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Archive for the ‘The Foundry’ Category

Cheekface / Pacing (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, April 24, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cheekface, Pacing, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry on April 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 24, 2025] Cheekface / Pacing

I saw Cheekface two years ago and loved them.  I really wanted to see them again.  Last year they played The Church, which I don’t go to.  So when they announced this show at The Foundry I was psyched.  But I already had tickets to see Magic Sword tonight.  What’s a guy to do?

Well, having gone out a few times and having my wife at home still recovering, a guy stays home and doesn’t see either band.

I had not heard of Pacing but when I looked them up I found them delightful and hilarious.  Their bio says

Pacing is the songwriting and recording project of Katie McTigue (she/her). Various Small Flames wrote that she “follows inthe playful, tongue-in-cheek tradition of the likes of Kimya Dawson, yet always nudges the ideas further to be more than mere twee humour or sardonic fun.” Fans and new listeners alike often remark that her anxious, confessional lyrics are “a little too relatable.”

The music is kind of twee but I do love twee.  This would have been a really fun show.

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Chase Petra / Small Crush / Sorry Mom (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, April 11, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Chase Petra, Philadelphia, PA, Small Crush, Sorry Mom, The Foundry on April 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 11, 2025] Chase Petra / Small Crush / Sorry Mom

I saw Chase Petra open for Pool Kids and they were great.

Lead singer Hunter Allen’s vocals are fantastic.  Loud and powerful with some great subtleties–she puts a lot of emotion into her delivery. Guitarist Genevieve Quiquivix played some great riffs and even put some cool finger tappings between lines of  the verses–awesome.

I would have greatly enjoyed seeing them again, but I still wasn’t leaving the house after my wife’s surgery.

Small Crush is from L.A.  They write short poppy punky songs that are a ton of fun.  More poppy than punky, but with a great DIY vibe.  Their bio says the band

began in Logan Hammon’s bedroom when she was 13 years old, writing songs on her dad’s old guitar and recording covers on garageband. In her sophomore year of high school, she found some friends in jazz band class to help fulfill her dream of playing her songs in a full band. Together the band began developing their indie rock sound by getting inspired by 90s alternative and early 2000s indie.

Sorry Mom is a queer punk band from New York City.  Their bio is pretty great.  It says that they

like to hang out and play music and shoot hoops. they’ve shared the court with the likes of ajj and two members of the front bottoms. 

and continues

We’re Juno and Taryn. Juno sings and plays guitar and writes all our songs. Taryn drums and makes websites on Wix. Juno does stick and poke tattoos and loves to cook. Taryn has lots of plants and likes to draw pictures that have frogs in them. If you’ve ever seen a business-y tweet from our band account, that was Taryn.If you’ve ever seen a nonsense, borderline psychotic tweet from the band account, that was Juno. It’s very nice to meet you! 

Their songs are fast and sloppy and fun as anything.  No doubt very fun live.

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Transviolet / Annabel Lee / Mixie (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2025) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Annabel Lee, Mixie, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry, Transviolet on April 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: April 9, 2025] Transviolet / Annabel Lee / Mixie

I had missed Transviolet when they opened for Mother Mother.  But I started following them on Instagram and I found them really interesting.  They announced a headlining tour and were going to play The Foundry, which was pretty ideal (although lead singer Sarah McTaggart is really energetic and I wonder how she would have coped with such a small stage).

The show was cancelled inexplicably at the last minute.  I posted a question as to why on their Instagram and Sarah wrote back: it rhymes with smive smation

A last minute change allowed Sarah to play a solo show at Ortlieb’s which is pretty awesome.  I didn’t know about it though.  But as Sarah wrote:

love you philly, sorry we couldn’t play our show as intended, but glad we got to share this special moment together ❤️‍🩹 special thanks to @ortliebsphilly for coming through and being so kind to let us set up a lil merch pop up for the diehards/fans who flew in to see us

Annabel Lee was one of the openers.  I didn’t know them, but their bandcamp bio says

Annabel Lee is a Los Angeles rock and roll artist known for her unhinged stage persona and “high octane” (Earmilk) vocals. Getting her start performing at hardcore shows around New England, Annabel brings that kind of unbridled energy to her shows, where everyone is on the cusp of losing their shit while also bringing senstitivity and tenderness with her heavy, imagistic lyricism. 

Mixie is an LA based artist who pushes the boundaries of pop.  Her music is pretty poppy but she throws in some interesting twists as well.  She seems like she’d be fun live as well.

Shame this show was cancelled.

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Porridge Radio / Sluice (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Porridge Radio, Sluice, The Foundry on January 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: January 24, 2025] Porridge Radio / Sluice

I heard about Porridge Radio from NPR back in 2020.  They are exactly the kind of weirdo post-punk British band that I love and would never hear anywhere on the radio.

Singer Dana Margolin is more of a talker than a singer.  Her accent is thick and her intensity is palpable.  The band mixes melody and noise in an unexpected way.  And of course there’s “the growing legend of their intense live shows.”

I wasn’t able to see them the last time they came to Philly.   And tonight’s show was the same night as the Guster show!  The worst part was that they were playing literally upstairs from where we were.   The same thing happened the last time we saw Guster at The Fillmore, when Dilly Dally played upstairs (but I was able to catch one song from them).

This is also apparently the last tour that Porridge Radio is going to do, so I’m especially bummed to have missed it (although Guster was awesome). (more…)

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English Teacher / Fernette (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, June 14, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in English Teacher, Fernette, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry on January 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 14, 2024] English Teacher / Fernette

I’m writing this later in the year because I recently found out about English Teacher and wish that I had seen them when they came around this past summer.  It’s entirely possible that I didn’t know who they were when this show came around, AND I had a ticket to see Kim Gordon that night so I wasn’t going to make this show anyway.  But I always hate missing a band that I later discover would have been great to see in a small place.

I’m kind of surprised to discover that English Teacher was formed in 2020, as I just heard about them this year.  They released their debut album in April of this year, so that might explain why I didn’t know them.  I feel like I may have heard a song on Sirius XM, but I’m not sure.  However, I recently watches a video of them and they were terrific.

Pitchfork says the band

can’t leave a song alone: Not a track goes by without a twist or complication, whether a time-signature change, an instrumental flourish, or a sudden wall of sound.

Which is exactly what I liked about when I heard them. (more…)

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Karina Rykman (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, December 13, 2024)

Posted in Karina Rykman, Kiss, LCD Soundsystem, Marco Benevento, OutKast, Philadelphia, PA, Talking Heads, The Foundry, Wet Leg on December 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 13, 2024] Karina Rykman 

Last year, my wife and I saw Karina Rykman twice.  First as an opening act and then for our final show of 2023, as a headliner.

The show was great–loud and dancing and fun and everything you’d want in a jamband adjacent musician who totally kicks ass.

When she announced another Philly show this year (my second to last show of the year, but my wife’s final show of the year once again), I snatched up tickets immediately.

Karina is such a joy to see live.  Her band rocks and her choice of songs (both her own and covers) are designed for maximum fun (and chops).  And of course, she has a perpetual smile on her face–no one enjoys playing music as much as she does. (more…)

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Muscle Tough (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, December 13, 2024) [KARINA RYKMAN]

Posted in Karina Rykman, Kylie Minogue, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry on December 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 13, 2024] Muscle Tough

I had never heard of Muscle Tough and I admit I was a little concerned about a band with this name.  I mean, were they jock rock?

When we arrived, they had their name and two cutouts of muscular arms flanking the stage (pretty funny).

And it turns out I should have trusted Karina, because Muscle Tough were amazing.  They play rocking jamming instrumentals that are proggy and jazzy and show off the incredible chops of all three musicians, Ross Bellenoit (guitar), Jonathan Colman (bass) and Joe Baldacci (drums).

They have a pretty fascinating backstory.  Bellenoit was in a couple of different bands, but he wanted to start a band just for jamming and goofing around.  And Muscle Tough has been around longer and has had more success than any of his other more “Serious” projects.

Bellenoit is a phenomenal guitarist–he plays tasteful solos but also shreds like a fiend.  He also had a massive arrive of effects so he can create just about any sound.  Colman is an amazing bassist, playing really fast riffs and imrovs with ease. (more…)

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Vundabar / Courting (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, November 17, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Courting, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry, Vundabar on November 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 17, 2024] Vundabar / Courting

I saw Vundabar last summer with my daughter at All Things Go.  I really enjoyed their set and thought it would be fun to see them again.  This show wound up being on a Sunday night during a really busy week so we decided not to go.  I imagine they’ll be back again next year and we’ll check them out then.

Courting is a British band and their latest album is quite good.  They have a pretty varied style, although this review from Bring the Noise UK notes that their music was mostly

sardonic, post-punk festival bangers, which immediately got anybody between the ages of 16 and 24 within the nearby vicinity going feral in a mosh-pit.

although their new album changes things a but

Using glitching 808s, autotune as a design choice and an unending onslaught of pop culture references, Courting create catchy pop-punk-meets-hyperpop earworms

I imagine this would have been a really fun bill.  And I’d like to see them if they open for anyone else.

 

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The Go! Team / La Sécurité (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in La Sécurité, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry, The Go! Team on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 2, 2024] The Go! Team / La Sécurité

I remember when The Go! Team came out with Thunder, Lightning, Strike and how the album was kind of revolutionary for its mix of sounds and for everything being louder than everything else.

It was kind of over whelming at the time and now it’s a blueprint for dozens of other bands.

I never liked the album enough to want to go to this show, plus we were going to see Touche Amore that night. (more…)

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Dehd / This is Lorelei (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dehd, My Idea, Nate Amos, Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry, This is Lorelei on October 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 22, 2024] Dehd / This is Lorelei

I saw Dehd open for Sylvan Esso last year.  I rather enjoyed them and concluded

I enjoyed their whole set–short, simple, dancey rock songs.  And as I was listening to them I realized that they were exactly the kind of band that I like live but would probably never listen to on record.  The songs are too simplistic for me to really enjoy unless they band is playing them in front of me.  Or something.

Since then they’ve had one or two more songs out that I’ve really enjoyed too.  But I didn’t get tickets as I was trying not to overload my calendar with shows this month.

This is Lorelei is just one band that features Nate Amos.  He is also in Water from Your Eyes who I don’t know and He’s one half of My Idea with Lily Konisberg from Palberta who I know. (more…)

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