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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

Holly Humberstone / Diva Smith (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, June 9, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Holly Humberstone, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Theatre of Living Arts on June 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 9, 2026] Holly Humberstone / Diva Smith

Holly Humberstone opened for Girl in Red the first time we saw them.

She was really good.  I wrote:

Well, I was impressed by her.  She played guitar, keyboard, piano and created live beats on the drum machine while singing.  And her voice was really lovely too.

Her songs are on the pop side but with some good loud guitars from time to time.  “Please Don’t Leave Just Yet” was the synthy song (that featured sped up samples of her voice trilling in the background.  I enjoyed the way she jumped from the synth rack to the piano mid-song.

She has a new album out, but I don’t need to see her again.

Diva Smith was born and raised in Los Angeles and is now based in New York City.  She offers an “idiosyncratic take on the modern pop artist. Growing up in a musical household, Diva was influenced by listening to the likes of Bread and Fleetwood Mac as a child, learning the piano at 8, and picking up the guitar by 10. Diva’s sonic interests led to her becoming her own creative, beginning to record her music in 2016.  Her self-proclaimed “therapy pop” ballads reminiscent of Bon Iver meets St. Vincent.”

I can almost see the comparison.  There’s definitely a Bon Iver vibe (his more electric sounding stuff) and her voice sort of sounds like the softer St. Vincent.  But listening to her songs, it’s really not that compelling.

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St. Vincent Live with Orchestra / Ruby Plume (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Ruby Plume, St. Vincent, The Met Philadelphia on June 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 6, 2026] St. Vincent Live with Orchestra / Ruby Plume

I have seen St. Vincent four times and each time has been amazing.  I told myself that I would never miss a show if I could.  Then she announced this show with an orchestra–the Philly Pops.  I’ve seen two bands with orchestras.  Sigur Ros was mind blowing.  King Gizzard was pretty cool.  But the thing that I love about St. Vincent is her unpredictability.  You never really know what you’ll get or what she’ll do.  When I saw her last time, she climbed up the box seats in the Met and sat with an audience member.  She even crowd surfed.

The thing about an orchestra is that there is no room for improvisation.  You have an entire orchestra who has learned the music and is ready to play it as written.  It works great for Sigur Ros because that’s what their music is like.  But St. Vincent—well, I listened to the Live from London CD and it was good.  But not good enough for me to want to see.  Basically, I knew what I was getting and didn’t need to experience it.  I’ve heard it was great, and I’m sure it was.  But I don’t regret not going.

Ruby Plume‘s bio says that she is an alt folk-pop artist from Nashville whose intricate storytelling and lush guitar melodies form a liminal, daydreamy musical canvas. Her vocals carry a quiet intensity, layering youthful clarity over emotional depth reminiscent of artists who defined alt-pop for a new generation. Ruby’s songs are subtly prismatic-shifting effortlessly between vivid emotions and elusive mystery, warmth and introspection.

Damn, that is some fifty-cent word verbiage there.

Seeing some other setlists, it looks like she played six songs, including a Joni Mitchell cover and a Bob Dylan cover. Having listened to a couple songs, she is a gentle folks singer with a pretty, slightly muffled voice.

 

 

  1. We Put a Pearl in the Ground
  2. Hell Is Near
  3. Reckless
  4. Violent Times
  5. Black Rainbow
    [The Strangers on Live record]
  6. Marrow
  7. The Bed
  8. Smoking Section
  9. Now, Now
  10. Live in the Dream
  11. The Nowhere Inn
  12. Digital Witness
  13. Los Ageless
    [The Party on Live record]
  14. New York (Walked through crowd)
  15. Paris Is Burning
    Encore:
  16. Candy Darling
  17. Slow Disco

 

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Sleep Token / Empire State Bastard (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Empire State Bastard, Philadelphia, PA, Sleep Token, The Met Philadelphia on May 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 20, 2024] Sleep Token / Empire State Bastard

I had not heard of Sleep Token when this show was announced. I soon found out that they are huge and sold this show out in like a second.

Sleep Token are a masked, anonymous band (which I love).  So it immediately intrigued me when I heard they were coming.

Their music is heavy, but the verses and singing sound very soft alt rock.  It’s kind of a weird mishmash of styles.

And while they have a huge following, there are also plenty of haters, saying things like

  • They’re gothic-flavored pop music with heavy music dispersed throughout. Very generic production that rides all the current trends.
  • “wow, this is like Katatonia but bad”
  • I literally physically cringed listening to one of their songs because of how processed the vocals were. Sounded so overproduced and synthetic. They seem like a band that will succeed with their merchandise and image of something alternative for those unexposed to metal.
  • Admittedly I’ve only listened to their cover of Hey Ya, but it’s the kinda song that makes you never want to hear another song from the artist ever again.  —  I Just listened to it and it is terrible.
  • They are quite unique in all the different genres they blend into their songs but each different style they attempt just sounds very generic and not done well in my opinion.  There is also a weird effect on the singers voice which gets annoying very quickly for me.

Of course, that’s just a few naysayers but I tend to agree with that vibe.  I asked my son about them and he dismissed them.

The whole reason I was interested in this show was for Empire State Bastard.

Empire State Bastard are a Biffy Clyro’s singer guitarist Simon Neil and touring guitarist Mike Vennart (of Cardiacs and formerly of Oceansize).  The album and tour featured Dave fucking Lombardo on drums.  Simon Neil is a lunatic and while he has a great voice, he also loves to shred his vocal chords.  And  this whole album is him shredding his vocal chords.  This is heavy heavy metal.

And this was the only Philly date for this band.  I’m annoyed that people who didn’t care about them got to see them and I didn’t.  Maybe I could have asked The Met for a ticket just for the openers.

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Nick Offerman (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 12, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Nick Offerman, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 12, 2026] Nick Offerman

Whenever I think about comedians that I like, they’re usually British.  Because I receive ads for comedy clubs, I feel like there are hundreds of American comedians and I don’t know any of them. So I forget that there are quite a few American comedians who I really like.  Nick Offerman makes me laugh in anything he does and yet for some reason I have never really thought about going to his stand up show.

I had gone out the night before, but my wife wasn’t really interested in going out on a Sunday night, so we blew him off.  I’ll have to put him on my list of comedians to make sure I see at least once.

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Waxahatchee / MJ Lenderman / Brennan Wedl (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 12, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Brennan Wedl, MJ Lenderman, MJ Lenderman and the Wind, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Waxahatchee on April 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 12, 2026] Waxahatchee / MJ Lenderman / Brennan Wedl

My wife and I saw Waxahatchee two years ago.  Katie always puts on a good show, but we weren’t feeling this one.

I feel like people have been talking about MJ Lenderman for a while (although there are a lot of guys who go by 2 initials and their last name so I may be thinking of someone else).  But I see that he’s been putting out music since 2019.

I also saw know that he’s been playing with Wednesday and did a song with Waxahatchee.

His voice is a distinctive twang/whine that I sort of don’t like but kind of do.  It’s that whole alt-country thing that I mostly don’t like but maybe do.

The review from WXPN says

Lenderman and Waxahatchee took their seats on stage next to one another and backed by their band — Cole Berggren on banjo and keys and Colin Croom on pedal steel, lap steel, and electric guitar. They alternated between Lenderman and Waxahatchee songs, and threw in some cover songs, too.

I’m sure this was delightful for big fans of both artists, but I’m casual at best, so it wasn’t for me.

I’m more intrigued by Brennan Wedl‘s name than their music.  Wedl is a Minnesota-raised, Nashville-based songwriter.  She has a pretty hefty country twang for a Minnesotan.  She and Wxahatchee do a cover of Kathleen Edwards’ 6 o’clock News, which earns them some props.

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Wanda Sykes (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, March 27, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Wanda Sykes on March 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 27, 2026] Wanda Sykes

Whenever I think about comedians that I like, they’re usually British.  Because I receive ads for comedy clubs, I feel like there are hundreds of American comedians and I don’t know any of them. So I forget that there are quite a few American comedians who I really like.  And Wanda Sykes is one of them.  I don’t know much about her standup, but she cracks me up whenever I see her.  I didn’t hear about this show until recently and we had had tickets to Lucius for quite a while already.

When I looked at the tour poster I saw that she was only doing six dates!  And Philly was one of them.  That makes me think she doesn’t tour very often and I’ll have to keep an eye out in case she comes back any time soon.

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Rainbow Kitten Surprise / Common People (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, March 13, 2026//The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, March 14, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Common People, Montclair, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, The Met Philadelphia, Wellmont Theater on March 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 13 & 14, 2026] Rainbow Kitten Surprise / Common People

With a name like Rainbow Kitten Surprise,  I thought this band would be a lot weirder.  I liked some of the songs I’d heard back in 2023 but they cancelled that tour.  Fever Pitch was a cool song with interesting components–lots of fun things going on in under 3 minutes.

The rest of their songs are similarly unexpected, and yet they aren’t quite as compelling.  I have heard  that their live show is unforgettable, but I had a lot going on and my son had just come home from school, so I blew off this show.

Common People are a newly formed band (2025) and they have a oxymoronically named classic indie sound.  They have five songs on Tidal and I like all of them.  Catchy, garagey, a good sound.  Fuzzy guitar solos, I’ll keep an eye on them because I’m definitely interested.

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John Oliver (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, December 30 & 31, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in John Oliver, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on December 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 30 & 31, 2025] John Oliver

I love John Oliver.  He is always funny and was a highlight of The Daily Show.   I understand his new (not new) show is very funny and very insightful as well, but I haven’t seen it.

His stand up has got to be fantastic.

But even without the surgery, I had no intention of going out to Philly on Dec 30th and especially not on the 31st.

It would have been a fun way to ring i the new year, I suppose, although we’d probably have been driving home at midnight.

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Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 14, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Joe Russo, Joe Russo's Almost Dead, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on November 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 14, 2025] Joe Russo’s Almost Dead

I don’t actually know Joe Russo’s Almost Dead.  It didn’t actually occur to me that the Dead in the band name is a Grateful Dead reference.  But I see that JRAD is like a Grateful Dead cover band plus more.  They are known for their intermingling of the Grateful Dead’s recognizable folk-rock and Americana sound with more contemporary Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion influences.

I haven’t been super excited to see them.  I’m vaguely intrigued.  And then my wife won tickets to this show at XPNFest.  Actually there weren’t many concerts to choose from so she chose this and we got on the waiting list for Neko Case (which we eventually got as well).  I thought free tickets would be the perfect way to see JRAD.  And if we hated it we could leave.

But then we saw that Aaron Chen was doing a show in Newark, so we grabbed tickets to that instead.

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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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