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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

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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My Morning Jacket (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2025, Night 2 of 2)

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 11, 2025] My Morning Jacket

After such a great night last night, we wound up leaving a little bit later (figuring there was no Friday night traffic) and arrived a few minutes later than last night.  But when I walked up to the merch line there was literally one person in front of me–moments later when I looked again, the line was huge, going up the stairs.  Then we headed down to the pit.  It was a little more crowded than last night.  We were going to try to get in front of Jim, but that’s what everyone else wanted, too.  So we camped out more or less where we were the night before, in front of Carl.  We were two people back from where we were, which isn’t bad at all.

So yes, last night as pretty tiring and we’d had a busy day, but we were psyched for a second night of My Morning Jacket.  And I was super psyched when they opened with Highly Suspicious, a totally ripping song from Evil Urges and one that I’d forgotten about–it was also the first time I’d seen it live.  This was also when I learned that Carl Broemel can do so many great backing voices (including the deep, angry chanting of “highly suspicious”).  They followed it with Off the Record, one of the poppier songs off of Z.

Then Carl Broemel moved over to the pedal steel guitar and they played the short but fun Climbing the Ladder.   It was interesting that last night Carl played the saxophone on a few songs but didn’t play it at all tonight. And last night he didn’t play the pedal steel at all but he played it about three times tonight.

And it was pretty clear that if last night’s show was all about jamming, tonight show was shorter, more rocking songs.  And the guys in the front who were headbanging last night had much more cause to do so tonight.

Speaking of the pit.  Tonight’s crowd was fascinating.  There was a guy who kept walking around the pit area hugging and fist bumping people.  He switched places with people and let other be on the barrier.  In fact, one of the long-haired headbangers let some of the shorter folks switch places with him for a song or two.  It was an incredibly generous and, dare I say it, loving thing to do.  Appropriate for the next song Love Love Love, the only song they played from their previous self-titled album.  The lighting at the shows was fairly simply but effective.  They had five panels mounted behind them.  All of the panels had lights that moved and spun and changed colors. But during Love Love Love, they spelled out Love! which was pretty nice.

Up next was Wordless Chorus, one of the great MMJ songs.  The crowd went nuts and we all sang the wordless chorus over and over as Jim walked around the stage, coming over by us at last. (more…)

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Balthvs (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2025, Night 2 of 2) [MY MORNING JACKET]

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] Balthvs

We saw Balthvs last night and really enjoyed them.  So much so that my wife and I were both looking forward to seeing them again.  I wouldn’t have minded hearing the same set again because it was so enjoyable.  But, I assume since they knew that MMJ would be playing a different set tonight, Balthvs played an entirely new set tonight as well.

Tonight, with the audience more familiar with them, they received a huge response when they came out and the guys in the front row were 100% in–jumping and headbandging and clapping.  It had to be a great reception for them.  And they continued to impress with a whole bunch of new (to us) songs.

The opening Sun Colored Eyes was a bit more mellow and groovy, but still sounded great.  All is One continued in the mellower vein with vocals from Vanessa.  She sang in a dreamy voice that made this song even more psychedelic.  There were a few transitions where the song had a five note beat that grounded the song nicely.

As soon as Balthazar played the opening riff to Bird Song, the crowd went nuts.  I didn’t know the song but I have since learned that it’s a Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead song, so that checks.

Apparently in the middle of the song they segued into a 2 minute original, Famagusta Port and then cycled back to finish up Bird Song.

Balthazar said that they had recently been to Turkey and took some of the scene their with them, which resulted in Turkish Coffee, a song that was perfectly in keeping with their sound, but had definite Turkish influences.  Then he joked that Philadelphia wasn’t too far from the ocean and they launched into what they call Surf Medley, a three part song of surf guitar instrumentals, starting with The Chantays “Pipeline,” segueing into Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” and finally Reverend Horton Heat’s “Marijuana.”  It was fantastic–Balthazar is an incredible guitarist and they captured the surf vibe perfectly.

Up next was an older song Siente which had a little bass solo section for Vanessa to show off her chops.  (more…)

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My Morning Jacket (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2025, Night 1 of 2)

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] My Morning Jacket

A couple of years ago we saw My Morning Jacket at the Met.  They played two nights in a row but we only went to one.  I’m not going to say the second night was better, but they played a lot of great songs that second night as well.  So when they announced two nights again, I grabbed GA tickets (to finally get up close to the band) for both nights.

We greatly enjoyed Balthvs and the fact that we were one person away from the barrier for most of the show.

The lights dimmed and the band came out and they were off, playing Steam Engine.  The song is 7 minutes on record and they stretched that thing out with some lengthy soloing and jamming.  It went over 15 minutes and the band sounded in great form.

I had thought that they might play all of Z (since they have been touring the album), but they didn’t (which is fine).  For this show they played three songs off of it.  One of them was It Beats 4U which, amazingly, I had not seen live before.

When we saw them last time, they didn’t play anything from The Waterfall.  Tonight they played two songs, the delightful In Its Infancy and, later on, Spring (Among the Living).

My two favorite MMJ albums are Evil Urges and Circuital, so I’m always excited to hear songs from them.  They played Circuital, which made me quite happy.  I don’t really know their first few records all that well–they’re a little too slow and not very catchy.  But the crowd seems to love when they play a deep cut like X-Mas Curtain (this is one of their older songs that I really do like, so I enjoyed hearing it).

Speaking of the crowd… we were in the pit and most of the people around us were VIP purchasers and other die-hards.  The guys in the front on the barrier all had long hair and proceeded to headbang through the whole show.  It was pretty funny and they made the front of MMJ’s Instagram page the following day.

And we were right in from of Carl Broemel and it was amazing watching him do…everything.  He played amazing solos, he played saxophone, he even sang fantastic backing vocals.  But it was so cool when he stepped up to the edge of the stage, about 6 feet from us and just wailed on that guitar.  (more…)

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Balthvs (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2025, Night 1 of 2) [MY MORNING JACKET]

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] Balthvs

A couple of years ago we saw My Morning Jacket at the Met.  They played two nights in a row but we only went to one.  I’m not going to say the second night was better, but they played a lot of great songs that second night as well.  So when they announced two nights again, I grabbed GA tickets (to finally get up close to the band).

For both nights, the opener was BALTHVS, a band I didn’t know.

They are from Colombia and when I first heard a song, I lazily said they reminded me of Khruangbin.  I see that online people compare them to Khruangbin a lot, which seems to be unfair.  I don’t know Khruangbin all that well, but both bands have a similar vibe.  However, on further listen, BALTHVS has got its own thing down quite well.  But it’s fair to say they’re in the same general area of “World psychedelic funk.”

BALTHVS is a trio from Bogotá Colombia.  Balthazar Aguirre plays guitar and sings, Vanessa Muñoz a plays 5 string bass and sings and Santiago Lizcano plays drums.  The band came out and jumped into some amazing songs.  [Founding bassist Johanna Mercurian recently had a baby and obviously didn’t tour this time]

Year of the Snake is a cool slinky instrumental and it really showed off Balthazar’s guitar chops.  I also loved that Vanessa’s bass was complex–making great use of the five string.  And Santiago was a beast behind the kit. (more…)

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Neko Case (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 4, 2025)

Posted in Des Demonas, Neko Case, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2025] Neko Case

I have thought about seeing Neko Case since around 2022.  I even had tickets to see her in Jersey City, but wound up doing something else that night.

She had played Ardmore Music Hall in 2024, but I felt the tickets were really expensive.  And this show was the night after my son and I went to see Deltron 3030.  But my wife won tickets to this show at XPNFest.  And boy that was hard to pass up.

The biggest surprise was how undersold the show was.  We have been to The Met a lot and this was the first time that I can recall that they had the back seats curtained off.  Presumably anyone who had seats in the back were given seats closer to the stage.  I never looked after the show started, but before Neko went on there were a lot of empty seats.

In fairness, White Eagle Hall holds 800 people and Union Transfer is around 1200.  So The Met seating (and it was all seated) at roughly 3500 people was reaching way too far for her.  But still that’s got to suck to see a half empty place.

And it felt like Neko was kind of mad for the show.  Now, I follow her on Instagram and she seems (justifiably) mad most of the time.  So I don’t know if that’s just what she’s like on stage or if she was in a particularly bad mood.  I have only seen her one other time with the New Pornographers and she was only one of about 8 people on stage, so it was hard to judge her.  Although after that show she had a lengthy rant about people filming her.

The most memorable moment of this show was when she yelled at someone in the balcony for having their phone light on while filming.  She pointed at them directly an told them to turn their fucking light off.  After the following song, she admitted that the light that was bothering her was actually from the aisle lights.  I’m not sure if she apologized exactly but everyone laughed about it.

So yeah.

There’s a ton of Neko Case songs that I like.  But there’s also a joke from a show that I can’t recall in which when a couple breaks up, she says to her ex that she hopes the next concert he goes to they play all new songs.  It’s a great curse and it’s pretty much what happened here. (more…)

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Des Demonas (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 4, 2025) [NEKO CASE]

Posted in Des Demonas, Neko Case, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2025] Des Demonas

I thought I had never heard of Des Demonas, but I see that they were supposed to open for Tropical Fuck Storm in 2020 (!) but it was cancelled for Corona.

And here’s what I wrote:  Lead singer Jacky Cougar Abok has a delivery like early Nick Cave and their bio is fascinating.

Jacky Cougar Abok is the six-foot-five-inch tall Kenyan punk singer who has drummed with Thee Lolitas and Foul Swoops. Guitarist Mark Cisneros has bent strings with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Deathfix, and Medications and pounded the traps for The Make-Up and Benjy Ferree, the latter alongside organist Paul Vivari. Joe Halladay (Citygoats) on bass and Ryan Hicks (Suns Of Guns) on drums round out this squared circle of sight and sound.

We wound up being a few minutes late.  This wasn’t a big deal since my wife has won tickets to the show at XPNFest (!).  The venue also had to arrange ADA seating for us, so that took some time.  They are a raw punk band–really quite different from Neko Case. I really liked them, but I imagine many people didn’t enjoy them.  Their main driving sound was an old-fashioned organ sound–quite unexpected for their propulsive vibe.  (more…)

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Pulp (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 9, 2025)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Pulp, The Met Philadelphia on September 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 9, 2025] Pulp

Back I was a big fan of the Britpop scene.  I liked Blur, but I also liked a lot of the lesser bands.  Pulp’s Common People was a favorite song for me.  I also liked their This is Hardcore album.  And then I lost interest.  But it turns out they put out one more album and then hiatused.

Then this year they announced a new song and album.  Spike Island is the most infectious song they have released and I haven’t gotten tired of it at all.

So when this (rather short) tour was announced, I was intrigued, but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go.  Tickets were fairly pricey and there weren’t any floor seats left.  But because of their “dynamic pricing” bullshit there were a few seats available near the front and I saw that the price was going down as it got closer.  When I felt the price was okay, I bought a ticket.

When I got to the venue, they asked me if I wanted to sit i the ADA section, which I hadn’t in this venue.  The guard there said it would be nicer to sit in the comfy chair than to stand the whole time.  And it was.  True, I couldn’t see the whole stage (I never saw the guy in the back on the left side.  And I couldn’t see all of the screen.  But most of the action was up front and I could see all of that fine.

The tickets were irritating because it was unclear if the show was going on at 7:30 or 8:30.  Did doors open at 6:30?  Who could tell.  I arrived at 7:30 and there was a massive line to get scanned.  I was escorted to the front of the line, which was nice, and I got into the venue quickly with no merch line (the merch wasn’t that exciting).  And then I sat and chatted with the people next to me.  They were from Maryland and had seen the show a few days ago in D.C. They had driven to Atlantic City and decided to see the show again on the way home.  He told me they bought tickets while waiting outside in their car (and paid less than I did!). He and his wife go to tons of shows and seem to often get comp tickets or really good prices last minute.

When the lights went down I moved to the other side of them to get a better angle (very comfy) and the massive band (eight piece, I think) started playing Sorted for E’s & Wizz.  I hadn’t listened to much Pulp before the show so I didn’t really recognize some of these bigger songs.

But I was so psyched that they played Disco 2000 and followed it with Spike Island.

Jarvis Cocker is a fantastic frontman (duh).  He engages the audience, he dances, he jumped on these platforms in the front of the stage and he told some amusing anecdotes.

The setlist has been mostly the same, but they did play two unique songs for us.  The new song Slow Jam is great and I’m glad we got to hear it.  Before Farmer’s Market, he asked if there was a farmer’s market in Philly (yes, and it is good, people said).  He asked if they sold grapes. And then proceeded to pull a handful of grapes from his suit jacket pocket and tossed them to audience members (don’t catch it in your mouth, you may choke).  He then threw some chocolates to the crowd (he’s not a great thrower, tbh).  But he did attempt to catch a grape in his own mouth (he missed).

For Something Changed, the original band members came to the front of the stage Jarvis Cocker played guitar and sang and he said that the four of them gathered together a few years ago to see if they wanted to play together again.  He said Candida Doyle sat at the old piano (she played keys); Nick Banks had a box drum then and tonight;  and Mark Webber sat on the settee and played guitar.

For the rest of the set the band was fleshed out by Andrew McKinney – bass (he also played on Something Changed); Emma Smith on fantastic violin, backing vocals and guitar; Adam Betts played a to of percussion and some guitar and keyboards and Richard Jones who I did not see the whole show until the end, played keys and viola.

The four (okay five, bassist) played this delightful mellow song and then shifted gears.  We sang along for many songs and then for O.U. (a very old song) he split the audience in half and one side sang O and our side sang U.  Which was quite a lot of fun.

(more…)

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Ethel Cain / 9million (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 6, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in 9million, Ethel Cain, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on September 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 6, 2025] Ethel Cain / 9million

My daughter has been a fan of Ethel Cain for a while.  We got to see her two years ago at All Things Go, but I didn’t know her at all, and I think my daughter was just getting into her.  The crowd was bananas for Ethel, and I feel like if we had tried harder, we could have gotten closer and been a real part of the show with her.

Once this tour was announced, I set out to get two tickets immediately.  And I was totally shut out.  It sold out in minutes.  I kept checking over the months to see if anything became available and there were 3 seats–each priced at over $400 so never mind.

Then I found out that a friend of ours had an extra ticket and she was trying to sell it.  So I told her I’d take it and gave my daughter a lovely surprise.

I was bummed to discover a day before the show that there were now two tickets available at a reasonable price, but I already had plans to go to the Bolero Block Party.

So, she went with them and told me that Ethel was amazing.

Even though they arrived early, they missed 9million entirely because they were on the merch line (for over 90 minutes!).  According to King’s Raleigh,

9Million is a Toronto shoegaze band helmed by the multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Matthew Tomasi. Best known for his work with alt pop icons like Ethel Cain

So that explains the connection, because I find 9million to be way way heavier than Ethel (and far more my scene).  I would have been really bummed to have missed them if I was on the merch line, but what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them and they didn’t mind missing them.

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