I’ve known about Sudan Archives since her first album came out. I wanted to see her in 2020, but her show sold out. Then it was just before the COVID shutdown and her show wasn’t cancelled but hardly anyone went so I could have gone (but I didn’t know that and probably wouldn’t have gone anyway). I had a ticket to see her a couple years ago but didn’t make it. But then I finally saw her at All Things Go in 2023,so I was excited to get to see her again at her own show.
I had not heard of Halima, but she seemed to have some buzz around her. She came out looking fierce in a half jacket with huge shoulders. She had beads in her hair, marched out to the mic all by herself and started her backing music.
It was really impressive that she stood there with just the mic and her backing music playing as she sang her genre-unspecific music. I really enjoyed the spare backing sounds of her songs. omoge was a series of soft notes as she sang gently over them. Her second song (which I never found the name of) was a bit more bouncy with some deep bass notes.
I really liked the sounds of cocoa body–a kind of percussive melody accompanied by deep bass notes. Most of her songs were pretty short, but this one did have a middle instrumental section where Halima showed off her great dance moves.
Halima is British but she lives in Brooklyn. I loved hearing her talk–there’s something really cool sounding about the way British singers say Phillleeee. (more…)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
What was fascinating was that Tyler’s show was MASSIVE. He sold out Wells Fargo Center. He had two stages, lots of lights, and a whole routine. Earl’s show was at Union Transfer and didn’t even have a backdrop. There was no light show, just the venue’s lights. And all of that is totally fine, it was just such a contrast.
Earl had been on the stage for most of the night. Hanging out behind the DJ table, bouncing with the people around him. But I didn’t know it was him until he came out from behind the table and started his set.
I was fascinated at how short his songs were. Riot! is about a minute. gsw vs sac was just over a minute. He did 22 songs in under an hour.
Earl is a bit of a mumbler, but he has a lot of charisma and knows how to modulate his flow. and yet overall, it’s still a pretty chill set.
Like with the others, there were people walking around, filming, dancing, smoking. For Earl’s set a guy with a really big beard (Daryl, I think) walked around and got a shout out but didn’t actually do anything.
According to setlist, many of the songs were unreleased. So when the short songs ended (abruptly) the crowd had to take a second to respond. There was also a kind of pause where they played music and he talked to the DJ or something? Everything about the whole night just felt like a bunch of guys hanging out rapping. It wasn’t that it was unprofessional, it just felt totally relaxed and low key–much like Earl’s music. Like friends hanging out.
The biggest reactions came from his songs from SICK! and of course, Molasses from Doris was a big hit with crowd rapping along. Earl seemed to really enjoy the crowd for this song and they way they rapped back–“make some noise for yourself Philly.”
The tone picked up a lot when ZeLooperz came back out to rap on Vision and it made me laugh that Earl just kind of stood around watching him. Earl is very very chill. Then Cletus Strap came to the front and did one of his own songs while Earl acted out the lyrics somewhat–Earl has a verse on the record and did his own verse when it was time.
About half way through Earl’s set he recognized the DJ, Black Noise, who I don’t think was DJing all night. It was very hard to tell what was going on most of the time.
When he announced the song E.Coli the crowd was super psyched–I understand his record with The Alchemist is quite a favorite. It was pretty unusual for me to hear people rapping back at him. Not singing, but more or less talking. Fascinating.
There were at least two more medical situations (and it wasn’t hot in there or anything). Earl started talking about how y’all need to drink water. He also offered to buy granola bars for the city, LOL.
My daughter definitely didn’t enjoy this show as much as Tyler’s. And that’s fair–she didn’t know really anything that was played during the night and it was a long, non-stop night. She knows I hate to leave early even if the show isn’t going to change very much. She asked if we could leave in like 15 minutes, but I looked at the setlist and saw that the show was only going to be about 25 minutes longer, so she agreed to stick it out.
When he finished the set, it didn’t seem like he was going to come back out for an encore. I knew my daughter wanted to leave but I told her that if he didn’t come out in like a minute we’d leave. I always think an encore will be a fun ending.
Earl came out and did (apparently) one half of the song Quest/Power (he did the Power side). And that was that. His encore was about a minute. Crazy. I’m not sure it was worth staying, but on the plus side, we didn’t stay for merch, we got out really fast and were on the road in about 5 minutes. So we made up for most of that time, I think.
It was definitely up there with one of the least enjoyable concerts I’d been to. I assume if I knew more of the music I would have been more into it. I assumed it would be a fun show like Tyler’s (whose music I don’t really know either), but it felt more like I was a plus one guest at a party of close friends.
FiloTV recorded the whole set from the stage and you can see someone in the front row holding out vinyl for Earl to sign (I guess). For like the whole show (he didn’t acknowledge it).
SETLIST (I think)
Riot! § gsw vs sac £ FORGE King of Hearts (Unreleased) Warrior (Unreleased) 2010 ∇ INFATUATION £ 8/22 (Unreleased) Sirius Blac (Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist cover) Truffle (Unreleased) Fire in the Hole ∇ Molasses ‰ Azucar § Live £ The Mint § Vision (with Zelooperz) ∇ I’m Not Really Trying* (Cletus Strap song rapped by Cletus) E. Coli (The Alchemist cover) Gamma £ TOURMALINE £ Word to the Truest (Unreleased) Nowhere2go § Shattered Dreams § Exhaust £ (paused for medical emergency)
encore
Quest/Power [Power only]
£ Live Laugh Love (2025)
∇ SICK! (2022) § Some Rap Songs (2018) ‰ Doris (2013)
This is my third time seeing The Beths, a New Zealand band that’s taking the U.S. by storm. Las time they played here they sold out Union Transfer. This time, they sold out TWO NIGHTS at Union Transfer.
We immediately got tickets to night one and for the first time, saw them from a chair off to the side (thanks ADA seating). Although they interact so nicely with the front, that it’s kind of a bummer to not be in on the action.
But the sound was great (I know it always sounds better further back, but I like being close).
So The Beths are a four piece: Elizabeth Stokes, singer and guitarist. Jonathan Pearce who plays lead guitar. Benjamin Sinclair on bass and Tristan Deck on drums. They are delightful and funny and play fantastic songs. Liz is a great songwriter and the boys make divine harmonies.
Last time they played nearly all of their then new album. This time they played nine out of ten songs from their newest album. And they opened with the title track a bouncy song that had everyone delightedly singing along.
After the even punchier No Joy they played two older songs one from Expert and one from Future Me Hates Me.
Then they moved back to the new album with the super fun first single Metal.
At one point during these songs, Benjamin did something that made a tin whistle fly into the air which he caught and started playing. Later both Benjamin and Jonathan activated the tin whistle cannon and we were delighted to see them snatch the instruments out of the air and start playing. The also have some shakers in their songs. Liz uses a banana shaped one. If you go to Benjamin’s review of the following night, you can read about the amusing trick they played on Liz and her banana. (more…)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
After ZeLooperz, Liv.E (pronounced liv) came out. She spoke to the audience a bunch, said she had lost her voice in Vegas (Chris Angel took it).
Then the beats started and she changed things up by singing instead of rapping. She has a kind of quiet voice but she can scream as needed (even if she lost her voice).
I didn’t know any of her songs either, but some of them were quite pretty. Overall the set was back to the mellow vibe. I enjoyed it when she started singing the Schoolhouse Rock 12 song. (more…)
I hadn’t heard of Phoebe Rings and then I found out that she (I now know that Phoebe Rings is a band name and no one in the band is named that) was opening for The Beths on Saturday and Sunday and opening for Speedy Ortiz on Monday.
The Beths and Phoebe Rings are from New Zealand and, it turns out that Phoebe Rings and Speedy Ortiz are on the same record label.
Phoebe Rings began as the solo project of musician Crystal Choi, and is now a four-piece made of jazz students (guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, bassist Benjamin Locke and drummer Alex Freer).
We arrived and had ADA seats. Then we laughed as the tallest person in the room stood in front of us. We could still see just fine, but it was hilarious how much taller he was than everyone else.
Phoebe Rings was delightful. They are described as dream pop but they were a bit more like jazz pop. I’d even go so far as to say they were like lounge music. There was an early Stereolab vibe musically (not lyrically). (more…)
I saw Portugal. The Man last year in Asbury Park. It was an overcrowded show and I found it pretty unpleasant to be there (not a fan of The Stone Pony). Although the band was so much fun and played great songs, I came away from the show not knowing if I’d want to see them again. But a year passed and I realized the problem was the crowd not the band. So when they announced this show at Union Transfer, I decided to get a ticket. And an ADA seat.
The seat was a good choice because I had lots of room, but I feel like I missed out on some interesting on stage interactions because I was pretty far back.
In the past, the band has had a Native speaker introduce the band. They would talk about the land we were on and, in Asbury, they did a traditional song. I expected the same tonight, but instead, they played a short film that was very powerful. It was about The Living Fire–people, detatched from nature and the evil spirits are coming in. Avoid the dark forces of anti-reality.
Then the band came out–something between seven and ten people (I wasn’t that close and some people seemed to come and go).
Denali a really heavy song with a classic heavy metal sound in the guitars, although the vocals are pure PTM. Pittman is pure hardcore, with screamed vocals. The singer was David Marion (from the band Fear Before) whose intense screams set this song apart. I’m not even sure if he did anything else–he was very tall and seemed to come out of nowhere. The thing about the visuals was that they projected images on a screen behind them which mean they were in shadow or silhouette most of the night. (more…)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
It had been about 50 minutes and the third act was bouncing on stage. ZeLooperz brought some much needed energy to the stage.
He was fast and funny–loud and interactive. He has some great song titles (not sure if he played them or not though): JayJay-Z, Bustin Jieber.
He immediately shouted a Hands Up! Which most people did. It was during his set that I realized how short most of the songs have been. Most are around the 2 minute mark.
About half way through he brought a guest on stage (Quadie Diesel) and he rapped a song while everyone on stage danced around. And then he had a dance contest–he cleared the floor–but don’t worry this ain’t no mosh pit, this is for the ladies, this was “Skinny Dip.” (more…)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
After Cletus Strap, Niontay was up. He came out in a huge puffer jacket and had excellent locs. He is also a mumble rapper (he even has a song called mumbleman). He too had a lot of people videoing him while walking around him on stage.
Pitchfork loved Niontay back in 2024:
His flow is all over the map: He can lay a stone-faced delivery over a hearty chipmunk-soul loop fit to soundtrack a downtown New York streetwear shop, or raise his pitch to Florida-fast-music levels–a relentless marathon of cold punchlines and flexes.
And that seemed right. He had a lot more variety than Cletus, although overall the tone was similar.
At some point possibly during Cletus’ set, Earl Sweatshirt came up on stage too. He stood behind the table with the DJ and may have done some DJ work too–it was hard to tell. So by the middle of Niontay’s set there were nearly a dozen people on stage, mostly just hanging around while the person rapping took center stage. (more…)
I grabbed tickets to the Portugal. The Man show and was really excited that La Luz was opening for them.
I know La Luz from a live Levitation recording that I really dig. I don’t know a lot more about the band aside from the basic bio. They are from Seattle and are known for their “surf noir” style, with layered vocal harmonies. The blurb says their “energetic live shows often include Soul Train-inspired dance contests and crowd surfing.”
As and opening band it’s unlikely that you’ll elicit that kind of response, but the crowd did really enjoy them.
I had an ADA seat so I wasn’t worried about trying to get too close to the stage. And since I had a few minutes I checked out the booths that PTM had in the lobby. There were some great causes including their own book publishing label. I saw some excellent bandanas for sale with the money going to good causes, so I bought two. But the guy selling them to me was so slow! It felt like he needed to tell me the origin of each one and where the money was going to and, I don’t know, the serial number. And while he was doing this La Luz started. So I missed the beginning and some of I Wanna Be Alone. I could hear through the doors, but boy was I annoyed.
So La Luz has been around since 2012. They were founded by Shana Cleveland who sings and plays guitar. She is a great front woman, clearly having a great deal of fun. She does play a kind of surf guitar, but that is mostly due to the vibrato. Some songs are clearly not surfy at all, like Poppies. But the guitar has that classic vibrato sound.
Anyhow, I got to my seat as that first song was ending and they moved right on to Call Me in the Day, a slower statelier song with lots of keys from Maryam Qudus. For even though there is kind of a punky edge to the band, they are all about harmonies and cool sounds. Plus, during the keyboard solo, Shana and bass Lee Johnson did a spinning dance routine. (more…)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
What was fascinating was that Tyler’s show was MASSIVE. He sold out Wells Fargo Center. He had two stages, lots of lights, and a whole routine. Earl’s show was at Union Transfer and didn’t even have a backdrop. There was no light show, just the venue’s lights. And all of that is totally fine, it was just such a contrast.
It was also interesting that there were FIVE artists on the bill and I hadn’t heard of any but Earl.
There was a table in the middle of the stage. There was a DJ (possibly unnamed). He had a laptop or two.
I’ve known about Sudan Archives since her first album came out. I wanted to see her in 2020, but her show sold out. Then it was just before the COVID shutdown and her show wasn’t cancelled but hardly anyone went so I could have gone (but I didn’t know that and probably wouldn’t have gone anyway). I had a ticket to see her a couple years ago but didn’t make it. But then I finally saw her at All Things Go in 2023,so I was excited to get to see her again at her own show.
I Just Read About That... 