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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

Rilo Kiley / Natalie Bergman (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 4, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Natalie Bergman, Philadelphia, PA, Rilo Kiley, The Met Philadelphia on September 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOTTTEND: September 4, 2025] Rilo Kiley / Natalie Bergman

The announcement of a Rilo Kiley tour was major news!  I was pretty excited about even though I didn’t really know the band.  But I knew and liked Jenny Lewis and assumed her old band would be similarly great.

But I listened to a few of their songs and didn’t really like them.  So, I saved some money and a night out (actually I went to Poppy instead).

Natalie Bergman is a singer from Chicago. She has an interesting, lovely voice but I didn’t really care for her music that much.  I mean, I wasn’t going to this show anyhow, but I do like to hear what the openers sound like.

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An Evening with Wilco (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 5, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Wilco on August 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 5, 2025] An Evening with Wilco

Nothing could have excited me more than an evening with Wilco.  They are an amazing live band and I would have been so excited to be in the pit for this one.

So why didn’t I go?

Because I already had tickets that night to see Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips–in the pit at the Mann Center.  True I’d seen both bands seven times already, but never from the pit!

So it was a tough choice, but I couldn’t do both.

Sounds like it was a great night.  But so was mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2025
Islands of Men ©
Jesse ⊗
Tomorrow’s Crusades Ø
Cocaine ©
Half Real ©
2122 Ø (with Interstellar Overdrive” Pink Floyd)
Cowboy Nudes Ø
Taxes ©
4D Contry ⊗
St. Elmo Ø

© G3 (2025)
⊗ 4D Country
Ø 3D Country

 

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Sarah Millican: Late Bloomer (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 18, 2025)

Posted in Matt Kirshen, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah Millican, Taskmaster, The Met Philadelphia on June 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2025] Sarah Millican

I knew (and loved) Sarah Millican from Taskmaster.  I was so excited when she announced her tour and I was excited for her that it sold out and she had to add a second date!

When show time arrived, she came out on stage and gave us a little warm up.  And then she introduced her opening comedian!   I’ve never seen the headliner come out before the support act, but it was fun and classy.

After Matt Kirshen finished his set, Sarah came out and began her own.  I knew that Sarah Millican told adult jokes, and boy does she ever.  I love how demure she looks and yet how unafraid she is to talk about everything.

She had a whole book cataloging what a Late Bloomer is compared to an Eager Beaver.  Each one funnier than the next.  And on the way out she had free buttons an Eager Beaver and a Late Bloomer one.  (more…)

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Matt Kirshen (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 18, 2025) [SARAH MILLICAN]

Posted in Matt Kirshen, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah Millican, The Met Philadelphia on June 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2025] Matt Kirshen

I knew (and loved) Sarah Millican from Taskmaster.  I was so excited when she announced her tour and I was excited for her that it sold out and she had to add a second date!

When show time arrived, she came out on stage and gave us a little warm up.  And then she introduced her opening comedian!   I’ve never seen the headliner come out before the support act, but it was fun and classy.

Her opening act was Matt Kirshen.  Kirshen is a British comedian who has recently become an American citizen.  We all had a good laugh at his terrible timing of becoming an citizen.  He said that he liked being part of something in its final act.

His routine was really funny–it must be quite challenging to be a less well-known comedian.  But he was great and had us laughing quite hard.

He had his own show at Helium the following month and I’m sure it was really good.

I’m writing this three months after the show and can’t remember his jokes, but I know he had us laughing quite a bit.

If I think of any jokes or see any videos, I’ll add them here.  But I would 100% see him again.  He was great.

 

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The Head and the Heart / Futurebirds / Anna Graves (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Anna Graves, Futurebirds, Philadelphia, PA, The Head and the Heart, The Met Philadelphia on June 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 6, 2025] The Head and the Heart / Futurebirds / Anna Graves

One of the worst shows I’ve been to was The Head and the Heart at this very venue in 2019.

It wasn’t the band’s fault, it was the crowd.  They were terrible.  And I’m not going to revisit the details.  We saw THATH in New Brunswick and the show was a much better experience.  But it also happened to be the same night as The Last Dinner Party’s only Philly show and I’m really bummed to have missed that one.

So THATH have a bit of a curse on them for me.  But there was no way I was going back to that venue for this band.

Futurebirds are from Georgia and sound like a country Tom Petty. Not something I’d be excited to see, although they’re probably fun at a beach concert.

Anna Graves is an alt-folk artist  who was raised on a farm in southern Minnesota.  She left home chasing big dreams and bright lights, only to return years later and rediscover the mystical magic that first sparked her songwriting.  She has a pretty voice and is probably delightful live, although she’s not that exciting to me.

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Bloc Party / Blonde Redhead / Joan (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 4, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Blonde Redhead, Joan, Metric, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on June 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 4, 2025] Bloc Party / Blonde Redhead /Joan

I was originally excited about this tour because Metric was co-headlining and was going to play Fantasies in its entirety.  They cancelled pretty close to the last minute saying “Bloc Party’s team made some sudden production decisions that broke the agreement we made.”  I have no idea what that means and many people had nasty things to say about Metric online.  But I was glad I hadn’t gotten a ticket.

I never got into Bloc Party, although I feel like I should have.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, I just never had the time for them.  When I listened to this record I liked it, but didn’t love it.  So, no big dela to miss out on this one.

Blonde Redhead was a band that I really liked for a while and then forgot about.  I probably should have been more excited about this announcement, although I didn’t realize that they have been making music all this time (an album every few years).  I assumed they had broken up and were back together for this tour.  Turns out they played mostly songs from their latest album, which I didn’t know.  So no big deal.

Come on guys, you can’t call yourselves Joan.  Not because it’s a woman’s name, because it’s impossible to search for.  Even if antimusic calls you “Beloved alt-pop duo joan-Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford.”  But their music is surprisingly big for just the two of them, with a soft vocalist.

Beware, though, unbelievably, there’s another band called simply Joan.

The band playing this show has an album called superglue.

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Vampire Weekend (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025)

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend on June 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s first two albums are perfect.  They are two of my favorite albums and any time I listen to them, it makes me smile.  I had wanted to see them for a while, but I wasn’t sure if they would be as good as the records live.  And then suddenly they were selling out bigger venues than I wanted go.  I had tickets to see them in 2019 but couldn’t make it.  Somehow I missed when they played The Mann in 2024 (I was too buys that weekend anyhow) and finally I was able to snag tickets for one of the two nights at The Met.

I saw after that they played a different set for each night, so it’s a bummer I couldn’t go to both.  But having finally gotten so see them I can yell at my younger self because they were fantastic live.

After Geese left the stage, a giant Vampire Weekend banner dropped in front of the dark curtain.  A whole bunch of folks in dayglo yellow set up the stage area–bringing out a piano and drums as well as a mic stand.

Having never seen them I honestly wasn’t sure if this was the show–just a trio in front of the band’s name.  And I was fine with it because they sounded great.

It was just the original trio singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio.  They opened with  the quiet Hold Me Now and then segued into a far more rollicking Oxford Comma (And I was in heaven because they’d already played on of my favorites songs).  And then they played Blake’s Got a New Face, which my wife and I had just been singing.  It was great.

It was sometime during the next song Ice Cream Piano that I realized that there were more sounds coming from the stage than these three guys could possible make.  And soon after, the pulled back the VW curtain to reveal a huge band behind them.  The revelation was quite a delightful surprise and it wasn’t until they started the next song, Classical (which I never no the name of) that I realized how great the whole huge band sounded.  There were two drummers, keys, several guitars and lots of backing singers.  During the instrumental section of the song, one of the guys in the dayglo shirt did a very sexy dance in the spotlight.  It was pretty fun.

And how to describe the backdrop?  It looked like they were in an underground tunnel, like a concrete bunker with multiple ins and outs.  It looked really convincing.

Ezra typically played guitar but for a few songs, like Connect, he put down the guitar and walked the stage while singing. (more…)

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Geese (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025) [VAMPIRE WEEKEND]

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend on May 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Geese

There had been some buzz around Geese when they were announced as openers for this show.  I knew their song Cowboy Nudes and found it odd but very catchy.

As this show came around, they started playing another song on the radio and I realized that Geese is pretty weird. So I was curious what their live show would be like.  We arrived pretty early, but the pit was already pretty crowded.  Turns out Geese already had a huge fanbase.  The front of the pit was full of big time Geese fans.

They opened their set with Islands of Man, and I thought that the most distinctive thing about the band (Cameron’s voice) was rather subdued. The song starts softly and fairly quietly with interesting guitar parts from Emily Green.

And the rest of the band was amazing too.  As the show went on, I couldn’t take my eyes off of drummer Max Bassin–he was doing some wild and complex parts.  And midway through the show I realized that bassist Dominic DiGesu was playing some amazing fills too.

For Jesse, Cameron continued to sing in a kind of subdued manner, until the bridge where he got a little shouty.  And it worked really well with the jamming music.  Tomorrows Crusades was super catchy with a great guitar line and Cameron singing in a kind of falsetto.  (more…)

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Vampire Weekend / Geese (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 30, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend on May 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 30, 2025] Vampire Weekend /Geese

Vampire Weekend was one of my favorite bands when they first came out. I loved everything about them.  And yet I never got to see them.

When these shows were announced at the Met I was super excited.  I had tickets with my son to see Ice Nine Kills on the 30th.  So I was psyched to get tickets for the 31st.

Had I known that both nights would be different with largely different setlists, I may have reconsidered INK (no, not really, but sorta).

But they were both great the following night, so it’s all okay.

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Barenaked Ladies / Sugar Ray / Fastball (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 22, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Guster, Barenaked Ladies, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Sugar Ray, Fastball on May 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 22, 2025] Barenaked Ladies / Sugar Ray / Fastball

We haven’t seen Barenaked Ladies since 2017 (2016 was the last time on one of these Last Summer on Earth tours).

They always put on a good show, although I feel like I’ve enjoyed the last few a little bit less than the previous ones.  Mostly because they play the same big hits all the time.  I mean, you can’t be BNL and not play those songs, but it would be fun if they didn’t.

I always consider going to their Last Summer on Earth tours, but I typically dislike the other bands that are playing with them–usually 90s bands that I assumed were broken up. Which doesn’t really speak all that well of BNL (unless it speaks well of them trying to boost old bands).  Their new setlist mixes in a few different songs, so maybe if next year’s co-headliners are good, I’ll grab tickets.

This year was finally an exciting option because one of the opening bands was Guster!  What a fun way to see them–as an opening band.  But then it turned out that they were opening everywhere but the north east!  WTF?  And who was their replacement?  Sugar Ray?  Really?  They had one song and they are still around? Really?  Ugh.

Fastball is someone I do like and they would have been interesting to see.  But not for Sugar Ray.

It’s like BNL’s mission is to keep one hit wonder bands active.  Which is noble I suppose.

Next year guys, find bands that I actually want to see!

 

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