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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

Ted Leo (Revilla Grooves and Gear, Milltown, NJ, November 20, 2025)

Posted in Milltown NJ, Ray Lego, Revilla Grooves and Gear, Ted Leo on November 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2025] Ted Leo

I’ve seen Ted Leo three times before this.  Twice with Pharmacists and once with Aimee Mann for a Christmas show.  When I saw that he was playing a solo gig at Revilla Grooves, since it’s only 45 minutes from me, I had to go.  I also happen to know the owner, who DJ’d at my wedding.  But this is the first I’d been to his store and it is impressive.  A fantastic collection of vinyl and CDs as well as a ton of used equipment.  If you’re into music, it’s worth the trip.  He knows his stuff too.

But back to Ted Leo.

Back in September, Revilla Grooves hosted the ‘Noise In Focus: 30 Years of Music Photography’ exhibition.  It’s 30 years of candid photos of hundreds of musicians (while I was there I saw MCR, Deftones, Phoebe Bridgers, Jarvis Cocker and so many more) by Ray Lego.  This was the final night of the exhibition which also included a video room containing “Unseen behind the scenes of making of Deftones’  “Sat Night Wrist” record.  The video was from a bunch of tapes Lego had saved from when the band was making Saturday Night Wrist.  It showed the guys playing and taking candid shots.  There was no sound, but it was cool to watch for a bit.

So on this closing night, Ray invited Ted Leo (of whom there were many photos) to play a 45 minute electric set.  I’d never been before and the setup was great.  There’s a small stage and the sound was fantastic.  So, standing about five feet away I got to see Ted Leo do his thing.  This seemed like a great opportunity for Ted to play whatever the heck he wanted.  And I was pretty delighted by the variety of songs he played–some that I knew and many that I didn’t. (more…)

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Ghost Funk Orchestra (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 19, 2025) [PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS]

Posted in Ghost Funk Orchestra, Philadelphia, PA, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Union Transfer on November 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2025] Ghost Funk Orchestra

I was really excited to see the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets again.  I had no idea who might be the support act (last time it was Acid Dad which was awesome).  I didn’t know who Ghost Funk Orchestra was and wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the name is fairly apt.

They are an orchestra–at least on stage there were some nine people up there.  Although Ghost Funk Orchestra is the brainchild of composer/multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum and it started as a one man band.

But for our show on the right side of the stage were a trumpeter, a baritone sax player (Stephen Chen, the only person whose name I got because he was very very popular–he also plays with San Fermin) and a trombonist.  Their bass player stood with them as well.

I was delighted with how no one in the band looked like anyone else–Chen dressed in a button down shirt and the bass player wearing what looked like a cowboy outfit with large silver buttons (stars?) down the outside of his pants.  The trombonist had long hair an a beard while most everyone else had short hair.  It felt like a motley crew thrown together to make great music. (more…)

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Blake Freeman (NJPAC–Victoria Theater, Newark, NJ, November 14, 2025) [AARON CHEN]

Posted in Aaron Chen, Blake Freeman, Newark, NJ, NJPAC-Victoria Theater, Set in New Jersey! on November 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2025] Blake Freeman

I have made a list of all of comedians from Taskmaster who I would like to see live.  It’s not everyone of course (some of them don’t do stand up and some I don’t think I would enjoy).  And then we started watching Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand, and I’ve added a dozen or so more to that list.

So I was pretty delighted that Aaron Chen announced a show at NJPAC–only ten days after Romesh Ranganathan.

Romesh didn’t have an opening act, so I didn’t know if Aaron would.  But out came an Australian comedian named Blake Freeman.  Blake has been living in the U.S. for about a year (with his partner).

He was very funny.  His delivery was calm but witty.  Talking about living in the U.S., he said the hardest part wasn’t having absolutely no professional or personal support network, it’s that we use Fahrenheit.

There was a very funny bit about him not being able to fight.  He said that he and his mates are open emotionally, and so they only fight when people can’t admit their feelings.  He had to break up a fight between his friends because one felt the other wasn’t opening up about his breakup, “You think you’re tough, well, connect with me like a man.”  After, he apologized saying his love language was touch. (more…)

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WXPN Thank A Member Live Band Karaoke Party (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, November 13, 2025)

Posted in Cheap Trick, David Bowie, Madonna, Philadelphia, PA, Queen, The Beatles, Thin Lizzy, World Cafe Live, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 13, 2025] WXPN Thank A Member Live Band Karaoke Party

When WXPN announced this event, it sounded like a lot of fun.

A chance to mingle with other members and to see (and maybe sing) karaoke.  But the mostexciting part for me was that the live music was being performed by Pat Finnerty and the Full Band.  I’ve seen Pat twice and I love his videos.  It would be cool just to see him play and maybe hear him do a Little Stinker.

I put in my song choice–The Boys Are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy.  And kind of regretted it. It’s in my range but I realized I don’t know the words all that well.  But when we arrived we were allowed to put more songs in so that the band had more options to choose from.

My wife suggested I put in Surrender by Cheap Trick and I knew she was on to something.

So the night was quite a lot of fun.  We aren’t minglers and my hip was bothering me, so we sat in the (empty) ADA section while people around us danced and drank (free drinks, but as my wife pointed out they didn’t use the top shelf stuff–we found out a few weeks later that World Cafe Live had lost its liquor license and probably shouldn’t have been serving anything!).

The night was emceed by Kristen Kurtis and Robert Drake.  I always wonder if Radio DJs are “celebrities” or not.  It was fun seeing them in person, but even if you listened to the radio, would you care that I got to see or meet them?  We met Robert Drake at a Sloan show a few years ago and he was super nice, but I feel like he’s so present in Philly that everyone has probably met him.

I can’t remember all of the songs that people sang.  But I did appreciate that they projected the lyrics to the songs on the wall so we could follow along.  It also meant that I learned the words to a few songs that I had NO IDEA about.

A woman sang David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream.  I’ve heard that song hundreds of times and realized I never knew any of the words and certainly never guessed they were:

I’m an alligatorI’m a mama-papa comin’ for youI’m the space invaderI’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for youKeep your mouth shutyou’re squawking like a pink monkey birdAnd I’m bustin’ up my brains for the words

Someone else did Space Oddity.

The night opened with DJ Jim McGuinn singing and playing guitar (Pat informed everyone else that Jim was the only other person who was going to be playing guitar–nobody get any ideas) on an Elvis Costello song.

Two women did Pink!’s Get the Party Started (and even brought little megaphones to sing into).

And as they introduced all of the singers, they were all listed as in choirs or singers in bands–one was even in a tribute band to the artist she sang.  And I wondered if I was called up if I would be okay (having never done karaoke or sung in front of people before). (more…)

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Kurtis Conner (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2025)

Posted in Danny Gonzalez, Dean Hebscher, Drew Gooden, Jacob Sharpe, Kiss, Kurtis Conner, Neil Diamond, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, The Rolling Stones on November 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 9, 2025] Kurtis Conner

My daughter and I saw Kurtis Conner three years ago.  I didn’t know him at al, but I knew my kids really liked him.  I came away from the show laughing really hard and having a really strong respect for him as a comedian.

I still have not really watched any of his YouTube stuff (what I’ve seen I like, but it’s off my radar).  But what really impressed me (and impressed me more this time) was how a YouTuber who effectively uses editing can do standup so well.  He is (mostly) comfortable in front of the audience (in fairness, everyone there loves him and there is nary a heckler in sight), and he clearly feeds off of the laughter.

Although he is (quite a bit) younger than me, I found it really interesting that his childhood sounded kind of similar to mine–defects and all.  Kurtis is a feminist and an ally, and proudly on both counts (which I found wonderful since my kids liked him so much).  But he’s also able to look back on his younger self with dismay at the way he (and kids in general) behaved.  It does make for good comedy too.  Like he regretted that when he was ten, he and his friends used to use “gay” as an insult.  Like he would be drawing and his friend would come up and he’d tell the guy to get away and stop being gay–and then go back to drawing the most detailed penis you’ve ever seen.

The show was called The Goodfellow Tour and it is named after where he grew up–on Goodfellow Street.  A road that had a ton of kids in it.  They used to play together all the time.  He had a lengthy but very funny bit about a kid in their group whom they all convinced had super fast speed.  They would do races all the time and the kid with super fast speed (who was in reality the slowest person in the world) would win. It went on all summer until the kid’s father found out.

This was all in aid of a running joke that he is a compulsive liar trying to fix that about himself.  But somehow, he keeps lying–throughout the show, even, making the jokes even funnier. (more…)

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Danny Gonzalez (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2025) [KURTIS CONNER]

Posted in Danny Gonzalez, Kurtis Conner, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on November 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 9, 2025] Danny Gonzalez

My daughter and I saw Kurtis Conner three years ago.  I didn’t know his stuff at all but I thought he was really funny.  So when he announced another show in the same venue I grabbed us tickets.  My son is also a fan and he wanted to go to this show too, so it was a fun night out with the kids.

We had seats in the balcony but they allowed us to sit in the ADA section.  It didn’t seem like it sold very well, which I was surprised by since last time I think it was sold out.  But we enjoyed the spaciousness of the ADA section to be sure.

Before the show started, we didn’t know if there would be an opening act.  And then Kurtis announced that his special guest would be Danny Gonzales.  The crowd went crazy, although I had no idea who he was. I see that for the last show I wrote that my daughter told me

the Holy Trinity is Kurtis Conner, Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden.

So, it was cool to see one third of the trinity.

Danny was very funny.  He seemed a little nervous to be doing stand up, and suggested that it was either his first time or his first time in a long while.  But he was very warmly received–that’s an understatement.  My daughter says it was very exciting to see him live.  And the one vide I can find of his introduction practically blew out the speakers of my phone (more…)

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Rocket (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2025)

Posted in Bleary Eyed, Cashier, Philadelphia, PA, Rocket, Warehouse on Watts on November 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2025] Rocket

About a year ago I saw Rocket open for Ride and I loved their set. I wrote then

This band is from LA and holy cow, they scratched just about every musical itch I had.  Soft female vocals, shoegaze to heavy crunchy guitars.  It was all there.  I loved every second of their set.

I mentioned the L.A. part because there’s a few bands named Rocket and this was the easiest way to distinguish them.

Anyhow, I said that I would definitely see them again and here was a great opportunity.

There’s nothing fancy in Warehouse on Watts and that’s totally fine.  It’s all about the music.  And wow, did Rocket sound great.  Despite this being a tour for their new album, they opened with Take Your Aim from their previous album.  It’s got great guitar riffs and a classic 90s alt rock sound,   It wasn’t quite as immediate as Portrait Show (which won me instantly last time and which they didn’t even play this time (!). But it was still great.

I loved the vocal melody on the chorus of Sugarcoated.  Things got loud again with a great fuzzy bass intro and perfect guitar lines on “Act Like Your Title.”  “Crossing Fingers” continued with perfect quiet verses and soaring vocals and a great chord progression in the chorus.

For The choice she moved to the keys adding a droning high end with really no low end–a nice mix up in tone as the guitar played  a cool melody.  But SHE was back to the bass for Crazy with the nice low end kicking back in.  For Number One Fan, the guitarist moved to synth for this dreamy slow song.

The final three songs were three that they played last time, too.  They were unreleased at the time.  Pretending has another classic grungy riff–hits all the sweet spots.  Wide Awake is a solid rocker with guitar harmonics and a heavy riff.

And R is for Rocket is a fantastic set ender.  It rocks with a great riff and then has a lengthy jam in the middle of the song–not a wild soloing jam, just a nice noisy jam with the band enjoying the riffs that they made.

The set was about an hour and they played a great set,  I was pretty surprised that they didn’t play more of the songs they played last time.  But it was nice to hear the new ones.

 

2025 [W.O.W. headline] 2024 [open Ride]
Take Your Aim ∇ Portrait Show ∇
One Million ® Sugarcoated ∇
Sugarcoated ∇ Pretending ®
Act Like Your Title ® On Your Heels ∇
Crossing Fingers ® Normal to Me ∇
The Choice ® Pipe Dream ∇
Crazy ® Wide Awake ®
Number One Fan ® R is for Rocket ®
Another Second Chance ®
Pretending ®
Wide Awake®
R is for Rocket®

® R is for Rocket (2025)
∇ Versions of You (2023)

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Cashier (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2025) [ROCKET]

Posted in Bleary Eyed, Cashier, Philadelphia, PA, Rocket, Warehouse on Watts on November 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2025] Cashier

Cashier is a four piece from Louisiana.  Before this show I went to their bandcamp and found exactly five songs.  And I liked them all.  A grungy shoegaze vibe with female vocals and cool guitar sounds.

I stood in front of singer guitarist Kylie Gaspard who played intensely and sang with a similar intensity.  She was an early focus for me, but I soon realized  that the whole band was fun to watch.

They opened with Beginner, and like on the recorded version, it opens with feedback and two guitars playing one note over and over until one of the guitars turns it into a little riff and then the song slams out with the full force of the band.

Guitarist Joseph Perillo and bassist Austyn Wood were on the far side and I couldn’t really see them, but Perillo’s guitars were great–playing lead lines throughout the songs. (more…)

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The Mars Volta (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 5, 2025)

Posted in Feliz y Dada, Kianí Medina, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Mars Volta on November 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 5, 2025] The Mars Volta

My son and I saw The Mars Volta open for Deftones in an arena and the sound was terrible.  They played an unreleased album so it was really hard to know what was going on in a cavernous place where all subtlety was lost.

So when they announced a headlining tour I grabbed tickets for my son and I.  And what a treat to get there early and be right up front for the show.

Visually there wasn’t a lot going on–the band is largely dressed in black and white and there was only a black curtain behind them.  The lights tended toward the dark and the blue so you couldn’t see super clearly.  But this was really all about the music.

This show was for them to play their new album, Lucro sucio straight through, just like they did opening for the Deftones.  That set was 40 minutes (like the album) but this show was about twice as long with lots of trippy jamming sections.

The set opens quietly with Fin wherein Cedric Bixler-Zavala sings to a synth opening–his voice soaring to great heights–as it did all night, his voice is incredible. (more…)

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Bleary Eyed (Warehouse on Watts, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2025) [ROCKET]

Posted in Bleary Eyed, Cashier, Philadelphia, PA, Rocket, Warehouse on Watts on November 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2025] Bleary Eyed

I was supposed to see Bleary Eyed with Hello Mary back in 2024.   But family things came up and I couldn’t go.  I don’t always try to see bands that I missed for one reason or another. And I certainly don’t with opening bands.  But it is fun to see a band that I was supposed to and check them off an imaginary list.

Bleary Eyed is from Philadelphia so I’m surprised I have seen them on more bills, but I consider myself lucky that there are so many good Philly bands that can get tossed onto a bill sometimes as the first or second opener.

Bleary Eyed is the brainchild of Nathaniel Salfi who sings and plays guitar.  He started the project in 2015 and has had a mostly revolving lineup.  Margot Whipps joined the band on vocals and guitar a couple of years ago (she’s also credited with bass).

Bleary Eyed turned out to be a classic-sounding shoegaze band with chorusing guitars and washes of sound.  There were also some keyboard flourishes and two singers.    Nathaniel has a somewhat deeper voice that flows perfectly with the sound.

I enjoyed the way they mixed up the sound with some really good loud/quiet shifts in Wreck.  There was also some good My Bloody Valentinesque soloing at the opening of 2 True.  And a great opening riff on Upset which was sung by Margot.  I felt like her vocals were not loud enough, although it may have been that I was on the other side and everyone on my side was loud. (more…)

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