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Archive for the ‘The Met Philadelphia’ Category

Franz Ferdinand (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 9, 2023) [PIXIES]

Posted in Bully, Franz Ferdinand, Philadelphia, PA, Pixies, The Met Philadelphia on June 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 9, 2023] Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand played a Greatest Hits show in August of 2022.  I wanted to go but it was the same night as Elvis Costello’s show–and I promised myself I’d see him no matter what (shame his show was so disappointing).

So when Franz Ferdinand was announced as an opening act for Pixies I grabbed a ticket right away.  I wouldn’t have gotten one if I didn’t like the headliners or anything, but hey, Pixies are great, so it was a double win.

It turns out that for this show they played an hour.  And for the greatest hits show they played for an hour and twenty minutes, so I really did get a double win.

For some reason I forgot that Franz Ferdinand were Scottish.  So that was a fun surprise.  As was Alex Kapranos’ energy and fun bouncing around the stage.  He was constantly jumping and getting himself in photographable poses.   It was a blast. (more…)

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Bully (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 9, 2023) [PIXIES]

Posted in Bully, Franz Ferdinand, Philadelphia, PA, Pixies, The Met Philadelphia on June 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 9, 2023] Bully

I was excited for both opening bands at this show.  I had wanted to see Bully back in 2021 at Underground Arts.

But I had a ticket to see Baroness that night and couldn’t make it.  That show looks like it was great.  She played around twenty songs from throughout her catalog.  I don’t know if she had a band or was solo.

For this show, my first time seeing her, she had a band.  And they sounded great.  Singer/guitarist/really everything that is Bully, Alicia Bognanno, was right in front of us.  Wesley Mitchell was on drums right behind her.  Nick Byrd was on bass on my right.  And a guitar player and backing vocalist was on my left.  I never caught her name but she was an essential component to the sound.

So they played eight songs, all from the new album.  I see that at other shows she threw in a couple of older songs.  But whatever.  I like her sound and her voice and while I didn’t know that many of the songs, they sounded great and Bognanno’s intensity is wonderful. (more…)

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Dead Can Dance : A Celebration Life & Works (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2023) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Dead Can Dance, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on April 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: April 22, 2023] Dead Can Dance 

Dead Can Dance plan a U.S tour (their first in a long time) in 2020. It was postponed to 2021 an ultimately cancelled.

I was pretty happy when they announced another attempt.  And so, in June of 2022, a mere ten months before the show, I bought myself a ticket.

Then on September 6, 2022 we received notice that this concert was going to be cancelled as well.  That’s 7 months notice.

“With sadness and regret we have to cancel the upcoming live concerts in Europe and North America due to health reasons,” the band wrote in a statement. “Thank you to our loyal fans for your support. Please contact point of purchase for refunds.” No further details have been offered at this time.

The 2023 trek was set to be their first tour through North America in a decade.

There’s no word from the band since then.  I wonder if everything is okay there.

 

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Skinny Puppy (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 18, 2023)

Posted in Lead Into Gold, Philadelphia, PA, Skinny Puppy, The Met Philadelphia on April 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 18, 2023] Skinny Puppy

I saw Skinny Puppy with my friend Garry back in 1988–on Halloween.  Thirty-four and a half years later and I saw them again on their Final Tour.  It would have been great to see them with him, but he was in Florida at the time, so that made it tough.  He did see the a few weeks ago though, so it’s almost like we saw the show together (except that his setlist was so much better than ours).

Turns out lead singer Oghr had been ill the night before and had to miss the Pittsburgh show.  He was fine for our show, although I assume ours was several songs shorter because of it.

So I admit to being something of a “fake fan” as my daughter says.  I liked them a lot back in the day, but haven’t really listened to them in twenty-five years.  I haven’t listened to much of any of their newer stuff at all.  But Garry told me that this was something of a greatest hits show.

The show didn’t really go very well for me in large part because of the audience.

The guy in front of me who had been into Lead Into Gold, suddenly turned into a full-on dancing arms in the air lunatic, making it impossible to stand behind him.  About half way in, some guy decided he was going to start slam dancing and managed to smash as hard as he could into everyone (including me) around him.  I  thought a fight might break out.  There were several girls who were talking at full volume and late in the show a very drunk guy started talking to me about how Oghr had been throwing up in Pittsburgh the night before. (more…)

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Lead Into Gold (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 18, 2023) [SKINNY PUPPY]

Posted in Lead Into Gold, Philadelphia, PA, Skinny Puppy, The Met Philadelphia on April 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 18, 2023] Lead Into Gold

I figured that Skinny Puppy would have an interesting opening band. I vaguely remembered hearing of Lead Into Gold.  When they projected the logo on a screen at one point it looked very familiar.

I see that they put out an album in 1990 so I might have heard a song (apparently “Faster Than Light”), but I don’t really recall.

I also had no idea that I was in the presence of Industrial Royalty, as Paul Barker himself is Lead Into Gold.  Barker was known as Hermes Pan and was the engineer and producer for Ministry as well as many other bands.

When the duo came out on stage, I wasn’t even sure who was the main person because the guy with the keytar, yes, keytar, was wearing a shimmery gold pajama-looking suit.  But he stepped aside as Barker played the gadget that the gold man was standing in front of to make an interesting industrial instrumental. (more…)

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Modest Mouse (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, December 15, 2022)

Posted in Mattress, Modest Mouse, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on December 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 15, 2022] Modest Mouse 

Last year, Modest Mouse was the first concert I saw after the pandemic. This year, Modest Mouse was the last concert I’ll see in 2022 (nothing dramatic about that, I just don’t have any more shows lined up until next year).

As I’ve said before, I wasn’t planning to see them.  In fact, I felt like I had seen them even more recently than last year.  But this was a special tour–the 25th anniversary tour of their album The Lonesome Crowded West, with a really stripped down band.  Last time I saw them, there were six people on stage (there were like nine the previous show).  This time it’s just a four piece: Isaac Brock and co-founder Jeremiah Green joined by (regular) bassist Russell Higbee and guitarist Simon O’Connor who played last time I saw them.

This meant a stripped down, really rocking show.  Which befits the far more stripped down and rocking sound of this earlier album. 

Normally I’m all about seeing the opening band.  But I’ve had a few liberating experiences lately where i have deliberately blown off the opening band and been pleased with the decision.  I hadn’t heard of the band Mattress.  I looked them up before the show and learned that Mattress is the project of Rex Marshall.  And that the act is pretty much Marshall wearing a gold lame suit and acting like an abrasive lounge singer.

I listened to a song online and decided that I did not need to stand through that.  Sidenote:  It reminded me a lot of Wetface the weird, is-it-a-joke band who opened for Built to Spill this summer.  I sat through that twice and consider that my penance.  (incidentally, I often think of Built to Spill and Modest Mouse in the same breath for some reason, so it’s interesting that they would have similar bands on this year’s tour).

So that mean I got to the Fillmore around 8:45.  The evening happened to be one of the rainiest nights in recent memory.  It rained hard.  All day.  I very much considered not going to this show because of the weather.  But I decided to go and drove through the terrible lashing rain.  I kinda thought that the rain might keep others away and, if I was arriving late, maybe I could get free parking at the the Fillmore lot.  Indeed no.  In fact, it was full.  So I went past the lot and immediately got lost in the bowels of the roads beneath 95.  Holy cow.  I drove for about 8 minutes in crazy rain knowing where I was but having not idea where I actually was.  I finally found my way to the casino for parking and hurries across to the venue only to find a lineup! (more…)

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Suede (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 19, 2022)

Posted in Manic Street Preachers, Philadelphia, PA, Suede, The London Suede, The Met Philadelphia on November 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2022] Suede

When this tour was announced I practically screamed with delight.  It was listed as a dual headlining show with the bands switching who would play first.  It just happened that we had Suede as the second band and I feel that, given how exciting Suede was, we saw them in the right order.

The first Suede album (or The London Suede, if you must) is one of my favorite albums of all time.  It’s glammy and trashy and catchy and wonderful.  Brett Anderson’s voice is unique and magnificent and Bernard Butler’s guitar work was like nothing else at the time.  When Butler left during the recording of their next album, it seemed like curtains for the band, but young guitarist Richard Oates stepped in and is a force unto himself.  I still think of him as the new guy, even though he’s been in the band for over twenty years.

Suede broke up in 2003 and I guess I lost touch with them.  But they reunited in 2010 and have been putting out new albums ever since.  Although I wasn’t really aware of these records–they really fell off my radar.  I had never seen Suede live (and they haven’t toured the States in something like twenty-five years).  I looked at their European shows and saw that they were playing a lot of songs from the new album.  But I hoped that they would throw a bone for the U.S. fans and play some oldies too.

The band came out and set up their first song, a lengthy instrumental opening.  And then Brett Anderson slowly marched out.  He shuffled and danced and was surprisingly goofy.  I evidently didn’t know anything about Suede’s live show, because I wasn’t expecting anything like the way Anderson bounced around, crawled on the floor, and, yes, climbed into the audience and sang with us.  It was awesome. (more…)

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Manic Street Preachers (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 19, 2022) [SUEDE]

Posted in Full show video, Manic Street Preachers, Michele Obama, Philadelphia, PA, Suede, The Cult, The London Suede, The Met Philadelphia on November 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2022] Manic Street Preachers

When this tour was announced I practically screamed with delight.

I saw the Manic Street Preachers 23 years ago.  And while I haven’t kept up with their releases, I have listened from time to time.  But their albums from the 1990s are some of my favorites of the era.  And I have never seen Suede and their debut album is one of my favorite albums ever.  They haven’t toured the US in about 25 years.  I bought a pit ticket and was pretty psyched.

I was quite surprised to find out that it hadn’t sold very well.  But the people around me were super into the show and knew every word to every song (which is more than I knew).

My favorite two MSP albums are Everything Must Go (1996) and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998) and they started off with a song from Truth, the roaring “You Stole the Sun from My Heart.”  The followed it right up with “Everything Must Go.”  I was so excited to find out that James Dean Bradfield still sounded amazing.  He hit some great high notes and was full of power.   Their touring musician (whose name I didn’t catch) added some nice deep backing vocals to the songs.

I was more or less in front of bassist Nicky Wire who was pretty chill–although he did wear a boa for one song.  He used to wear dresses or skirts, but he was just wearing a MSP T-Shirt.  He said a few things (he is known to be controversial), but I didn’t really understand anything he said. (more…)

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Death Cab for Cutie (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 29, 2022)

Posted in Death Cab For Cutie, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on September 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2022] Death Cab for Cutie

This was our third time seeing Death Cab for Cutie.  They put on a remarkably good show every time.  I was telling S. I feel al little bad for saying that I don’t feel like there’s anything extraordinary about them–nothing that blows me away.  However, I like just about everything they do.  They fall into a perfect, sweet spot for me.  I love Ben Gibbard’s voice.  They write excellent melodies.  And, as it turns out, their live shows are fantastic.

The whole evening was marked by weirdness though.  As we arrive, while waiting at the corner, we saw a car hit a guy on a bike.  They were both moving very slowly–the car was turning the corner and the bike was slowing to the parking area right after the corner, and I guess technically, the bike drove right into the car. The rider was uninjured, the car was unscratched.  It was clear that everyone just wanted to move on with their lives and so off they both went.  All before the light turned green for us.

Then, in the venue, we avoided the tall dudes (so many really tall dudes!) and wound up standing by this foursome.  After a minute it became very clear that the one guy was really, really drunk.  And I predicted he was going to down sooner rather than later.  The two women in their group wound up supporting this guy physically for the entire show.   Rubbing his back, patting his shoulders.  And sure enough within two songs he was on the ground.  Although he got up before security could get him and them out of there.  Instead, they wound up with the (in my opinion) worst show imaginable for these two women who were trying to support this idiot instead of sitting him down or just going home.

Ah well.  The good news was that he never caused enough crisis for the band to stop and they were blissfully unaware of that minor drama. (more…)

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Thao (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 29, 2022) [DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE]

Posted in Death Cab For Cutie, Philadelphia, PA, Thao, Thao Nguyen, The Met Philadelphia on September 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2022] Thao

Initially the band Low was supposed to open for Death Cab for Cutie on this leg of the tour.  They had cancelled for health reasons (drummer, singer Mimi Parker is battling cancer).  I haven’t liked a lot of Low stuff (they’re a bit too slow for me), although their newer stuff is a bit noisier and more fun.  And obviously I hope Mimi is okay.

But I was pleased to see that Low was being replaced by Thao.

I have known about Thao Nguyen for years.  She was primarily known as the leader of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.  She dissolved the band earlier this year (no idea why) but has been playing shows with new band members.

She just goes by Thao now and she knows how to control an audience!

We missed the very beginning of her set (we were a little late getting there and then we forgot that the GA area has to go through the far door, so we had to go in and back out before we could really enjoy her set).

Thao was up front in a cool white suit and she sang with the intensity I knew she had.   She also played a wicked guitar, which I did not know she did.  During one of the songs (I don’t know titles), she played a spectacular, noisy guitar solo while the rest of the band jammed around her.

Her band includes Micayla Grace who played an amazing bass guitar (she was all over the fretboard creating wondrous sounds).  Lilah Larson played guitar and keys and seemed to be making sounds out of nowhere.  And her drummer Jon Sortland (who also plays with The Shins) was amazing.  He created rhythms and stacked them on top of rhythms and they all worked perfectly.  Considering he just got off of tour with the Shins a few days earlier, the fact that he could do such amazing stuff with Thao is really impressive.

And then there was Thao herself.  She dedicated a song for a woman’s right to choose.  She played a great song (called “Oh No” I believe) which not only had great audience participation (this side sings Oh No!; this side sings “But I loved you the most,” but which also seemed to have two parts–a really rocking section and then a slower part that built and built.

She also serenaded us with a song that she wrote for her wife, which I believe was “Marrow.”

She ended with a song I knew, “Temple,” a catchy song that looks back at the fall of Saigon.

She played a great set and I would think she’s be amazing as the headliner.

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