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Archive for the ‘Union Transfer’ Category

Built to Spill (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, June 3, 2026)

Posted in Built to Spill, Guerrilla Toss, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 3, 2026] Built to Spill

Built to Spill is a fascinating band.  I’ve seen them seven times.  They change their setlist nightly which is awesome, and even some of the bigger “hits” don’t get played every show.  They didn’t play Carry the Zero the last time I saw them and there’s no song that they’ve played at every show (I Would Hut a Fly is pretty close).

So they are an indie rock band who tour a lot but who don’t put out a ton of new music.  And yet their fan base is devoted (and pretty obnoxious).  The age range is pretty broad, but there are a mix of twenty-somethings scattered in there who are awful–drunken bros and chatty girls.  The girls next to me couldn’t stop talking and taking pictures of each other and the bros at the bar were audible during the quiter moments–one of them even said something about the bass player which was borderline salacious.

This is the third time I’ve seen the band with this lineup: Melanie Radford on bass and Teresa Esguerra on drums.  It’s the most times I’ve seen them with the same players.  And they have really been gelling.  Onec of the most fun parts of the shows is when Dug does a lengthy improvised solo and Melanie steps back and looks over at Teresa and they smile and get into a tight groove.  It’s great!

Teresa plays in Prism Bitch who opened for BtS back in 2019 and Melanie Radford plays in Blood Lemon who opened for BTS in 2022.  As a trio, they are fantastic.  A friend of mine says he misses the larger band, and yea, it is cool when there are two guitars playing off each other, but this format give Dug a lot of space to play around.

Every setlist is different, even from show to show.  I’m intrigued, though, that they never play songs from Ancient Melodies of the Future (I’ve only seen them play one song from that record).  But as for the other albums, he mixes it up.  And tonight’s show started with Some Other Song and Spiderweb.  The crowd was really loud after his solos–I’m fascinated that there’s so many people who enjoy jammy guitar solos.

I was psyched to hear The Plan, a personal favorite.  It was followed by The Wait which I haven’t seen them play since 2019.

By this time I was getting really annoyed by the girls near me.  They were talking so much.  And I wanted to let it not bother me but they were so annoying.  But they were also apparently really into the show.  They were excited by Center of the Universe, but I have to wonder what songs they really like.

They started Tomorrow, a song I had not heard them play before and a guy at the far left of the crowd shouted They’re Playing My Song!  And he bounced his way to the middle right in front of me, obnoxiously singing and facing everyone until he pushed his way to the barrier ans shouted along. Security came a few moments later and the loud girls next to me started shouting No No, He didn’t…  whatever.  At that point I had to leave the area because I hated everyone.  I was glad my wife hadn’t come because the crowd was awful. (more…)

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Guerilla Toss (Asbury Lanes, June 3, 2026) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Built to Spill, Guerrilla Toss, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on June 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 3, 2026] Guerilla Toss

Back in December, Built to Spill and Guerilla Toss played a show at Union Transfer.  I was really excited to go, but it was right after my surgery so I couldn’t make it.  I was especially bummed because I have wanted to see Guerilla Toss for a while.

So it’s awesome that they continued the tour together this summer.

I had heard a lot about Guerilla Toss’ live show and how wild it was.  Reviews I’ve read suggest that back in 2014, Guerilla Toss was a wild band with nudity and short sets.  They have now become far more traditional, but they are still plenty weird.  It’ sjut that now there are catchy, danceable moments within the noise.

So, this show wasn’t particularly wild, but the songs were great and weird and singer Kassie Carlson is a wonderful presence onstage (with great vocal dynamics).  She has a diverse delivery style, sounding at times like the B52s, but also making some fascinating squeaky sounds.

Their bassist Zach Lewelleyn has some fantastic bass lines in the songs.  He’s also either really tall or playing a fairly small bass guitar.  Guitarist Arian Shafiee (who founded the band) plays equally weird riffs and chords.

I couldn’t really see Peter Negroponte (another co-founder) on drums, but he did sing backing vocals a lot. (more…)

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Dry Cleaning (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 2026) [rescheduled date]

Posted in Dry Cleaning, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, YHWH Nailgun on May 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 6, 2026] Dry Cleaning [rescheduled from February 1, 2026]

Back in February, Dry Cleaning had to reschedule their American tour until May.  Back in 2022, a family emergency prevented me from going to this show.  I was interested in Dry Cleaning who at the time were a kind of trendy British band.  They are of the spoken deadpan vocal/wild guitar noise variety.   I thought they’d be fun to see live once.

So I was glad I did get to see them live.  But what I figured by the end of the night was that you will enjoy them a lot more if you know their songs well.  This is more or less true for a lot of bands; however, there are many bands that I’ve seen where I didn’t know them at all, but I was blown away. With Dry Cleaning, it’s hard to hear the spoken, deadpan words.  So if you focus on the words, you miss out on all the interesting music being made. And if you focus on the music, the words just become another sound.

So I definitely didn’t get the most out of the show.

They are such an odd band to experience because the Tom Dowse plays really noisy, odd and, at times, abrasive guitar sounds.  Lewis Maynard plays some really interesting bass lines melodies and sometimes thumps along with the Nick Buxton on drums.  Regardless of what the band is doing, Florence Shaw speaks at the same volume and speed.

They opened with Sliced by a Fingernail a new single with really random loud guitar noises.  Dowse is interesting to watch as he moves around a bit generating these sounds.  But the bassline is catchy and Florence even doo-doo-doos sometimes.  Which isn’t that unusual since she does occasionally “sing” lines like that.  But mostly it’s a quiet spoken word vocal which is often drowned out by the music. (more…)

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YHWH Nailgun (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 2026) [DRY CLEANING] [rescheduled date]

Posted in Dry Cleaning, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, YHWH Nailgun on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 6, 2026] YHWH Nailgun [rescheduled from February 1, 2026]

I hadn’t heard of YHWH Nailgun (pronounced Yahweh Nailgun) before this tour.  They are a noise/experimental band from New York who originated in Philly.  I’m not sure if they were especially excited to play Philly since no one said anything before during or after the set.

Zack Borzone came out to the mic and made some noises–coos or barks or some such.  And he only got stranger from there.  Once the music started, he flapped his arms, he squatted down and stomped his feet.  He danced and swung his arms around and looked like he might fall over any second.  But he never did–controlled chaos.  Were there words?  I assume so.  Were they understandable? No.  Was it mesmerizing?  Absolutely.  He was also content to stare out at the crowd, making eye contact with everyone.  Unsettling.

Since I didn’t know anythig about them I didn’t know if the songs were as short as they seemed (they are–the longest song on their new album is 1 minute and 20 seconds.  And most of the time when the songs ended abruptly after 75 seconds with no indication that they were ending, there was a pause before everyone applauded. (more…)

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The Afghan Whigs (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, May 1, 2026)

Posted in Mercury Rev, Philadelphia, PA, The Afghan Whigs, Union Transfer on May 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 1, 2026] The Afghan Whigs

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

Upon entering the venue, a sign said that the Whigs and Mercury Rev would like us to enjoy the show with out eyes, not with our phones.  Now, I like to take some pictures and I like to grab clips of songs here and there, but I try to be very considerate in my camera usage.  I never hold mine above my head.  So I was on board with this request–it didn’t forbid some photos but it didn’t want a lot.  And for the most part the audience around me was good–but it seemed like Greg Dulli was getting annoyed by some of the people up front who were filming a lot of the show.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the show.  I didn’t think they’d do anything fancy, and they didn’t.  I also had the idea that Greg Dulli had a devoted fanbase of women of a certain age.  He does and they were there in force and they were loud!  And it was a great show.  Sure the ladies screamed a lot but it was in good fun and Dulli seemed to enjoy it.  At one point he winked at someone in the front row and tossed her a pick.

I had listened to some of the newer albums, and, basically, they all have the same tone and vibe, which I like and that meant that any song they played would sound good.  And they did.  I didn’t know most of the songs in the set very well, but the band was great, Dulli sounded great and I have a really good time.  They only played one song from their most recent album (which they toured not too long ago, so that makes sense.  They played the most songs from their previous two albums, but touched on their entire catalog. (more…)

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Mercury Rev (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, May 1, 2026) [THE AFGHAN WHIGS]

Posted in Mercury Rev, Philadelphia, PA, The Afghan Whigs, Union Transfer on May 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 1, 2026] Mercury Rev

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

And I was even more excited that the opener was Mercury Rev.  I really liked their weird first albums but I really loved Deserter’s Songs (from 1998).  Their newer stuff (alright, everything since Deserter’s Songs, I’ve found kind of boring (I admit I haven’t listened to all of it but what I have has been pretty bland).  So I haven’t wanted to see them headline a show.  But seeing them as an opener sounded grand, because surely they’d play at least a few of the songs I loved.

So it’s pretty odd that I literally just realized that I saw them 26 years ago.  I guess the show wasn’t that memorable (although 26 years is  a long time).  I really wish I had a better memory of it because it’s a setlist I would kill for (even if they didn’t play anything from their then two middle albums).

But here they were (I was much closer for this show, to be sure), 26 years later with Jonathan Donohue singing and Grasshopper on guitar as the only continuous members.

What struck me immediately is that in front of the drums which were on the side of the stage, there was a small step and Jonathan climbed up it, creating quite the striking figure as he conducted the drummer.  Donohue was wearing a big hat (that reminded me of the Waterboys for some reason) and a tightly buttoned peacoat with white sleeves (unbuttoned, sticking out of the sleeves of the coat).  It was quite the look and immediately told us that he was an artist.

Now, I haven’t paid much attention to Donohue in the last 25 years, so I was really surprised when he sang… differently. (more…)

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Sunn O))) (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 11, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Sunn O))), Union Transfer, Venom on April 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 11, 2026] Sunn O)))

I saw Sunn 0))) in 2017.

It was a pretty intense and amazing experience.  I didn’t think I would need to see them again, but when this tour was announced, I figured that roughly ten years was enough time between shows.

Sadly, t was scheduled for the same night that I had a ticket to see The Belair Lip Bombs.  Since this was their first time coming to the States and it was at the terrific PhilaMOCA, I decided to give Sunn O))) a miss.  However, I did consider that I might be able to sneak into the end of their set and catch maybe ten or fifteen minutes since my show was two bands with a small catalog of music.

My friend Jae went to the Sunn O))) show and I told him to text me when it ended.

I wasn’t sure how I would ask to get in to see the last few minutes of the show–if they’d make me pay or what.  But it was all moot.  Sunn O))) had no opener, and their set ended roughly at the same time as mine did.  He also laughed that they played the audio of banter from a Venom show.  Hilarious.

Jae said the show was great and I hope they come back again in a couple of years.

Here’s the clip that Sunn played (hilarious)

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Nothing / Full Body 2 / Cryogeyser / Violent Magic Orchestra (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Cryogeyser, Full Body, Full Body 2, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Violent Magic Orchestra on April 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 4, 2026] Nothing / Full Body 2 / Cryogeyser / Violent Magic Orchestra

I don’t fall for a lot of hype about things.  But when Union Transfer hypes an upcoming show, I often check out the band.  They especially like to hype Philly bands (which makes sense) and I feel like I had been very lax on my Philly music knowledge.  Nothing is a band that I probably should have known but didn’t.  And it turns out I’ve had a few opportunities to see them.  They opened for Boris on the one tour  that I missed and they hosted or helmed Slide Away Philadelphia, which was an all day shoegaze event.  I would have loved every band but a whole day would have been too much.

At the time I wrote

They’ve been around for almost fifteen years. Everything I’ve listened to from them has been quite good.  They tend to veer into the more creepy and less heavy side of shoegaze.

Full Body 2 (odd name that) is also from Philly.  They sound a lot more like My Bloody Valentine than other contemporary shoegaze bands–the vocals are really buried and there’s some interesting synth sounds.

IndexYear0001.com explains the name

Full Body 2 are a band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made up of Cassidy Rose Hammond, Dylan Vaisey, & Jack Chaffer.

Full Body 2 is a sequel to the band Full Body, which included Hammond and Vaisey. Full Body 2 have a dense, shoegaze sound which they combine with aspects of electronic genres like breakcore and digi-core as well as rendered futuristic aesthetics.

Opener Cryogeyser says this about themselves on their bandcamp: “Three piece from Los Angeles. Cute.”

Flood Magazine writes that

 Distortion and reverb are their friends, but none of their music feels consumed or overwhelmed by such effects. A mix of dreampop, shoegaze, and grunge, the LA-based trio balance their stone-heavy rhythmic section of bassist Hunter Martinez and drummer McCoy Kirgo with the swirling melodies and heaven-reaching vocals of singer-guitarist Shawn Marom.

Their music is quite stark and spare, though for all the reverb.  There’s also a sense of 50s girl group about them.  I’d be curious to see how that translates live.

I hadn’t heard of Violent Magic Orchestra who are from Japan.

The Wire says this “Osaka based six piece fuses black metal aesthetics with the endorphin rush of peak time hard trance and gabber”

And the blurb on their bandcamp pages says

After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene.
The blinding lights of DEATH RAVE point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno.

I have no idea how they wound up on this shoegaze bill and their live show sounds pretty amazing.  They are more glitchy/noisy than the other bands, but I would love to see what their love show is like.

We were in Minnesota for this show.  I hadn’t been all that excited about this show because I’d forgotten what Nothing sounded like, but as soon as I listened to them again I remembered how much I liked them and how much this whole evening would have been awesome.

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Thursday presents Full City Devolution / Chris Conly (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, April 1, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Chris Conly, Philadelphia, PA, Thursday, Union Transfer on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 1, 2026] Thursday / Chris Conly

I have seen Thursday twice.  Both times they opened for My Chemical Romance.  The first time was in the Prudential Center.  The second time was in Giants Stadium.  Both times the sound wasn’t great and while i knew them a little better the second time, I felt like I couldn’t really appreciate them at all.

So while I don’t know their music well, and don’t know the album Full City Devolution any more than any of their other albums, I thought it would be a great opportunity to actually see the band properly.

But then my daughter was going to Minnesota and so I missed all for the shows this week.  Luckily I was able to resell this show, so no loss for me.  And maybe Thursday will headline again soon–I mean they sold out this time, so they know there’s interest.

Chris Conly is a Brooklyn musician,  I listened to two of his songs and hated them both.  He reminds me of George Thoroughgood, and the last thing we need is another George Thoroughgood.

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Tigers Jaw / Hot Flash Heat Wave / Creeks (solo) (The Arrow, Allentown, PA, March 27, 2026/Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, April 5, 2026/Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 16, 2026)

Posted in Allentown PA, Creeks, Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, Grist Mil, Philadelphia, PA, The Arrow, Tigers Jaw, Union Transfer on March 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 27, April 5 & April 16, 2026] Tigers Jaw / Hot Flash Heat Wave / Creeks (solo)

About five years ago, I had seen Tigers Jaw two times in about a year.  I enjoyed both shows quite a lot but haven’t felt compelled to see them again for whatever reason.  Looking back I definitely enjoyed both shows,  But I guess there are just bands that I like better.

Checking out their tour dates, I am fascinated by the fact that, if I had wanted to, I could have seen them three times spaced apart far enough that it wouldn’t have been like seeing them three nights in a row.  They started in NY, then played Allentown.  They went up the coast to Maine and CT and then New York City and a week after Allentown they popped into Garwood.  Then they went down the east coast to Florida and back and played their second to last date in Philly.  Three area shows in 20 days!

Hot Flash Heat Wave are a  California based power pop band with a pleasant mix of post-punk and smooth emo.  The review from Troy, NY says

the group had a new-wave rock vibe to them, reminding me of a lighter-hearted version of The Smiths. The energy got heavier later on, with one of the vocalists jumping into the tight crowd in a way that was akin to a hardcore performance.

They have a retro synthy vibe and are definitely fun.  I see their older stuff is more guitar based.  So who knows what this set was like

WXPN says Hot Flash Heat Wave’s music contains surf rock staples, new wave vocal patterns, and a touch of grunge on top of them being seriously unserious on stage. Arguably, they’ve created a new subgenre of hyper pop perfect for the Tigers Jaw millennials that like to dance.

Creeks is the solo project of Jon Simmons from Balance & Composure (who are broken up, I guess).  Creeks is a band, but he was solo for these shows.

Turns out Grist Mil stepped up to fill the first slot, last minute in Allentown.  I hadn’t heard of them, but this review from Hashtag says

Grist Mil has created the perfect chill record to soundtrack the start of summer. Waves of haze and distortion move across guitars, crossing paths with bright synthesizers and emotionally packed lyrics. Fresh off shows supporting Balance and Composure and Oso Oso, fans of both bands will find appeal in the music of Grist Mil, also striking similarities to indie-electronic acts like M83, and blips of shoegaze and more pop-forward elements. The EP is written in concept, following through the main character’s tumultuous journey.

I listened to a couple songs–catchy but lo fi.  Nice.

The Crossroads show was an album release show for Tigers Jaw.

If I had thought about it more I might have tried to get to one of these shows, but at the very least Union Trasnfer sold out, so they didn’t miss me.

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