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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 18, 2024] Sisters of Mercy / Black Audio

Back in the 80s, I was big into goth bands.  And I loved The Sisters of Mercy.   They were pretty damned cool.

Well, except for Vision Thing.  But the other two albums were awesome.

I was sort of interested in seeing this show to relive the old days (seeing Skinny Puppy this year was awesome).  But I didn’t really think I wanted to go.  At least not really.

I have since seen the setlist and there’s only three songs from Floodland and four from Vision Thing.  And then a whole bunch of unreleased stuff.

Just as well I stayed home

Blaqk Audio (I didn’t realize that was a q until writing this–look at the poster above) is an American electronic music duo, formed by current AFI members Davey Havok and Jade Puget.

They seem almost like they are poking fun of this kind of music.  But apparently their live shows are a lot of fun with lots of dancing.

 

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[DID NOT ATTEND: September 8, 2024] Beabadoobie / Hovvdy

I saw Beabadoobie back in 2021 on her first tour of the U.S.  Since then, she’s put out a couple of albums and has been back to the States.  I didn’t go last time.  She was supposed to play at All Things Go last year but cancelled for some reason or another.

I would have liked to go to this show–I am genuinely surprised she played The Met.  I thought that my daughter would like to go to see her, although she recently told me that she didn’t care all that much.

This night turned out to be the same night that I had tickets to Waxahatchee, but was also the night between two Pearl Jam shows so we weren’t going anywhere.

I saw Hovvdy open for Pinegrove back in 2017.  They played a kind of noisy lo-fi rock (I see they call it pillowcore).  Both singers’ voices and musical styles were fairly different which kept the music constantly shifting.

I enjoyed them although I don’t really have strong memories of the show.

I imagine this night ended pretty early.

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[ATTENDED: September 6, 2024] St. Vincent

I have seen St. Vincent four times and each time was a totally different experience.

The first time was in 2015 at XPN Fest.  She was so good that I wanted to see her again on that tour (since her set was a little shorter due to the co-headline).  But she did not tour that album again.  In fact, when she toured again, it for Masseduction and that tour (in 2017) was radically different.  For the previous Daddy’s Home tour, it was 100 percent different again–with a cool stage and backing singers and a kind of narrative.

This time it was more like a rock show.

The set was more intricate than most, but there were just a couple of moving parts.  And there was a video screen that was mostly used for lights and minor projections.

My wife and I went and we were in slightly better seats than last time, but you really want to be closer to the action with St. Vincent (although, tbh, we were going to see Pearl Jam the next night and we knew we’d be standing for hours, so the seats were a nice treat). (more…)

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[ATTENDED: September 6, 2024] Yves Tumor

I saw Yves Tumor last year on a headlining tour.  They played a bigger venue than the Met, which is kind of interesting.  But I was delighted that hey were opening for St. Vincent both for the exposure and because it meant I’d get to see them again.

Except I really didn’t see them at all.

For the entire set, they were backlit and covered in fog.  I literally never saw Yves Tumor’s face.  It was surprising because I feel like Yves is such a visual artist and because it made the show a lot less interesting.  And also because Yves is a star in the making–I feel like they sound like Prince if Prince were just coming out now (sometimes their voice sounds just like Prince’s)

Musically, they sounded great.  They played a condensed version of the show I saw the previous year.  Shorter songs, a lot less fanfare and soloing, although there was a lengthy jam at one point. (more…)

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[DID NOT ATTEND: May 21, 22 & 23, 2024] Khruangbin / John Carroll Kirby

Back in 2022, Khruangbin  played the Met Philly and I wrote:

I’m intrigued by Khruangbin.  I wanted them to sound a little different than they originally did.  And then they made some EPs with Leon Bridges and they did sound different–more trippy, but more catchy as well.

I thought they’d be fun to see live.  My wife likes the EPs even more than I did, but she didn’t really want to see them.  So I refrained from buying tickets.

Now, two years later and I think we both like them more and I was all set to buy tickets but they were SO EXPENSIVE!  In fairness now I realize that they were expensive because the Ticketmaster pricing now shows the price with al the fees built in and I thought the high price didn’t include fees yet.  But I was still quite sure the price was way too high for a band that I thought was kind of under the radar.

Then they announced TWO MORE NIGHTS!  I think technically none is sold out, but they’re all pretty close.

Very impressive.

John Carroll Kirby is a pianist and composer who apparently resides more in the jazz/new age ether moreso than the rock realm.

His music seems pleasant enough.

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[DID NOT ATTEND: April 18, 2024] Girl in Red / Momma

I had bought a ticket for my daughter and I to see Sir Chloe on this evening.  But when Girl in Red announced her show, I immediately grabbed a pair just in case this was preferred.  I figured they would both be easy to re-sell.

And then Girl in Red announced a second show on the night before this one, so I grabbed those tickets and planned to sell the tickets for this show.

It was kind of fun for her to go to two shows in a row.  Although she enjoyed the Girl in Red show a lot more than the Sir Chloe show.

I assume the show was similar to the show we saw , but I think out show may have been a bit more fun (what with the wedding and all).

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[ATTENDED: April 17, 2024] Girl in Red / Momma

My daughter and I saw Girl in Red twice in 2022.  Her live show is a ton of fun and I was really impressed with how much she changed it over the few months between our shows.  Her new album is all about how she’s “back.”  This puzzled me a bit as she hadn’t been “gone” for very long.  But if you’re online all the time, two years is an eternity.

As soon as this show was announced I bought us tickets.  This venue was much bigger then the one we saw her in and her stage show expanded to fit it.

There was a giant video screen with cool visuals, there were steps and interestingly designed elements.  There was a gigantic swivel light which actually became a projection screen for a song.  And during one of the songs a part of the stage rose up and she was thirty feet above the stage.

She opened the set with the rocking title track.  She was a ton of fun as she ran back and forth across the stage.  Amazingly she was wearing a button shirt, sweater and suit jacket, and I was hot in shorts.   But her energy was infectious and the crowd was super psyched. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: April 17, 2024] Momma

As soon as Girl in Red announced these shows I grabbed a ticket for my daughter and I.

I was super excited that Momma was the opening band because their song “Speeding 72” is one of my favorite songs of the last couple of years.   I’ve heard it on the radio enough that I checked out their debut album and I love the whole thing.  They’ve got a 90’s alt rock (Veruca Salt) vibe that I’m thrilled to hear again.

I would normally have snuck closer to the stage, but my daughter’s not a close-up fan, so we hung at the back of the pit (which in The Met is not far at all).

I enjoyed Momma’s whole (but rather short) set.  They played four songs from Household Name, including Medicine, the show opener and Speeding 72.

They played two new songs which sounded like they are mixing their sound up a little going forward.   And they played a single from last year, which also sounded really familiar.

Center stage with newly died red hair was Allegra Weingarten, and off to her right was Etta Friedman.  They sang together perfectly in that close harmony, almost whispered vocals that are a little hard to hear (especially in a bigger venue).  But they sounded great.

The band is always described as just the two of them, but thee were two other people on stage too, a drummer and a bassist.  Toward the end of the set, Etta switched instruments with the bassist.

I was pleased that the crowd reacted positively to them (being an opening act can suck) and I’m glad I got to see them before they totally take off.

  1. Medicine
  2. Bang Bang §
  3. Lucky
  4. Ohio 2 [new]
  5. Rodeo [new]
  6. Motorbike
  7. Speeding 72

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[DID NOT ATTEND: February 6 & 7, 2024] Mitski / Tamino

Everyone in my family loves Mitski.  Unfortunately, everyone else in the world does too.   So when her shows are announced  they sell out in a second.  I thought that maybe seeing her at The Met would be better than elsewhere since we would be pretty much guaranteed to actually SEE her from any seat.

But of course the first show sold out in a second.  And the second added show also sold out in a second.  There was supposed to be some kind of anti-bot policy in place and I even got on a waiting list to be notified when non-scalped tickets were put back into the process.  And I was notified.  but every time I went to the site, I couldn’t find these tickets and there was no where to put my special code.  So much for that.

It’s now a week before these shows and there are more than 100 resale seats for eat show available.  Each of these seats is over $100, with some pushing $300.  I mean, that’s disgusting as there are definitely 100 people who would love to go to the shows.  But you’d be insane to pay that much

If the prices drop to something reasonable I might grab some, but I don’t really see that happening.

I knew the name Tamino from somewhere but wasn’t sure who they were.  Then I remembered he had played a Tiny Desk Concert several years ago.  I had written

Tamino is a 22 year-old singer of Belgian, Egyptian and Lebanese descent.

I didn’t know anything about him.  But the blurb mentions his voice.  As soon as I read Jeff Buckley and I heard it in the middle part of the first song I knew it was right on.

He sounds like he’d be an amazing opener for Mitski.  Sounds like a great night of music.

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[DID NOT ATTEND: November 15, 2023] Geddy Lee In Conversation

It’s crazy that I could have seen Jeff Tweedy and Geddy Lee read from their latest books and be interviewed in the same month.

Much like with Jeff, though, I didn’t really want to see Geddy read from his book.  I wasn’t even sure I cared enough about him anymore to read his book.  I mean, as a once die-hard Rush fan, I assume I knew everything about the band that I was devoted to.

But listening to the story in the video below, maybe I haven’t.

Also, I had no intention of going to New York to see this show, but seeing that Paul Rudd was his interviewer is pretty amazing.  I had no idea it would be in that format and how amazing would that have been?

I would have gone to the Philly event buy holy crap the tickets were so expensive!  So I decided to not bother.

The guest at the Met Philly was Pierre Robert who I have never heard of.  Apparently he is a DJ with WMMR, which I don’t really listen to.  So I guess he was probably a good choice for interviewing Geddy Lee.  Just not as interesting as Paul Rudd.

Here’s a clip from Philly, followed by a clip from New York

 

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