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Archive for the ‘Theatre of Living Arts’ Category

Gigi Perez / Nikole (Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Gigi Perez, Nikole, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 5, 2025] Gigi Perez / Nikole

My daughter and I saw Gigi Perez open for Girl in Red and I was really interested in seeing her as a headliner.  But this show was up against DEVO and I wasn’t going to pass one DEVO.

Since this show I’ve seen her two more times (in short sets, but still) so I don’t mind having missed this one.

Nikole is one of many artists who drive me crazy by going by their first name.  If you have an unusual name sure.  But hey, Nikole, even with a k is not unusual enough.  This person is very hard to search for.

If I have the right person she grew up in Florida and her mom is Venezuelan, and her dad is Lebanese.  She speaks Spanish but sings in English.  I’ve listened to a couple of songs.  She has a great voice and her songs are catchy with some cool guitar work on top.  But seriously, she needs a new stage name.

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Arch Enemy / Fit for an Autopsy / BAEST / Thrown Into Exile (Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Arch Enemy, Baest, Fit for an Autopsy, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts, Thrown into Exile on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 5, 2025] Arch Enemy / Fit for an Autopsy / BAEST / Thrown Into Exile

I saw Arch Enemy open for Behemoth back in 2022.  I didn’t really know them before hand, but I enjoyed their set quite a lot.  And I took a photo of singer Alissa White-Gluz that is one of my favorite concert photos ever.

I don’t think I really had any interest in the show, especially since I didn’t know any of the other three bands.  But the fact that they were playing at TLA held my interest for a little while at least.

Fit for an Autopsy is a band I’ve been aware of for a while, but I had never listened to them.  I hate to say they are another band with a growly singer, but they are.   The good thing is that you can actually understand what he says (it’s pretty dark, duh).  And they do have some really catchy parts in their songs.  They’d probably be enjoyable live.

I had not heard of Baest who is a Danish death metal band formed in 2015.  I like that their name was initially spelled Bæst, the Danish word for “beast” or “brute.”  That makes me happier than thinking  they just wanted to spell Beast weirdly.

They have a pretty classic European metal guitar sound with a really deep growly vocalist.  They’re more punishing than Fit for an Autopsy by my reckoning.

Thrown into Exile is a band from L.A.  They’ve been around forever, although I’d never heard of them.  The singer has a kind of barking style that I don’t really like.

This would have been an exhausting night of metal.

 

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Varietourpia with Paul F. Tompkins (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, May 4, 2025)

Posted in Artoun Nazareth, Medusa the Gangsta Goddess, Paul F. Tompkins, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts, Varietourpia on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 4, 2025] Varietourpia with Paul F. Tompkins

Paul F. Tompkins is one of my favorite comedians and I would happily see him do anything.  Although this is the first time I’ve been able to see one of his Varietopia shows.

As the name suggests, this is a Variety show like they had in the old days: comedy, music, interaction, magic.  All in one show.  He’s been doing this since 2002 (!) and it sounds like when he does the show in L.A. anyone who is funny or entertaining shows up.

For our show, we had Medusa the Gangsta Goddess and Artoun Nazareth.  Not household names by any means.

Medusa the Gangsta Goddess is an underground hip-hop legend whom I’ve never heard of.  She was fun and is referred to as the godmother of west coast hip hop.

Artoun Nazareth is a magician who I thought was really good and very funny.  I was gobsmacked by a trick in which writing appeared to move across a page and turn into something else.

Nazareth is also an actor, so it makes sense that he was such a good performer.  He did fun crowd work and was good enough that I immediately followed him on Instagram. (more…)

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half•alive / The Walters / Mehro (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in half•alive, mehro, Philadelphia, PA, The Walters, Theatre of Living Arts on April 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 9, 2025] half•alive / The Walters / Mehro

I first heard of half•alive on a Tiny Desk Concert.

I’ve been interested in seeing the band because their stage show is legendary–they have two guys who basically dance–they choreograph dances for the songs.

I missed them in 2023 when they played TLA.  My friend Lindsy is a huge fan and was very excited to go to the show. She got there early and even met the band.  But The Fillmore was too big of a venue for me to “check out” this band, so I didn’t go.  I know that half alive is pretty dancey in an alt kind of way and I’m sure I’d like them live, but I didn’t feel like going.

The Walters played on a half•alive song so I see the connection.  They’re a bit more low-key than half•alive, though.  They remind me of AJR (but the less wacky parts).  Catchy though.

mehro pronounced “marrow,”

the name mehro encapsulates their goal of seeping into the literal DNA of listeners. “The concept was born from bone marrow: It’s essential for us to live, but we never see it,” recalls mehro.

Woah.

mehro’s rich, multi-layered music has an airy, dreamlike sound that lures the listener in before giving way to the bleak emotions bubbling just below the surface.

I listened to a song and enjoyed the mix of lo-fi bedroom pop and full band screaming choruses.  They defied my expectation for sure.

For ease of searching I include half alive.

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Mogwai / Ye Gods / Brainiac (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, April 8, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in 3RA1N1AC, Brainiac, Mogwai, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts, Ye Gods on April 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 8, 2025] Mogwai / Ye Gods / Brainiac

There were four shows that I wanted to go to on this night.  But this was my top choice.

I saw Mogwai and Ye Gods almost exactly 3 years ago at this same venue (April 6).

Mogwai were amazing.  And I knew I’d want to see them again.

I liked the name Ye Gods, but my take away was

I wonder if it would have been more enjoyable from further back?  If the sound was better back there. Or maybe seeing how the sausage was made was a little weird?  Either way, it was fine and it was fun to see him as he made the sounds, but I felt like with a name like Ye Gods, it might have been a bit more fun.

Brainiac (3RA1N1AC) was the unknown quantity for me.  I had heard of them but didn’t know much about them.  I have since learned that they were a weird, electro-driven, frantically spastic, experimentally noisy art-punk band.  They put out three albums and then disbanded after the sudden death of lead singer Tim Taylor in a car accident on May 23, 1997.

I’ve seen a few live clips.  This one from KEXP is particularly good and it makes me really wish I had seen them.   But my wife had just had surgery and I wasn’t going anywhere.

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Animals as Leaders (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2024)

Posted in Animals as Leaders, Philadelphia, PA, Plini, Theatre of Living Arts on November 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2024] Animals as Leaders

My Brother-in-law, Ben told me about Animals as Leaders back in 2019 just before they came to the East Coast.  I grabbed a ticket to their TLA show and was really impressed (although I hated the crowd).

Animals as Leaders is a 3 piece founded by Tosin Abasi.  He plays primarily the 8-string electric guitar and his fingers (on both hands) are all over the fretboard.  Basically, he’s a guy you want to watch closely.   He started the all-instrumental Animals as Leaders in 2009.  Guitarist Javier Reyes also plays the 8 string (and is equally as amazing) and drummer Matt Garstka fill out the band.

The last time I saw them, the crowd was tall and very shove-y.  This time the crowd was pretty tall, but I’m better at negotiating my spaces and the shoving was contained.   The last time I saw them they were touring the tenth anniversary of their debut album.  This tour was the tenth anniversary of their The Joy of Motion album, which they played straight through.

I didn’t know the album, but boy everyone else did–I love when a room sings a long to an instrumental.

The band sounds huge, with both guitarists playing low and high ends at the same time and the drummer playing nonstop so that it’s a constant wall of sound.

There’s not a lot more to say about the show.  Most of the songs are heavy with complex rhythms and time signatures.  There were a couple of songs that were quieter with one acoustic song (and Reyes switched down to a 7 string!).  The musicianship was amazing.   What I found especially interesting is that their songs aren’t especially long–most around 4 minutes.  This packs a lot of musical information into digestible chunks.

He told us that his favorite song was The Woven Web (it rocked) and thanked us for being there for ten years and more.

When the album was over (about an hour), they left for a brief encore break.

When they came back Tosin asked if we wanted one more.  And they played The Brain Dance.   Mid-song, opening guitarist Plini came out to play a ripping solo and then he left again.   Tosin asked if we wanted one more.  We did and they played the ripping Ectogenesis and then Red Miso from their most recent album.  After that he asked if we wanted one more, for real, last song and they ended the night with the new(ish) powerhouse “Monomyth.”

It was a great set.

I should also mention the lighting.  It was mostly kind of dark–blues and reds–but they had their own (pretty intense) lighting rig.  One of the bigger rigs I’ve seen at Union Transfer.  It was definitely cool and did lots of nifty lighting tricks.  It probably looked fantastic from further back, but I wanted to get up close to see the fingerwork.  And I think i made the right choice.

I don’t think I’ll see  them again, but I did enjoy this show quite a lot.

 

2024 Union Transfer 2019 TLA
Ka$cade ♥ Espera (tape) ∞
Lippincott ♥ Wave of Babies @
Air Chrysalis ♥ Tempting Time @
Another Year ♥ Thoroughly at Home @
Physical Education♥ Arithmophobia ϖ
Tooth and Claw ♥ Cognitive Contortions ϖ
Crescent ♥ Nephele ♥
The Future That Awaited Me ♥ The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing / Behaving Badly @
Para Mexer♥ Para Mexer ♥
The Woven Web ♥ The Brain Dance ϖ
Mind-Spun ♥ Ectogenesis ϖ
Nephele ♥ Inner Assassins ϖ
encore The Woven Wed ♥
The Brain Dance ϖ (with Plini) CAFO @
Ectogenesis ϖ encore
Red Miso ¶ Physical Education ♥
Monomyth ¶

¶ = Parrhesia (2022)
ϖ = The Madness of Many (2016)
♥ = The Joy of Motion (2014)
∞ = Weightless (2011)
@ = Animals as Leaders (2009)

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The Lemonheads: It’s a Shame About C’mon Feel Tour / Cooper B. Handy / The Taxidermists (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 14 & 15, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cooper B. Handy, Lemonheads, Philadelphia, PA, The Taxidermists, Theatre of Living Arts on September 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 14 & 15, 2024] The Lemonheads / Cooper B. Handy / The Taxidermists

I rather enjoyed The Lemonheads’ anniversary of It’s a Shame About Ray.  But I felt that Evan Dando’s performance was less than stellar.  And there was no word that he was “doing better” these days.

So even though I would have really enjoyed hearing these two albums in total, I wanted to hear them by Evan from twenty years ago.

Markit Aneight was there so I didn’t have to be and his video confirms that Evan was in a bad way that night.  So I’m glad I didn’t waste my time.

The first night opener was Cooper B. Handy.

Cooper B Handy has a kind of 90s DIY sound, but from the video below I wouldn’t really have enjoyed him that much.

Born on Cape Cod, Cooper B. Handy started releasing music as LUCY in 2009. In the years since, the Western Massachusetts based singer/producer has made a career of self-releasing music and videos, unpolished & posted in near real time.

The second night opener was The Taxidermists, a band from Massachusetts that’s been around for over a decade and which may have been the same band as played the first night.

the duo of singer/guitarist Cooper B. Handy (LUCY) and drummer Salvadore McNamara—take complete creative control on their infectious new KO EP. The organic sound of two childhood best friends sequestered in a garage with tape reels.

The first night it was just Cooper and a drummer, so maybe it was the same band–but probably different songs?  Maybe?

 

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Sleater-Kinney (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2024)

Posted in Black Belt Eagle Scout, Philadelphia, PA, Sleater-Kinney, Theatre of Living Arts on March 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Sleater-Kinney 

This was my fifth time seeing Sleater-Kinney.  I saw them twice back at the turn of the century and then two more times in the last few years.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to see them again, but I thought a show at TLA would be a great way to see them and when my wife said she wanted to come along too, I knew it would be super fun.

The band has a new album out and they played 9 of ten songs from it.  However, they played 24 songs in total so it’s not even a majority of tracks.   (Interestingly they barely played anything from the other records “from this century.”

The older songs definitely got the most love from the audience, but I think this new album is quite good and most of the new songs received appropriate accolades.

They opened with “Hell” and “Needlessly Wild” a chance for both Corin and then Carrie to sing lead.

The setlist was pretty varied from there, including a number of older songs that I hadn’t heard live before.   Like “Oh!” from One Beat, a super fun song with great harmonies from the rest of the band.

The band this time was similar to their 2019 band: Angie Boylan (drums), Katie Harkin (guitars/keyboards) and Toko Yasuda (keyboards). but Katie Harkin, who has played with them a lot was replaced by Teeny Lieberson.  Their backing vocals were terrific–something I never really thought about with S-K before, but their voices really fleshed out the overall sound. (more…)

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Black Belt Eagle Scout (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2024)

Posted in Black Belt Eagle Scout, Philadelphia, PA, Sleater-Kinney, Theatre of Living Arts on March 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Black Belt Eagle Scout

I was pretty excited to see that Black Belt Eagle Scout was going to open for Sleater-Kinney.  I’ve wanted to see her /them for a while and this was a great opportunity to see them.

I had heard a few songs by them a couple of years back but I had also heard that the live show was terrific.

The band came out–a trio.  There were two guitars and drums.   Singing was Katherine Paul, a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, Oregon.  Paul blends the vibe of Pacific Northwest rock with elements of Coast Salish traditional music

Her music is grungey in its tone, but it is also pretty slow, with Paul’s voice soaring in wonderful and at times unexpectedly places.  She is also an amazing guitar player, jamming out some killer solos as the songs (and the set) wrapped up.

I enjoyed the way “My Blood Runs Through this Land” got bigger and bigger, with her singing wordless lines (again, such a good voice) and cool lyrics like

I know you speak through me IFeel it in the sound of waterTouching all the rocks I feelNo one can takе this moment away ’causeMy blood runs through this land IFind it in the land and sеa

“Treeline” opened with Camas Logue playing big soft drum with mallets–yes it felt tribal, but not like a stereotype.  Fancy Dance followed and it was faster and much shorter (barely 2 minutes) which came as a but of a surprise after the first two five minute songs.

What was really interesting to me about their set is that there was no bass player.   It was like they took a page out of the Sleater-Kinney playbook: two guitars and no bass.  (apparently there is typically a bass player, but they were not missed in this set).  The second guitarist Claire Puckett mostly played chords, but also played lead lines and even soloed a bit with Katherine at the end.

The set seems to have moved through the band’s output, with only one song from the previous album.   And then three songs from the debut, which the crowd seemed  to really like.

She dedicated “Indians Never Die” to the Lenape Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  It had a simple but super catchy chord progression and they jammed the heck out of it at the end.

Sam, A Dream was my favorite song of the set.  After the song moves slowly along, it picks up in the middle and Paul plays a very cool hammered on riff that isn’t complicated but sounds great.  I love the way the band played around that riff and then returned to it at the end.

They ended with the fantastic “Soft Stud” and the recurring line “I know you’re taken/need you want you.”  Like many of her songs, the basics of the song are simple, but the way the song gets bigger and adds new elements (like the simple but catchy guitar riff that comes in halfway through) is really exciting, with Paul absolutely rocking out the guitar solo at the end of the show.

It was a great set.

  1. My Blood Runs Through This Land ≅
  2. Treeline ≅
  3. Fancy Dance ≅
  4. My Heart Dreams ∇
  5. Indians Never Die Ô
  6. Sam, a Dream Ô
  7. Loss & Relax %
  8. Soft Stud Ô
≅ The Land, the Water, the Sky (2023)
% 2019 single
∇ At the Party With My Brown Friends (2019)
Ô Mother of My Children (2017)

 

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Meet Me @ the Altar (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, January 23, 2024)

Posted in Elliot Lee, Honey Revenge, John Harvie, Meet Me @ The Altar, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on January 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 23, 2024] Meet Me @ the Altar

I had tickets to see Meet Me @ the Altar last year but went to The Beths instead (good choice).  MM@TA were headlining The Foundry.  And now a year later they are headlining TLA.

My daughter and I saw them at the All Things Go Festival and I loved them.  I knew I wanted to see them again–especially as a headliner.

I thought that Meet Me @ the Altar were really really young (teenagers), but this summer, singer Edith Victoria announced that it was her birthday and that she was now 23.  I’m not sure how old guitarist/bassist Téa Campbell or drummer Ada Juarez are.

They play feminist pop punk.  Téa Campbell absolutely rips on guitar and Ada Juarez pummels back there.  I’m not sure how they play the backing sounds–basses and extra percussion.  I assume Juarez triggers a sampler and they play to the sounds as opposed to them being triggered on the fly.  I loved the sound of the guitars.  I loved Edith’s voice (and Téa’s backing vocals) and I loved their attitude.

From the start, they brought the pop punk.  In addition to playing a lot of new songs, they dig into their back catalog (which they have).

After a couple of songs they got a pit going and when they played “Hit Like a Girl,” Edith told the crowd that this pity was just for the women, which I thought was pretty cool.

When I saw them this summer, they played some excerpts from songs they’d wished they’d written.  I assumed that was just a fun way to endear yourself to a festival crowd.  But they’ve been doing this on each show of the tour (although mixing things up a bit).  I really enjoyed their cover of “Complicated” this summer.  They didn’t play that this time, instead playing “Since U Been Gone” and putting a great punk attitude on it.

The end of the set was a collection of killer tracks that the crowd was fully into.  We all sang along to “Kool” and they ended with the name of the tour: Say It to My Face absolutely shredded the room.

The show was only an hour, but they packed everything in and the crowd was really psyched by it.  On the way out I heard someone say how much better they were than at The Foundry last year.  So I think i picked the right show after all!

 

2024 (TLA) 2023 (All Things Go)
Same Language ⇔ Same Language ⇔
Brighter Days (Are Before Us) Δ T.M.I ⇔
Now or Never Δ Try ⇔
Beyond My Control ♦ Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson) (excerpt)
Try ⇔ Complicated (Avril Lavigne) (excerpt)
May the Odds Be in Your Favor Ø Take Me Away (Christina Vidal) (excerpt)
Hit Like A Girl § Hit Like A Girl §
It’s Over For Me ⇔ Say It (To My Face) ⇔
Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson) (excerpt) Garden Ø
Take Me Away (Christina Vidal) (excerpt) Kool ⇔
Burnin’ Up (Jonas Brothers) (excerpt)
T.M.I ⇔
Garden Ø
Feel a Thing Δ
Kool ⇔
Say It (To My Face) ⇔

⇔ Past//Present//Future (2023)
Δ Model Citizen EP (2021)
§ single 2021
Ø single 2020
♦ Bigger Than ME EP (2019)

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