  Even though I didn’t yet know Astronoid.

So I arrived early (just in case) and took my place in front of the stage when the band came out.

I was delighted by Armen Koroghlian’s intense drum kit and Matti Frost’s look.  And then I was impressed by their power.

The band played four songs, starting with the almost lead off track from their new album The Harlot Star. (more…)

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Dido (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 2019)

Posted in Dido, Jody Linscot, Philadelphia, PA, Roswell, Union Transfer on June 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 21, 2019] Dido

I bought these tickets back in November thinking “Dido is playing Union Transfer?” and then, “What happened to Dido?”  I didn’t realize that she had released some albums in the intervening years. I was vaguely aware of her 2008 release but missed the 2013 release entirely.   I also see that she hasn’t toured the states in FIFTEEN years.  In 2004 she played the Tower Theatre but in 2001 she headlined the Tweeter Center.  Remember Tweeter?

So that explains the small venue.  It also explains why it sold out.

Almost all of my familiarity with Dido comes from S.  When we first started dating she played No Angel a lot and I found I rather enjoyed it–a relaxing soundtrack on a summer day.  When I received the tickets for this show, it came wit a copy of her new CD.  We listened to it and I found it pleasant but somewhat unremarkable.  I assumed the show would be the same–an enjoyable, chill evening.

Boy howdy was I wrong.  It’s as if everything on the CD was made for chilling out, but the show was made for dancing.  She had a five piece band behind her and they were fantastic.  With much appreciation to the percussionist Jody Linscott who was freaking amazing and Adam Falkner on drums who played really loud and hard and kept the songs really moving.

The other amazing thing was Dido’s herself.  She has a lovely voice–always has.  On record it’s quite subdued.  But live, she belted out notes, sang passionately and was totally engaging as a performer.  She walked around the stage.  She sat down right in front of us for a song (shame we were behind the two tallest people there), she smiled all the time–a genuine smile that showed how much she appreciated us coming out to see her.  And she was quite funny, too. (more…)

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Jack Savoretti (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 2019) [DIDO]

Posted in Dido, Jack Savoretti, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED:  June 21, 2019] Jack Savoretti

I bought these tickets for Dido back in November!  There was no mention of an opening act until recently.

I had not heard of Jack Savoretti.  I looked him up and saw that he was English solo acoustic singer of Italian descent.  His song “Candlelight” peaked at #70 in the UK Charts in 2019.

I assumed he’d be a solo folk singer.  But he had a full band with him.

Jack has a gruff voice–but not too gruff, S. informed me.  I rather liked him.  His songs were catchy and thoughtful.  Although honestly it was all kind of forgettable.

But my first thought was that he must certainly appeal to the hypothetical “woman of a certain age.”  He is in his 30s, handsome, rugged-sounding.  And he’s a family man.  I just imagined women throwing their knickers at him in Vegas someday.  Actually I suppose women don’t do that anymore, so whatever the 21st century equivalent is.  There were actually two drunk British women of a certain age behind us and when he came out they started yelling, “hey there, Jackie boy!”  They apparently also almost got into  fight with some one. (more…)

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