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Archive for the ‘Underground Arts’ Category

Bully / Graham Hunt Band / Slomo Sapiens (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, December 12, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Baroness, Bully, Control Top, Dusk, Graham Hunt Band, Midwives, Mike Krol, Philadelphia, PA, Reruns, Slomo Sapiens, Sundial Mottos, The Spirit of the Beehive, Underground Arts, World Cafe Live on December 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 12, 2021] Bully / Graham Hunt Band / Slomo Sapiens

Look at this, yet another great show at Underground Arts that I didn’t go to. That place has really got my number–we just need to get our calendars to synch up better.

Bully is basically Alicia Bognanno and whoever she chooses to play with.  She writes great songs and has a unique and cool voice.  I really enjoyed Bully’s first album, Feels Like, but when it was announced that she was touring a new album (and playing Philly with Spirit of the Beehive AND Control Top!) well, I checked that album out right away. And it is very good.

I was pleased when it was announced that she’d be playing Underground Arts instead.  World Cafe Live is a better venue, but UA is much easier for me to get to.  Sadly the opening bands were not the same, but that’s okay.

And then…. Baroness announced they would be playing three nights at Kung Fu Necktie.  I couldn’t make the Saturday one (holiday party), so my only choice was Sunday.  Later they added another date for Monday, but I had already purchased my ticket and it seemed like way too much of a hassle to try to change it.  So Bully had to miss me.  Drat.  Come back again Alicia!

I’d never heard of Graham Hunt although apparently he is been in a lot of bands.  According to this write up

Hunt’s solo work continues to be an oddball amalgam of the best traits of his other projects: Midwives’ exacting focus, Reruns’ strong songwriting structures, and Sundial Mottos’ winsome, relaxed aesthetic all are apparent throughout the excellent new solo album Painting Over Mold. Even the distinct imprints of Dusk and Mike Krol, both acts Hunt has appeared with as a touring member, find cohesion across the record.

Slomo Sapiens continues the tradition of great band names from Philadelphia.  I didn’t know much about them, but they are described as a psychedelic “sludge rock” trio, which sounds pretty good to me.  Their newest album is called Cabin Fever Dreams.

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Cave In / Cleric (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, December 3, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cave In, Cleric, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 3, 2021] Cave In / Cleric

Back in 1998 I really like the Cave In album Until Your Heart Stops.  Then I pretty much forgot about them.

They came back on my radar when one of the band members died in a car accident a few years ago.  He sang lead (but was not the only lead vocalist) and I assumed that was the end of the band.

But they did not break up.  Indeed, they have a new album coming out next year.

I wasn’t planning on going to this show without looking into what they’ve done this century, and I never got around to that, so I didn’t go.

I didn’t know who Cleric was.  Their Wikipedia write up is interesting, but this could go in a direction I don’t like

Cleric is an American avant-garde metal band based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The band is known for their experimental approach to grindcore, doom and avant-garde metal

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Surfbort / Smirk / Dog Date / Pure Adult (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Full show video, Philadelphia, PA, Pure Adult, Smirk, Surfbort, Underground Arts on December 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 2, 2021] Surfbort / Smirk / Dog Date / Pure Adult

Here’s another great show from Underground Arts that I didn’t get to.

I had not heard of Surfbort until a few days ago.  They sound like an insanely fun band.  I mean, look at the picture of them.

They also seem to be all kinds of boundaries pushing.

Here’s what their blurb says about them

Channeling inspiration from the 80’s punk scene to produce rousing, explosive music, their feedback strafed, guitar-shredding music says no to a digital age full of intolerance; they radiate love and friendship. All are welcome in the SURFBORT FREAK FAMILY!

That’s right up my alley.  It’s a shame I found out about this show too late.

Smirk and Pure Adult were unknown to me.

Smirk is the solo project from Nick Vicario (who I don’t know).  The music is wiry, well-crafted punk with heaps of hooks.

Pure Adult has this as a write up

Pure Adult is pure experimental punk shit.

You will listen to this noisy goodness and you will love it.

(although, if you’re only looking for catchy bops, you might hate it)

That sounds pretty great to me.  And according to the videos below the longest set was 40 minutes.

Markit Aneight was there and recorded all four shows:

Pure Adult

Dog Date

Smirk

Surfbort

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The Menzingers / Dirty Nil / Kayleigh Goldsworthy (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 27 & 28, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Canadian Music, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Philadelphia, PA, The Dirty Nil, The Menzingers, Underground Arts on November 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 27 & 28, 2021] The Menzingers / Dirty Nil / Kayleigh Goldsworthy

I saw The Menzingers during Philly Music Fest.  I really enjoyed the set but I was in a terribly location and the sound was dreadful.  I told myself I wanted to see them again.  And there it was, just a month later at Underground Arts!

I couldn’t go on Saturday night because I had tickets to see The Districts, but then they added a 2nd show on Sunday.

But I had just gone to a show on Saturday and the previous week was just chock full of shows.  I couldn’t bring myself to go out again.  Especially since I had just seen them.

I do hope they come back again soon.  And it would be amazing of they could play a small club like that again. (more…)

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Alex Silva (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 20, 2021) [DAN DEACON]

Posted in Alex Silva, Dan Deacon, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, Patrick McMinn, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on November 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2021] Alex Silva [rescheduled from April 30, 2020]

Alex Silva was up after Patrick McMinn.  He took the left side of the stage and was basically right in front of me.

Silva is from Galicia, Spain but now lives in Maryland.

I was delighted that he was wearing a retro Froot Loops T shirt.

Much like McMinn, he mostly pushed buttons on his gear, but it was a more interested watching him work.  He also sang (and processed his voice) to create new sounds.

He introduced a bunch of his songs with personal stories and easily won the crowd over with his stories.

I found his music to be very enjoyable

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Dan Deacon (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 20, 2021)

Posted in Dan Deacon, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on November 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2021] Dan Deacon [rescheduled from April 30, 2020]

The only thing I knew about Dan Deacon was his outrageous “remix” of “Call Me Maybe” in which he looped the entire song on top of itself some 147 times.  It was weird and irritating and funny.

And then a little while later he did a Tiny Desk Concert and it blew my mind and I knew that I wanted to see him in concert.  That was six years ago.

I finally got to see him live and it was everything I imagined.

I don’t really know Deacon’s music.  That’s not strictly true, I know a lot of his early self-released stuff which is really weird.  His newer stuff is less weird, but still unusual–but his albums are usually beloved.  And he has amassed a huge fan base.

Deacon is an unlikely electronic music hero, but hero he is.  He is heavy (he joked about how he should have gotten in shape for this tour), balding and wears glasses.  But he’s got a great sense of humor and an amazing gift for music.  He has a college degree in electro-acoustic and computer music composition.  And he has played in all kinds of bands throughout his career (from ska to grindcore).   But it’s his electronic music, often with his voice pitch-shifted to beyond cartoon level, that makes the night. (more…)

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The Lemonheads / Hey Rocco / Larlene (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 24, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Full show video, Hey Rocco, Larlene, Lemonheads, Philadelphia, PA, Soft Kill, Underground Arts on November 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 24, 2021] The Lemonheads / Hey Rocco / Soft Kill / Larlene

I saw Evan Dando play a bunch of Lemondheads songs solo at a tiny venue in Jersey City.  He seemed kind of wasted, but he sounded great and I had a wonderful time.

I was genuinely interested in checking out this show (in which he had a full band), but it was scheduled for the same night as Jinjer who I really wanted to see live.

I see that he and the band played 35 songs that night.  It must have been a blast.

I had not heard of Soft Kill or Hey Rocco.

Soft Kill is a post-punk band from Portland who on their Facebook pages call themselves “sad rock”, a new musical subgenre.  That does not make me want to see them, that’s for sure.

Hey Rocco is a grunge band that formed in 2009.  I’m curious what that sounds like.

Markit Aneight was there to record the bands

Larlene apparently played instead of Soft Kill and here’s there full show

Hey Rocco

Lemonheads

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Patrick McMinn (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 20, 2021 [DAN DEACON]

Posted in Alex Silva, Dan Deacon, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, Patrick McMinn, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on November 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2021] Patrick McMinn [rescheduled from April 30, 2020]

I was really excited to finally get to see Dan Deacon that I didn’t really think about opening acts.

Traffic was a little worse than I expected and I wound up walking in during Patrick McMinn’s set.

The original opening act was scheduled to be Ed Schrader’s Music Beat.  I’m not sure why he wasn’t on the list anymore.

What amused me most about the stage was that it was set up with three table with laptops and such on them.  On the far right table (facing the stage) McMinn was standing bathed in blue lights.

I had never been to an electronica show before, so I didn’t really know if it was going to be literally all knob twiddling.  And it was, more or less.

But McMinn also plays trumpet and for the final two songs he played nice trumpet melodies into his processor and then proceeded to alter and mix them  to fit into the beats he was creating.

While it is certainly interesting to watch someone create music on the fly like that, the addition of a nice visual like the trumpet certainly adds a fun element.

The set didn’t blow me away or anything, but it was enjoyable introduction to the evening.

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We Were Promised Jetpacks (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 14, 2021) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Underground Arts, We Were Promised Jetpacks on November 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: November 14, 2021] We Were Promised Jetpacks (moved to April 14, 2022).

indexI was lucky enough to see We Were Promised Jetpacks in February.  They announced a surprise show in June–a kind of last show before we leave the States thing.  Of course it was cancelled.

Then they put out a new album and announced a new States tour.

I was kind of surprised that their show was postponed, but it appears that this Fall tour was just a kind of quickie before the larger tour in the spring.  SO they just added our local dates onto that tour. (more…)

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Caspian / Caracara / Holy Fawn (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 10, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Caracara, Caspian, Holy Fawn, Mannequin Pussy, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts, Union Transfer on November 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: April 6, 2020] Caspian / Pianos Become the Teeth / Maserati

My friends Liz and Eleanor have told me that Caspian was one of the best shows that they had seen.  I have been planning to see them ever since.

They were supposed to play Union Transfer in April 2020, but that show was postponed/cancelled.  It’s kind of surprising that they went from Union Transfer to Underground Arts (which is about half the size), but who knows why things are scheduled where they are.

I was pretty excited to go to this show, except that we had tickets to the rescheduled Anti-Flag show for the same night.  So Caspian will have to wait. (more…)

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