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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

Spike and the Gimme Gimmes (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Schizophonics, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] Spike and the Gimme Gimmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes was a band I knew nothing about but didn’t like, based on their name.  Then I learned that they are a cover band doing punk covers of classic rock songs and I thought their name was actually pretty perfect and I wanted to see them live.   I had a few opportunities but they kept falling through.

And then I saw that the band has changed its name to Spike and the Gimme Gimmes which isn’t as good a name but which apparently makes sense for some reason or another.

The band is made up of a bunch of different people who tour for a while.  Initially the band had a bunch of famous punkers and now it’s made of some less famous (to me) punkers, but they’re still fun as anything.

For this tour the band was Spike Slawson (of Swingin’ Utters and Re-Volts) on vocals and maracas.  He would be the Spike of the band name and has been their lead singer since they started in 1995.  We also had CJ Ramone (of The Ramones) on bass.  Yes and actual Ramone! (He was one of the first people to replace an original Ramone and was much younger than the rest of the band when he joined.  He was a fun guy to have back there.

On one guitar was Joey Cape (of Lagwagon) who has also been with the band since the beginning (I don’t know him).  Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters was in the band, but now his brother, Scott Shiflett (of Face to Face and Viva Death), plays guitar.  And that leaves the drummer–I can’t tell who it was from the Wikipedia page. (more…)

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The Schizophonics (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025) [SPIKE AND THE GIMME GIMMES]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Schizophonics, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] The Schizophonics

I had not heard of The Schizophonics before this tour.  I looked them up just to see what their deal was and the reviews universally talked about how amazing the live shows are.

About 15 moinutes after Kate Clover left the stage, three people came on stage wearing black jackets with their names on them (fifties style)–Pat, Lety, Sarah.  They removed the jackets and began playing.

Lety Beers on drums and Sarah Linton on bass are great players–Lety’s drums are perfectly timed and Sarah’s bass is perfect for holding the songs together while Pat … does his thing.

Which is… being everywhere all the time.  Pat Beers sings and plays guitar.  And when he is not singing, he is dancing from one side of the stage to the other–skipping, spinning, dropping, rolling.  He ran down the steps on the side of the stage and ran back up on the stage.  All the while, he was still playing guitar.  Even as he dropped to the ground, did a backwards somersault and got back to his feet, the solo was still going on.  Were the solos intricate?  No.  But did he keep the solos going?  Yes indeed.  He plays guitar with one hand in an astonishingly powerful way.  At times he took his guitar off and held it aloft with his left hand and still played with one hand.

I took so many videos and I don’t think I ever captured the full insanity of his stage presence.

Near the end of the set, he put his mic stand on the floor, jumped down and then hopped the barrier.  He put his mic in the middle of the floor and then proceeded to sing and play and run around like a one-man mosh pit.  Even on the floor of the venue, he dropped to his knees, rolled on his back and almost crashed into everyone.  He also had fun singing to a 9-year old in the audience (Lety gave the girl a shout out).

Later, he jumped down without his guitar and sang in the audience,

It was phenomenal and the crowd responded in kind.

What were the songs like?  I have no idea.  They were fast, three chord  rockers.  He sang words but mostly screamed and yelped.  And then he soloed for ages.  The songs were all catchy and simple, but I couldn’t tell you if they were original or covers or what.

I was exhausted just watching him and I was very jealous at his ability to bounce around and get back up so easily.

I enjoyed the heck out of the set and so did everyone else.  They made a ton of new fans, at least of their live show.

I looked at setlists to see what songs they played and yet there’s no recorded setlists for any of their shows this year.  There’s a few shows from 2024 that have songs but I don’t think that’s what they played for us,

They played for about 45 minutes.  Pat was a sweaty mess by the end (although his button down shirt remained tucked in all night).  Pat even broke the heel of his shoe running up and down the stairs.  But he carried on regardless.

I’ve never seen anything like it and I can recommend seeing them one hundred percent.  They may work better as an opening act as I can’t imagine what 90 minutes of that behavior would do to the guy, but if they’re on the bill, don’t miss them!

I have no idea what songs they played and I don’t care what they might play next time.  I’m a convert!

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Kate Clover (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025) [SPIKE AND THE GIMME GIMMES]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] Spike and the Gimme Gimmes

I had wanted to see Me First and the Gimme Gimmes for a little while.  And then they changed their name to Spike and the Gimme Gimmes (I don’t know enough about the band to know anything about this–all I know is there are all kinds of people playing in the band from time to time).

I didn’t really think very much about the opening acts and wasn’t even sure if I’d make it in time to see either opener.  But I got there a few minutes before Kate Clover came on.

I don’t know anything about her.  In fact it’s only when writing this that I found a bio about her (it’s overblown and not very informative) but  I learned that she’s from L.A.

Her set up was simple–guitar, bass and drums–with everyone dressed in black and white.  The guys were in suits and she had a cool black outfit with white piping on it.  They came out and rocked!

Her bio says she learned three chords and that’s what we got.  Simple, chugging, riffing garage rock.  Songs around 3 minutes long with maybe a guitar solo.  Kate also played guitar although for a couple of songs she put down the guitar and just sang.  At one point she said they were going to play a new song, but since you don’t know us, it’s all new, right?  As far as I can tell, this was her first show in New Jersey. (more…)

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The Mountain Goats (Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, August 1, 2025) [GUSTER]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Guster, The Mountain Goats, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage on August 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 24, 2025] The Mountain Goats

Back in I have been wanting to see The Mountain Goats for a long time (my friend Andrew got me into them, jeez, like ten years ago).  They have played in the area nearly every year since I first heard about them but for one reason or another I never saw them. Usually it’s scheduling conflicts and occasionally the show sold out before I heard about it.

I had even more or less given up on seeing them (if you miss a band more than half a dozen times it’s practically a sign from the universe).  But here they were opening for Guster!

I was really excited to finally see them, and I was equally excited/surprised to see that the drummer for The Mountain Goats is Jon Wurster who I have seen with Superchunk and Bob Mould and have therefore seen him five times!  (I thought I’d be seeing him with Superchunk again this fall, but I didn’t realize he had left the band!)

The band was a three piece with multi instrumentalist Matt Douglas playing everything and John Darnielle (the master Goat) singing and playing guitar and keys. (more…)

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TV on the Radio / Soul Glo (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, July 29, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Soul Glo, TV on the Radio on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 12, 2025] TV on the Radio / Soul Glo

I loved the first three TV on the Radio albums. Not sure I ever listened to the other two (Acually I loved Happy Idiot, but probably don’t know anything else from that album).  But that last album came out over ten years ago so I never thought they’d tour, especially since singer Tunde Adebimpe had just released a (very successful) solo album.

But holy cow when they announced this tour, I wanted in so badly!  But it happened to be on the same night as The Swell Season, which my wife and I didn’t want to miss.

So I had to pass by TV on the Radio.  Will they ever tour again?  Who knows.

Soul Glo as the opening band added a frenetic tone that I wouldn’t have expected from TV on the Radio.  They are a wild live band and I hope got more fans from this show.

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Guster / The Mountain Goats (Archer Music Hall, Allentown, PA, July 29, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Allentown PA, Archer Music Hall, Guster, The Mountain Goats on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 29, 2025] Guster / The Mountain Goats

When this Guster/The Mountain Goats tour was announced, I definitely wanted to see them in Allentown–a smallish venue that’s easy to get to.  But we had tickets to The Swell Season that evening and we didn’t want to give those up.

So we went to the Stone Pony Summer Stage instead (and that was awesome).

I have yet to go to Archer Music Hall, and I hope to before the end of the year.

 

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island Tour with Sarah Hicks, Conductor & Music Director, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and DJ Crenshaw (TD Pavilion Stage at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2025)

Posted in DJ Crenshaw, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA on July 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 28, 2025] King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island Tour with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

Last summer I had tickets to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at the Dell Music Center.  The place is a chaotic mess and massive traffic, lack of parking and extreme heat meant that I circled the area and then said the heck with it and went home.  I was a little bummed, but not outrageously.  (The setlist is really good though).

When they announced this tour with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, at the Mann Center, I knew it would be a good venue and I knew it would be a good introduction to them for my son.

We arrived with time to spare, bought some merch and then got in our seats for DJ Crenshaw.  I don’t entirely see the point of someone like this.  He was a live DJ spinning song before the band went on.  Most of the songs were loud and distorted and honestly I couldn’t even tell you what he played.

But soon enough, the lights went down and the orchestra came out.

In many ways this was not the ideal first show for a KGLW newbie as they played their new album in its entirety, but the second set ran through a whole pile of their songs and my son was hooked.

The orchestra came out first (as they do) and Sarah Hicks received a sizable round of applause.  And soon enough the album kicked off.  The orchestra made the album sound huge! (more…)

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Pixies (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2025)

Posted in Band of Skulls, Kurt Vile, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Philadelphia, PA, Pixies, The Fillmore Philadelphia on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 23, 2025] Pixies

I have seen Pixies four times in the last eight years.  I didn’t really know if I wanted to see them again–indeed when these two shows were announced I was iffy about the whole thing.  I did want to go to the first of two nights–where they were playing Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde (since they don’t play very much from either of those albums in their sets–I’ve only seen 2 songs from Bossanova and only 4 from Trompe).  But that turned out to be the night of The Decemberists concert, and I wasn’t going to pass up The Decemberists.

A couple of days before this, I asked my wife if she’d like to go to this show–mostly because Kurt Vile was opening.  She loves Kurt and, as she says, doesn’t know anything by Pixies (except, it turns out Here Comes Your Man).  She agreed and we wound up buying tickets at the box office day of (the first night sold out this one did not).

The Kurt show was great and I told my wife that Pixies are interesting because they do not talk between songs–indeed, they don’t talk at all.  And they will play like 30 songs in 90 minutes.

She felt bad that she didn’t know anything going into the show, but I told her afterwards that they played nearly ten (out of about 30) that I had never heard before.  But it was the 2o songs in between that I was really psyched about.

I was unsure who their new bass player was–it’s Emma Richardson of Band of Skulls.  The biggest difference between her and Paz (who I really liked) is that Emma has blonde hair.  Otherwise, she is an excellent addition to the band.

She sang the first song (and what I assumed was the final song).  The first song was a David Lynch cover “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” that apparently Pixies released a long long time ago on a B-sides record.  She also sang Into the White.  Interestingly (or not) they did not play Gigantic (the most famous Kim Deal sung song).

Heaven is a slow, meandering song, something unlike most Pixies songs, so it felt like it was building to something.  Which turned out to be a song from their 2019 album that I didn’t know.  So, yes, I’m an old school Pixies fan and haven’t listened to much of anything they ‘ve released since they reunited. (more…)

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Kurt Vile and the Violators (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2025) [PIXIES]

Posted in Kurt Vile, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Philadelphia, PA, Pixies, The Fillmore Philadelphia on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 23, 2025] Kurt Vile & The Violators

I had seen Kurt Vile in 2018, but since then, my wife has become a huge fan.  We saw him and the Violators at Union Transfer in 2022.

I know we enjoyed the UT show, but somehow, this opening set was a lot better.  We both felt that way.  Not that we had bad feelings about the UT show, but this just felt bigger, like he was just having a ton of fun.

But it is weird to have him opening since he is a pretty big deal (especially in Philly).  I don’t know if he could sell out the Fillmore on his own, but maybe…  Anyway, he strolled out said he was Kurt from Philly and these were his boys around him.

He started with a song from his new(ish) EP, the only song that we hadn’t heard him play before.

Like last time, he switched guitars pretty much every song and the Violators switched instruments from time to time. (more…)

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The Decemberists (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, July 22, 2025)

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Melt, Merce Lemon, The Decemberists, Wind Creek Event Center on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 22, 2025] The Decemberists 

We saw The Decemberists last year and it was pretty exciting that they announced a small summer tour (8 shows!) and one was in Bethlehem.  My last experience here at Wind Creek was abysmal.  We arrived much earlier tonight and the getting into the venue process wasn’t that terrible.

The previous show was fairly elaborate with a large cast on stage.  They opened with just Colin singing and then the rest of the band slowly coming out to make each song louder.

This time was completely different.  Drummer John Moen came out first and started a rousing drum beat.  Then the rest of the band came out and they launched into July, July! a perfectly apt song for the summer, and one that we hadn’t seen before (which is shocking).  Indeed, while not a rarities show per se, this show featured a lot of songs that we hadn’t seen before or, had only seen once.

I wondered if they’d play much from the new album–technically this is still the same tour (Peaceable Kingdom–their merch totes still said 2024).  They played three songs, Burial Ground which is always fun to hear live.  The other two songs were deep cuts from the new album and two that they hadn’t played live before this mini tour.

Rox in the Box is one of my wife’s favorite songs and she’s always a little bummed when they don’t play it.  But this time they did.  Before the show we talked to the people seated next to us (gasp, really? Yes!) and in discussing what songs they’d like to hear, my wife said Rox in the Box (check) and Make You Better (check).  We also discussed the new jamming version of Severed.  This version had Colin telling an off-the-cuff (clearly) story about the brown shirts in charge of this country being subsumed by the rust of steelstacks (or something).

After a second deep cut from As It Ever Was (which I thought sounded familiar but couldn’t place it), they played a superbly deep cut from an early album: The Bus Mall (something they do play from time to time, but which I’d never heard live).  It was followed by another new track for us, Oceanside, a fun song from their earliest EP.

They brought out Ron from Melt to sing The Queen’s Rebuke and she sounded fantastic!  I don’t know where she came from–Melt didn’t open the show and they are playing in Bethlehem in two days, but how did this magic pairing happen?  I have no idea.  I see they didn’t play it the previous night, so maybe Melt was just hanging around.  Because Ron stayed out for the next song and their guitarist came out and played too.  And that next song was a cover of Paranoid by Black Sabbath.  Not something you expect to hear at a Decemberists show.  However, Ozzy died earlier that day so it seemed a nice tribute.  Colin took the drums and John Moen sang.  He did a fairly decent Ozzy impression (getting everyone to clap and going crazeee), but hilariously he didn’t know the words at all.  How is that possible? (more…)

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