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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

Japanese Breakfast / Ginger Root (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ginger Root, Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on May 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 16, 2025] Japanese Breakfast / Ginger Root

When this show was announced, it sold out pretty quickly.  We were bummed because we saw Japanese Breakfast on Halloween a couple of years ago when she said she’d be going to Korea for a year or so.

But soon after, they announced another show on the night before (I always think it’s funny to have the second show come before the first show, but realistically I suppose it doesn’t matter to the band unless they were planning on going all out for that final show.

So when they announced night 2 I grabbed tickets right away and we enjoyed yesterday’s show from the pit.  The shows were almost the same although I’m a little bummed that they did a final encore of Everybody Wants to Love You which they didn’t do for us.  But I’ve seen the song a few times so it’s no big deal.

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Japanese Breakfast (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 15, 2025)

Posted in Ginger Root, Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on May 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 15, 2025] Japanese Breakfast

We had seen Japanese Breakfast play their last American show for a year or so on Halloween 2023.  It was a lot of fun and felt like a really special night.

When they announced their new album, For Melancholy Brunettes… I was concerned because that sounded like a bummer of an album.  And, first single Orlando in Love wasn’t especially gripping.  It was pretty, but didn’t really have a hook.

But I knew that they always put on a good show so it was definitely worth seeing.

The curtain rose on a giant clam shell, which Michelle Zauner came out and sat in and played Here is Someone and Orlando in Love.

She switched from acoustic to electric guitar and returned to the clamshell throughout the show.

The rest of the stage was cool too, with a nautical theme and billowing smoke.

They played three songs from the new albums, with Honey Water being the most upbeat.  But they didn’t stay on this vibe for the whole show because they moved on to the Soft Sounds album, playing three great songs, Road Head, Boyish and The Body is a Blade.

Then it was back to the new album for the bouncy Mega Circuit and the more chill Leda.

They only played one song from Psychopomp, and then moved up to Jubilee for the bouncy Slide Tackle.  A few more new songs were followed by Kokomo, a really fun song from Jubilee. (more…)

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Ginger Root (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 15, 2025) [JAPANESE BREAKFAST]

Posted in Ginger Root, Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on May 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 15, 2025] Ginger Root

Japanese Breakfast announced a show at The Met and it sold out instantly.  But then they announced another show (for the day before) and I grabbed us a ticket.

Ginger Root opened both shows.  I didn’t know them, but they seemed to have a good following.  And the band was full of charisma.  They are an indie band from California led by Cameron Lew.  He describes the music as “aggressive elevator soul.”

And Camerom Lew is a fantastic front man.  He is also the creative force behind the visual and audio components of Ginger Root.  Indeed video may be more important that audio for the band.

Ginger Root was without a doubt the best live band I have seen for music that I didn’t really like all that much.  Not that the music was bad, it just wasn’t quite my vibe.  But the live show was so good I would 100% see them again.

As they took the stage there were two video screens that announced We are your openers for this evening.  We’ll be done in ~40 minutes.

And as soon as the band started, their on-stage cameraman began filming them and projecting it on the screens.  He used all kinds of old-school effects, giving the video and almost 80’s feel.  Especially when the screens were bordered with a white line and the legend: You’re listening to Ginger Root. (more…)

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Arcade Fire (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

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[DID NOT ATTEND: May 5, 2025] Arcade Fire

Back in the day I was a big fan of Arcade Fire.  I though their first few albums were great.  Then I kind of gave up on them.  A student who worked for me was obsessed with them and was a little much, but he did make me rethink why I was blowing them off.

Nevertheless, I hadn’t listened to them in quite some time.

I knew the last times they toured they played large venues.  But this was meant to be a small sort of pre-tour tour.  They announced the shows about two weeks before the dates.  There were only a few shows and Philly was one of them.  I thought, why not?  It’s a chance to see them in a small place.

But wow, crazy expensive seats.  And I had a show the day before and the day after, so I said no thanks.

Turns out they played  the entire new album and then a good selection of hits as well.

I had wanted to see them back in the day, alas.  I don’t think I’ll be checking them out in the future either.

 

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Devo (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 1, 2025)

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[ATTENDED: May 1, 2025] DEVO

As with most people my age, Devo has been (intentionally or not) part of my life for most of my life.  Even if I didn’t know their earlist stuff, Whip It was unavoidable in the days of MTV.

I never considered seeing them.  In fact I hadn’t really thought about them at all since college.  But a few years ago we saw a Mark Mothersbaugh exhibit in a Denver Museum and I went on a really deep dive of his stuff (and obviously I know he makes all kinds of great soundtracks).

Devo has played live over the last decade, but this was their first time playing Philly since 2008.  And I had heard that the shows on this tour were great.  So I was excited to see them.

And what a show!  They’ve always been a very visual band and this continued in their live show.  And the crowd responded in kind.  There were many people dressed in yellow jump suits.  There were countless energy domes, including one that a guy custom fit the inside with duct tape and other gadgets so it fit him perfectly (he of course had on a yellow jump suit too).

It opened with a funny video showing a where are they now look at the guy who tried to make them stars in the 1970s.  (Very funny, but also quite pointed).

They opened with one of their “new” songs (from 2010) which I vaguely knew.   And the backdrop was a full scale visual assault of colors and videos.

The band were dressed in black suit jacket and pants (with Devo printed on the lapel).  Mark Mothersbaugh looks a lot like Steve Martin now which is somehow even more fun. (more…)

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 26, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Nick Cave, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT AnicTTEND: April 26, 2025] Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I saw Nick Cave back in 2017 and it was a great show an a terrible show at the same time.  Nick was great but the crowd around me was so annoying.  And a lot of things went wrong that kept me from getting there at a reasonable hour, so I was really far back.  Blah Blah Blah.

I don’t really like Nick’s newest, mellow, sad album.  I hadn’t even listened to this new one.   And since this was the tour for this album, I didn’t really plan to get tickets.  I did look at them when they were announced and they were really expensive.  So I didn’t even bother getting a ticket.

Looks like he did play songs I wanted to hear and I’m sure the crowd would have been better behaved.  But it’s totally fine that I didn’t go.

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Lucy Dacus (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 16, 2025)

Posted in Boygenius, Jasmine.4.T, Katie Gavin, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 16, 2025] Lucy Dacus 

I have seen Lucy Dacus quite a few (six) times and she always puts on a mesmerizing show. The first time I saw her was at Johnny Brenda’s (capacity 250), the most recent was at Union Transfer (capacity 1200).  And now here she was starting off her first tour after boygenius in her former home town of Philadelphia by playing The Met (capacity 3800).

And, wow, did she step it up for this bigger venue.  She had a gigantic backdrop designed to look like a museum wall.  There were picture frames and columns and it looked amazing.  And even this was presented theatrically as for the openers and for Lucy’s first song, the whole extravaganza was covered in a dropcloth.  The band even walked through the dropcloth opening at the center of the backdrop.  When it dramatically dropped away, the crowd went nuts.

And as she sang, one (or more) of the frames would display a picture that had something to do with the song she was playing.

Because this was the Forever is a Feeling tour, she played mostly songs from that new album (she played the whole album, but not in order).  The album opens with Calliope Prelude and so did the show.  It’s a short instrumental which is primarily strings and it worked very nicely as “walk on” music.

And then she launched right into Hot & Heavy, a song that opens quietly but builds really nicely to get the whole band involved.  I was surprised that she hadn’t opened with a song from the new album, but she followed that up with five songs in a row from it.  The band includes Sarah Goldstone (keys vocals), Dominic Angelella (bass), Alan Good Parker Guitars), Phoenix Rousiamanis (violin), and Ricardo Lagomasino (drums).

First was Ankles, the big single from the album–I’m always surprised when bands play their new single so early, but it worked to keep the energy up.  This also happened to be the first Lucy album I hadn’t listened to much before the show.  So I didn’t know these new songs all that well.  But Lucy is engrossing as a performer.  And it’s fun to hear a sing for the first time in a live setting.  Like hearing the words to Modigliani–while she projected a Modigliani painting on the screen. (more…)

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Katie Gavin (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 16, 2025) [LUCY DACUS]

Posted in Jasmine.4.T, Katie Gavin, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 16, 2025] Katie Gavin 

I Katie Gavin is the singer for Muna.  I didn’t really like the Muna album that much when it came out, but I was really impressed by their live show when I saw them at All Things Go a few years ago.

I felt kind of the same about the Katie Gavin album.  It was okay, but it didn’t excite me all that much.

In fact, I really wanted to see Jasmine.4.T because their song Elephant is one of my favorites this year.  Sadly, I didn’t realize the show started at 7:15 (I assumed 8) and when we rolled up at 7:45, Jasmine.4.T had already ended.

When Katie came out, she was met by thunderous applause, and as soon as she started performing, I was once again blown away by her stage presence.  She joked that people might not know who she is (the applause belied that).

I didn’t love Katie’s album as it leans a little too alt-country for me.  But as with anyone whose albums lean alt-country but who also rock out, in a live setting, the rocking comes to the fore.  And her four-piece band was outstanding, Both bassist Nana Adjoa and guitarist Eric Radloff provided backing vocals.  Adjoa even took a verse or two of some songs (she has a wonderful voice). (more…)

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Beth Gibbons / Bill Ryder-Jones (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, March 29, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Beth Gibbons, Bill Ryder-Jones, Philadelphia, PA, Portishead, The Met Philadelphia on March 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 29, 2025] Beth Gibbons / Bill Ryder-Jones

I love Portishead, they’ve always been a favorite band of mine even if they are rather unprolific.  A lot of that is Beth Gibbons’ voice.  But I’m guessing more has to do with the music of Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley.

When this tour was announced I almost immediately grabbed a ticket.  And then I heard Beth’s solo album and I was kind of bored by it.  Her voice is still glorious but I wasn’t excited by the music.  And while it would be amazing to see such an icon…not if I don’t enjoy what they’re doing.

Bill Ryder-Jones is a songwriter.  I listened to a few minutes of something and found it really slow.  It sounds like maybe he’s a diverse musician, but I wasn’t interested in finding out more.

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Dream Theater: 40th Anniversary Tour (The Met Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dream Theater, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 7, 2025] Dream Theater: 40th Anniversary

When Dream Theater came out forty years ago (really??) I loved their debut album.  But I have never really gotten into any of their follow ups.  I know that they are a band I should love–technically amazing, prog metal epics.  They are made for me.  And yet I just can’t get into them.  I do still love that debut album, but it’s the only one that real fans don’t like (I actually like the original singer better as well).

My friend Joe and I saw them live back in 2002 and I remember enjoying the show quite a lot–it is pretty fun to see these guys do these things up close.  But I’ve been up close on a lot of other amazing musicians and I don’t feel the need to go to this one.

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