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METZ / Spiritual Cramp (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 24, 2022) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Deerhoof, Hello Mary, Metz, Philadelphia, PA, Scarlet, Spiritual Cramp, Underground Arts on October 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: October 24, 2022] METZ / Spiritual Cramp

I saw METZ open for Modest Mouse four years ago and my ears might still be ringing.  I knew of Metz from their noise filled chaotic but amazing albums.

Their live show was less about the abrasiveness and more about their intense stage presence.  I knew I wanted to see them headline a show.

I was unable to see them on their headline tour last year.  But I was pretty excited for this year’s 10 year anniversary tour.  But then, sort of out of the blue it was announced that they’d cancelled the fall leg of their tour (all of October).  There’s still no word on what happened [UPDATE: they did play the December shows, so, maybe they didn’t want to be on the east coast for Halloween).  No word yet on a rescheduled date.

Spiritual Cramp are a San Francisco punk band in the old school Ramonesy fashion.  Simple clean and fast with a singer who kind of blurts out the words.  They’re kind of refreshing, frankly.

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Psychedelic Porn Crumpets (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2022) [rescheduled date]

Posted in Acid Dad, Philadelphia, PA, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Underground Arts on October 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2022] Psychedelic Porn Crumpets [rescheduled from May 5, 2022]

I’m not exactly sure how I discovered Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.  They are an Australian band and they are weird and pretty wonderful.

I wondered if they had any connection to fellow weird and wonderful Australians King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but Perth and Melbourne are over 2,000 miles apart and it takes about 36 hours to drive from one to the other.  Which is about as long as it would take for someone in NJ to drive to Las Vegas.

Seeing them at Underground Arts was really fun because I was right up on the stage–I got to see Rodney the Turtle sing backing vocals).

I’ve listened to the band’s records a bunch, but somehow I didn’t expect the crowd to be quite so frenzied.  The songs are fast and frenzied (and not really psychedelic at all) and a Friday night Philly crowd is just waiting for a chance to slam and surf.  I was luckily just off to the side so I wasn’t in the pit at all.

PPC have three guitarists.  Jack McEwan is the band’s vocalist and main songwriter (he’s actually British, but moved to Australia when he a teenager.  Luke Parish is the lead guitarist for the band, although McEwan also plays lead and Chris Young plays the guitar/keyboard (which also includes lead–sometimes all three play leads at the same time).  Danny Caddy is the band’s drummer.  Wayan Billondana plays bass.  He was in front of me on the stage and his bass playing was outstanding.

The show opened up with the band placing Rodney the Turtle front and center.   I was concerned that someone might try to walk off with Rodney, but the fans behaved themselves.  And he sat patiently until a spotlight shone on him as operatic music started.

As the operatic song came to a close, the band came out and bashed into “Tally-ho,” a fast song full of wild guitar and funky rhythms that set the tone for the night.

The band jumped all over their discography, playing songs from their 5 albums.

Songs like “Lava Lamp Pisco” feature these wonderfully catchy high notes (sung and played on guitar) that act as a massive hook.  But no hook is as big and catchy as the riff of “Bill’s Mandolin” which got the crowd bouncing.  The floor would have been bouncing if we weren’t underground on bedrock.

More terrific riffs followed in “Mundungus” and then things slowed down for a breather in “Found God in a Tomato” the first of many from their debut album.  Things stayed mellow and actually got jazzy for the only track from High Visceral Part 2, “November.”

Like Acid Dad, PPC projected psychedelic images behind them.  It was cool when it showed up on them and their faces swirled around.

People went berserk for the riff of “Hymn for a Droid.”  I assume that most of us knew PPC because of And Now for the Whatchamacallit which i think was the first (and only for a while) PPC record you could get here.  I happen to love this song especially the middle section which sounds like one of my favorite Supergrass songs.

Even though they released their latest album Night Gnomes fairly recently, they only played two songs from it (“Lava Lamp” and the thumping and rocking “Acid Dent”).

The band was genuinely excited to be playing to a large (for them…in the States) crowd.  They had previously played to 100 person rooms and this room was four times the size.  And the crowd was really into it.

They ended the set with three songs from High Visceral Part 1–the three opening tracks in reverse order.  “Marmalade March,” has a series of great catchy riffs as the march proceeds to stomp all over the song.  “Cubensis Lenses” continues the riffing that culminated in a spectacular encore of “Cornflake,” which they stretched out far longer than its three minute recorded version.  It shifts back and forth between a big catchy riff and very mellow verses.

My son’s friend had seen them in New York the night before and he said I would love the show and I absolutely did.  It really got me out of my funk of less than stellar shows.  Which is just as well as there were two more shows in the next two nights.

  1. Tally-Ho ¿
  2. Lava Lamp Pisco ♠
  3. Bill’s Mandolin &
  4. Mundungus ¿
  5. Found God in a Tomato
  6. November
  7. Mr. Prism ¿
  8. Hymn for a Droid &
  9. Acid Dent ♠
  10. Marmalade March
  11. Cubensis Lenses
    encore
  12. Cornflake


♠ Night Gnomes (2022)
¿ SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound (2021)
& And Now for the Whatchamacallit (2019)
¶¶ High Visceral (Part 2) (2017)
¶ High Visceral (Part 1) (2016)

 

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Acid Dad (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2022) [PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS]

Posted in Acid Dad, Philadelphia, PA, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Underground Arts on October 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2022] Acid Dad

I became aware of Acid Dad through the Reverberation Appreciation Society and Levitation Records which aired a number of live shows during lockdown.  I’ve actually learned about a half dozen really cool bands from these lockdown shows.

I was especially intrigued about Acid Dad and had hoped to see them with Hooveriii at Philamoca (but I went to see Torres that night instead).

But here was Acid Dad opening for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets–a great opportunity to see two bands on my gotta see list.

I hadn’t realized that Acid Dad have no bassist (well, there is bass on the records).  Rather, for this show there were two guitars Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey and their drummer, Trevor Mustoe   I also didn’t realize that both guitarists sang lead on different songs. And the way the guitars played off of each other (with them each playing riffs and using all kinds of pedals) the bass was not missed (and I love a good bass line).

Rather, they played their kicking riffs and catchy choruses one after the other, which each guitarist showing some soloing chops.

They have a great retro sound because it seems to reference a whole bunch of musical styles–there’s a classic rock vibe, but there’s also a Jesus and Mary Chain feel (in the vocals and the fuzz).

I was really surprised by how hard they rocked live.  Their recorded output is a little gentler, but they ripped their songs (maybe with just the three of them they played harder).  Indeed, Mustoe broke a stick three quarters of the way through the show.  He threw it to the crowd but it got stuck in the cables at the front of the stage (amazingly no one climbed up to get it).

They played for about 45 minutes, which was great as they played through a bunch of new songs, including their brand new single, as well as a few older songs too.

I also really enjoyed their backdrops, which was full of all kinds of cool psychedelic images.  It was like a retro show with oily colors drifting behind the band, except that it was wholly modern and high tech.  It totally captured the band’s vibe.

  1. Mr. Major ∀
  2. Searchin’ ⊗
  3. Get Me High [single]
  4. RC Driver ⊗
  5. Don’t Get Taken $
  6. Dissin’ ∀
  7. BBQ ⊗
  8. She Only Eats Organic ⊗
  9. Living With a Creature [single]
  10. Marine ∀

⊗ Take It from the Dead (2021)
∀ Acid Dad (2018)
$ Let’s Plan a Robbery (2016)

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Mother Mother (The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2022)

Posted in Mother Mother, Philadelphia, PA, Radiohead, Sir Sly, Transviolet, Underground Arts, Vundabar on October 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 14, 2022] Mother Mother

Back in February (all of 8 months ago), I took my kids and one of their friends to see Mother Mother at TLA.  We all loved it.  The kids had a great time and I was really blown away by their show.  They were supposed to play at The Foundry, which of course would have been neat, but they put on a BIG show and the TLA was the superior venue.  TLA holds about 1,000 people (Foundry is 450).  So I was really surprised to hear that they were coming back to Philly in 8 months to play the Fillmore (capacity 2,500).

And, as I say, it was PACKED.  We were all very happy  to have seen them at TLA where we were super close.  But this show was also fun because the crowd was totally into it and the band seemed bigger and more intense.

Although the setlist was largely the same, the order of the songs was quite different.  In fact, they opened with a song that last time was way near the bottom of the set.  At TLA, Ryan said

they were going to play a song that they knew was weird when they recorded it.  But they had to put it out there.  And now, it sounds like the non-binary community has embraced “Verbatim” and made it their own.

They opened with “Verbatim” and the crowd went nuts.  After a rollicking “O My Heart” (the album that their most popular song is on and which has been revitalized by TikTok), they played a couple of songs that they didn’t play last time.  In all they played five different songs from the previous show (and didn’t play six songs that they played last time).

One of these new songs was “Creep” by Radiohead, which was a huge surprise.  When we saw them last time, Molly Guldemond sang “Pure Love” a nearly a capella song that highlights her voice nicely.  For this show, she did “Creep,” instead.  The crowd really responded to it.  The only problem for me was the guy right behind who wanted to prove that he knew all the words (like everyone else) by singing them very loudly in my ear.  It was especially crappy because Molly has a great voice and really hit all the notes perfectly (this guy didn’t). (more…)

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Yard Act / Gustaf (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 16, 2022) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Gustaf, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts, Yard Act on October 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: October 16, 2022] Yard Act / Gustaf

Yard Act are from that peculiar line of art punk that features noisy guitars and a lead vocalist who mostly speaks/yells/gripes.  Sometimes a little of that goes a long way and sometimes it works really well.

I actually didn’t know them all that well.  Although I know some people who hate them passionately–probably because they are much heralded.

At any rate, I was far more interested in seeing Gustaf who I saw open for Idles last year.  They were weird and artsy and amazing live and I need to see them again.  It seemed like a great opportunity to see what Yard Act was all about at the same time.

Then all of a sudden the show was cancelled.

I actually posted on the Gustaf Instagram to discover that Yard Act had been invited to appear at the Mercury Prize Awards on the 18th.  So we lost out on the show.  Good for them.  Bad for us.

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Vundabar (The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2022) [MOTHER MOTHER]

Posted in Mother Mother, Philadelphia, PA, Sir Sly, Transviolet, Underground Arts, Vundabar on October 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 14, 2022] Vundabar

My daughter has a Vundabar song, “Alien Blues” on her playlist and I really like it.  Turns out I’ve been aware of Vundabar since 2018 and would have enjoyed seeing them at any time.  They seem to tour a lot–at least I’ve seen their name around opening for people quite often.  I didn’t know that they were supposed to open this show.

The first opening band was Transviolet, who I didn’t know, although the lead singer Sarah McTaggart was hanging around the lobby wearing a fascinating outfit–fishnet stockings and something like leather underwear.  She was super friendly to all the fans.

Originally, Sir Sly was slated to be a second opening band.  Then one of the members had a baby and decided that he couldn’t be away from the baby (good for him) and Vundabar stepped up.

Had I known about Vundabar I would have encouraged us to arrive earlier.  We dawdled and knew that a Friday night would be very trafficky, but I didn’t really mind as I hadn’t heard of either band.  However, t turned out that Transviolet went on at earlier than 8.  And Vundabar started before 8 as well.  Or maybe they went on at 8 and between parking, buying merch and the like, we didn’t get into to see them until half way through the set.

Worse yet, the show was PACKED and we were stuck not only at the back but in the walkway, so we had to move constantly.  It wasn’t until we were really settled that I was able to enjoy whatever song they were playing.  Soon after they played “Alien Blues” and the crowd went berserk.  This is a big TikTok song apparently.  We even saw a fan face timing her friend who was dancing to the song as she streamed it.  Weird but fun.

Vundabar played one more wild song and I determined that I would very much like to see them again.

Then the crowd adjusted and we were able to get a little closer 9not a lot, but out of the walkway) for Mother Mother.

  1. Tonight I’m Wearing Silk ℘
  2. Diver ℘
  3. Ash in the Sun ∞
  4. Worn / Wander ∞
  5. Darla ∞
  6. Nosferatu µ
  7. Petty Crime ⇔
  8. Alien Blues ∞
  9. Oulala ∞
∞ Gawk (2015)
℘ Smell Smoke (2018)
µ Devil for the Fire (2022)
⇔ Either Light (2020)

 

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Mondo Cozmo / Illinois (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cancelled, Illinois, Mondo Cozmo, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on October 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: October 14, 2022] Mondo Cozmo / Illinois

Mondo Cozmo is one of those bands that gets played on WXPN that I hear a bunch and quite like, but never really commit to.  So I decided to finally commit to seeing them.

I didn’t know that head Cozmo, Joshua Keith Ostrander was a Philly guy, which probably explains the radio play.  It’s actually been a few years since I heard anything from him, so I’m not sure how much I would have known what he was playing, but I hoped he’d play some songs I knew.

Then on August 5, the band announced

Hey everyone. We are incredibly sorry to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to do the upcoming October tour. This includes both the headlining shows and the additional Airborne Toxic Event shows. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. X Mc

Illinois is (confusingly) from Philadelphia.  Their bio says they make music that is

part indie-folk rock with some pop-rock and when it all comes together they label it as “suburban soul music”.

I listened to a few songs and really dig it.  It’s light and poppy but with a dark current.  And I really like the singer’s voice.

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The House of Love (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 13, 2022)

Posted in House of Love, Philadelphia, PA, The House of Love, Underground Arts on October 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 13, 2022] Alec Nicol [rescheduled from May 7, 2020]

I was pretty excited when The House of Love announced a 30th anniversary tour of the States in 2020.  It would be their first time playing here in 30 years.  Then COVID, obviously.

I was never a huge fan of the band, but I’ve liked them since college–part of the whole 90’s Creation scene.  And they have half a dozen songs that routinely get stuck in my head.

I hadn’t given too much thought to the band’s lineup.  I believe that when the 2020 tour was announced the original band was back together.  But this show had a

new HoL lineup that Guy Chadwick announced last summer after telling fans he’d parted ways with original members Terry Bickers and Pete Evans, as well as Matt Jury, who’d been on board since the group reunited in 2003.

The new lineup will find Chadwick backed by Keith Osborne on lead guitar, Harry Osborne on bass and Hugo Degenhardt on drums. The band also has recorded a new album, though its release has not yet been announced.

So that’s kind of a bummer.  Although Guy Chadwick wrote and sang all the songs, so I guess the rest of the band isn’t that big a deal.  The only thing I missed was Bickers’ backing vocals.

I knew there were a few songs I really wanted to hear (and they played them all), but I didn’t have a big set list in mind.  They played songs from their first three albums and then a bunch from the one Chadwick just released (which was kind of a solo album). (more…)

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Alex Nicol (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 13, 2022) [THE HOUSE OF LOVE]

Posted in Alex Nicol, Gomez, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on October 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 13, 2022] Alex Nicol [rescheduled from May 7, 2020]

I was pretty excited when The House of Love announced a 30th anniversary tour of the States in 2020.  It would be their first time playing here in 30 years.  Then COVID, obviously.

Opening for them was Alex Nicol.  Impressively, when these dates were rescheduled, Alex Nicol was still the opening guy.  The show was originally set for White Eagle Hall in NJ.  Rescheduled shows were moved around (no more NJ) but I would happily go to Underground Arts to see them.

A few weeks from now Travis is playing Union Transfer.  Opening for them is Ben Ottewell (of Gomez).  Every poster listed him as “Of Gomez.”  For some reason I got my anniversary tours mixed up and thought that “Of Gomez” was for this show.  So I went into Nicol’s set expecting him to sound like Gomez.  He doesn’t.

Alex Nicol is a musician from Montreal.  His bandmates all had wonderfully French sounding names Simon Trottier (guitar), Emmanuel Ethier (bass), and Bucky Wheaton (drums) [aside from Bucky, obviously]. (more…)

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The Contortionist / Rivers of Nihil (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 6, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Rivers of Nihil, The Contortionist, Underground Arts on October 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 6, 2022] The Contortionist / Rivers of Nihil

I saw The Contortionist open for Animals as Leaders back in 2019.

I enjoyed them quite a lot and definitely wanted to see them again.  I didn’t know much about them then and I pretty much forgot about them soon after the show.

But when I saw this tour and saw that they were playing two albums, Language & Exoplanet, in their entirety, I imagined it would be a pretty fun show–and the fans would be insane.

However, this show was scheduled for the same night as Cate Le Bon who I’d been wanting to see for a long time.  So, Cate won out.

Rivers of Nihil is an American technical death metal band from Reading, Pennsylvania.  I probably would have loved technical death metal if I’d heard it in college or high school, but I really just can’t get into it now.  Although I do tend to enjoy this kind of thing live more than on record for the sheer spectacle.

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