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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

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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Palm (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 24, 2017)

Posted in Palberta, Palm, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Suffer Dragon on June 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 24, 2017] Palm

I saw Palm open for Dilly Dally last year and I enjoyed their set a lot.  I instantly found their bandcamp site and downloaded Trading Basics (Ostrich Vacation is a bit more out there).  This show at PhilaMOCA was ostensibly an album release party for their new EP, Shadow Expert.  But when I asked the bassist if that meant the were going to throw confetti he just laughed.  Later Eve Alpert said she was really blown away that so many people came (it was sold out).  So it was cool to be at that show.

I was really excited to see them in such a small place and I planted myself right up front to watch what they were doing (those chords!).  After about four songs someone came thundering in from who knows where and started slam dancing (she was the only one), and I wound up pretty far back after that, which sucked.  It was also really really stupid hot in there, but Palm transcended the scene and played an awesome set.

They played most (but I don’t think all) of the new EP.  It even sounded like they may have thrown in some brand new songs too, but I’m not sure.  They started with “Walkie Talkie” and the opening strange chords and notes of the EP–it’s so interesting to watch them play this stuff.  And the fact that they are perfectly in sync and never miss a beat is just outstanding. (more…)

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Palberta (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 24, 2017) [PALM]

Posted in Palberta, Palm, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Suffer Dragon on June 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 24, 2017] Palberta

For Palberta, I came down from the balcony because the room had cleared out some–it was really hot so people headed outside for a mew minutes.  I grabbed a spot pretty close and then just before the band went on a tall fellow with artificial flowers (that seemed like he was going to give to the band but never did) stood on front of me.

I’d only heard of Palberta after seeing that they were going to open for Palm.  They have gotten some write ups in some pretty major publications (in Feb they were mention in Rolling Stone as 1 of 10 new bands to get to know).  In that article, Rolling Stone says

sing disjointed playground punk that embraces both dissonance and innocence, trading instruments as quickly as they change ideas: A good 80 percent of the songs poke and scurry off before two minutes are up. “At this point writing short songs feels more intuitive for us than intentional – it’s the natural way,” says Nina Ryser. “It kind of reflects the song writing process itself: frenzied, fast, kind of jumbled.”

And that’s a pretty apt description of the band (I’m fairly surprised that they were mentioned there at all).

And the band says: (more…)

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Suffer Dragon (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 24, 2017) [PALM]

Posted in Palm, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Suffer Dragon on June 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 24, 2017] Suffer Dragon

Two trips to PhilaMOCA in three days.  This time to see a local band that I really like, Palm.

I arrived in the middle of Suffer Dragon set and immediately went upstairs where no one was (it as incredibly hot once again).  I enjoyed that angle quite a bit.  It was very close to the stage and you could really see what both guys were doing.

For Suffer Dragon is a duo–guitar (Adam Babar) and one drum (Daniel Betts).  I didn’t know any of their songs until I looked them up online–there was basically one live video that I watched.  I gather they might be pretty locally famous.  Indeed, back in May, Palm opened for Suffer Dragon.

What made this duo different from many other duos is that Betts also played keyboards (drumstick in right hand, left on the keys) and the Babar’s guitar was hooked up to some crazy effects pedals that made many things he played sound very un-guitar-like.  He was the singer as well. (more…)

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Chastity Belt (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 22, 2017)

Posted in Chastity Belt, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA on June 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 22, 2017] Chastity Belt

 I first heard of Chastity Belt from All Songs Considered.  They’d played their really great song, “Black Sail.”  And they also brought attention to their amusing/appalling band photo (see below).  The album No Regerts [sic] had some fun/funny punky feminist songs.  Since then the band has released two albums (and their new one is really really good) and changed their band promo photo style (see below also).  They’re still writing feminist songs but they’re slightly less abrasive (and not called things like “Giant Vagina” or “Nip Slip”).

In fact, despite their name and that particular photo below, their music is really chill.  Julia Shapiro plays nicely jangly almost shoegazy guitar while Lydia Lund plays some simple but really catchy guitar lines that emphasize or counterpoint the melody.  Annie Truscott keeps everything grounded with her bass and Gretchen Grimm plays some really interesting drum parts.  It was particularly notable live since the drums were louder, that Gretchen wasn’t just playing snare/bass, but was playing complex patterns on her toms.  It really made for a cool sound.

I also got a kick out of Shapiro handing out the setlist to everyone on what looked like little tiny pieces of paper (wonder if they were handwritten). (more…)

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Sneaks (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 22, 2017) [CHASTITY BELT]

Posted in Black Flag, Chastity Belt, Joy Again, Kim Gordon, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Sneaks, Sonic Youth on June 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 22, 2017] Sneaks

Sneaks was second on the bill opening for Chastity Belt.

I ended my post about Joy Again by coming out of the bathroom.  Well, while I was on line, I kinda thought that Sneaks was standing behind me.  But I’d only watched one video from her so I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to be presumptuous.  Well, I was right, because the woman wearing the Space Jam T-shirt climbed up on stage with the same shirt tied in a knot and, now, glitter all over her face.

I hadn’t heard Sneaks, so I checked out her bandcamp.  Sneaks is basically a one-woman show.  She plays bass and sings/raps/freestyles over her punky bass and a drum machine.  She has a lo-fi recording out and a more polished disc.  I would have loved both of these records when I was in college–the DIY punk attitude is pretty great.  But I didn’t love either one all that much the other day.

But she was great live. (more…)

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Joy Again (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, June 22, 2017) [CHASTITY BELT]

Posted in Dungen, Joy Again, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA on June 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 22, 2017] Joy Again

I had never been to PhilaMOCA before this evening.  I was supposed to see Dungen there this winter, but a snow storm kept me away.  Well, imagine my surprise that the event location is even smaller than I realized.  You walk in and the band is directly to your left.  There’s a small room and a balcony (sometimes in use) which holds about 250 people.

When I walked in Joy Again was already on stage.  I had listened to their bandcamp release before the show.  It was a lo-fi affair.

I was surprised at just how loud the band was live–a very different experience than I was expecting. (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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Nnamdi Ogbonnaya / Tancred / PWR BTTM (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, June 17, 2017) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, Philadelphia, PA, PWR BTTM, Tancred, Union Transfer on June 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: June 17, 2017] Nnamdi Ogbonnaya/Tancred/PWR BTTM

I had really enjoyed PWR BTTM on their Tiny Desk show.  Their live show appeared to be a spectacle of fun.  I was really looking forward to this live show.

And then within a week or so after the release of their second album, the whole thing fell apart.

On May 11, Ben was accused of various predatory behaviors.
The next day, two band members quit.
The opening acts dropped out of the tour.  For my show, they were to be Nnamdi Ogbonnaya and Tancred.
Their management dropped them and they were kicked out of a couple of festivals.
The record label dropped them and stopped selling the album (less than 24 hours after it had been released).
On May 16, I was sent a refund for my concert.

Obviously, I hope all parties can get the help they need.  But in my selfish state, I can’t help but wish it all went down a month later.

I also wish that the accusations against trump stuck as hard and caused such an immediate downfall. (more…)

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