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Archive for the ‘Union Transfer’ Category

Nicholas Merz (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 31, 2023) [SUNSET RUBDOWN]

Posted in Nicholas Merz, Philadelphia, PA, Sunset Rubdown, Union Transfer on April 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 31, 2023] Nicholas Merz

I has listened to Nicholas Merz’ record before this show and hadn’t liked it very much.  Merz’ delivery is really slow and deep and is almost comical.  he’s also got this kind of cowboy vibe which is really kind of weird.  But the thing i disliked most about the record was the overuse of saxophone.

So I didn’t care if I arrived a few minutes late. But it turned out the traffic was really light that night and I wound up pretty early.

I talked to a couple of people who were discussing Godspeed You Black Emperor.  And then Merz came on.

With one spotlight shining down on him, he sauntered slowly to the center of the stage as swirls of music played on the speakers.  After an introduction, he began singing in that slow deliberate way of his.  It was terrible.  but it was also mesmerizing.  i couldn’t stop watching.  And soon enough, without him changing anything, I found myself enjoying it.

The swirling music made me a little light headed, perhaps.  And that spotlight pulsed like a strobe, lighting him up in various ways.  When that song wrapped up, he walked to a pedal steel guitar at the back of his setup and sat down.  He played a simple chord structure, manipulated the sound a bit and looped it.  It wound up having the same slow woozy feeling.  (more…)

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Ibeyi / Ojerime (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, March 25, 2023) [RESCHEDULED] [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ibeyi, Ojerime, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, World Cafe Live on March 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 25, 2023] Ibeyi / Ojerime [rescheduled from October 4, 2022]

I first heard of Ibeyi quite some time ago. They are sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz.  They were born in Cuba but moved to France as small kids.  Both of their parents are musicians, and the sisters have a great musical connection.

I had heard that their live show was amazing and I put them high on my list of bands to see.  They were supposed to play Union Transfer back in October and I was really looking forward to seeing them there.

The show was moved to World Cafe Live which wasn’t a super big deal, although I fins getting to World Cafe Live to be far more of a pain than getting to Union Transfer.  Then I listened to the newest album and it was okay.  I still think “Deathless” is a staggeringly wonderful song, and I sure it’s genius live, but I had kind of lost interest in Ibeyi in the last few months.  And when The Rural Alberta Advantage announced a show for the same night, they ultimately won out.

Sometimes if you are not sure how a band is going to be live, you might be able to get a sense based on their opening act.  Not a foolproof plan, but it can certainly be an indicator.  I hadn’t heard of Ojerime, but when I looked her up, I saw she was described as a “nostalgic R&B queen, [whose] debut mixtape ‘B4 I Breakdown’ tracks a difficult journey through depression and self-discovery.”

That had all the elements of someone I did not want to see.  Like, at all.  So, that helped to solidify my decision not to go.

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Unwound (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2023)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Unwound on March 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 16, 2023] Unwound

This Unwound tour was announced with much fanfare.  It had been 20 years since the band had last toured.  And they didn’t think they’d reunite

“When we put Unwound on the shelf in 2002, we never thought we’d return to the project,” drummer Sara Lund said in a statement with today’s announcement. The band held its first reunion practice, secretly, in April 2022.

but

“Starting over again is a rebellious act against our failure,” guitarist/singer Justin Trosper added.

There was a compounded problem in that their bassist Vern Rumsey, died in 2020.  When introducing the last few songs of the night (the only time he spoke) Trosper dedicated the finals songs to Vern saying that he was the soul of the band.  Jared Warren filled in for Rumsey.  Scott Seckington has also joined on guitar–the band was (pretty much) always a three-piece, but I thought Seckington was an excellent addition to the overall sound.

But it turned out that the early 1990s band that I was familiar with was Unrest.  Indeed, I didn’t know Unwound at all.  But I had grabbed a ticket because the hype got the best of me.  I listened to their albums and really liked what I heard.  So I wasn’t disappointed that I got the ticket.

There was the usual pre-band music playing over the speakers, but about five minutes before the band went on, the sound was switched to a live broadcast of NOAA weather–a perfectly weird sounding recitation of ordinary weather information.  It worked perfectly.  The also played the NOAA weather when the band was over. (more…)

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Versus (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2023) [UNWOUND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Sonic Youth, TEKE::TEKE, Union Transfer, Unwound, Versus on March 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 16, 2023] Versus

Back in the 90s, I loved a whole bunch of band that I discovered from a compilation called Ear of the Dragon.  I had known some of the bands already (which is why I bought the compilation).  It featured bands like The Dambuilders, aMiniature, Seam and Versus.

I loved everything about Versus.  Their sound was interesting–catchy and dissonant alternately.  And I loved the vocals of Richard Baluyut and Fontaine Toups (who has the best name in music).  They put out a number of albums and EPs in the 1990s and t hen went dormant.

In 2010 they put out a new album that I missed entirely.  Same with their 2019 release (which is on a label I’ve never heard of).  I basically had assumed that they were broken up for good.

So imagine my surprise to see that they were opening for Unwound on the night that I happened to get a ticket.  (TEKE::TEKE from Montreal opened the first night–I hadn’t heard of them but they are a Japanese psych rock band, hmmm).

The band came out on stage and while I recognized Richard and Fontaine, I didn’t know the other two.  They weren’t introduced, but I think they were  the rest of the Baluyut family: James on guitar and Edward on drums.

They opened with Mummified, a track off their newest album that has a really long instrumental opening.  I didn’t know it, but the band sounded great.  And after two minutes when Richard started singing, he sounded great too.  But it was when Fontaine added her vocals that everything came flooding back why I loved this band so much. (more…)

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The Beths (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 3, 2023)

Posted in Hans Pucket, New Zealand, Philadelphia, PA, Sidney Gish, The Beths, Union Transfer on March 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2023] The Beths

I saw The Beths about a year ago at Underground Arts.  Since then they have now moved up from the 650 person venue to Union Transfer (1500) which they also sold out!  Great new for them!

The Beths are actually suddenly everywhere and had we played our cards right we could have seen them like four times this year (opening for The National and a couple of other places).  But this wound up being the only show we’ll see them at.  And that’s fine because it was great and certainly tides us over for a while.

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.  When introducing each other, they told “fex” about each other.  The New Zealand accent is awesome–fex would be Facts.  Like the fact that Benjamin Sinclair has a blog and Instagram account with the awesome name of Breakfast and Travel Updates.  (more…)

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Sidney Gish (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 3, 2023) [THE BETHS]

Posted in Hans Pucket, Philadelphia, PA, Sidney Gish, The Beths, Union Transfer on March 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2023] Sidney Gish

As soon as The Beths announced they were playing Union Transfer, I bought myself a ticket.  And then a little while later I bought S. one because I thought she would really enjoy a night out for rocking good natured fun.

I didn’t know the opening bands.  There were originally two: Hans Pucket dropped out of the tour.  The Beths posted the rather cryptic

Sad news is that @hanspucket unfortunately won’t be joining us this time, we’re gutted about that. But we promise to drag them over another time. So it’ll just be us and the genius Sidney Gish.

I’ve been listening to the Hans Pucket album and it’s really good.  Hope they make it over here some time.

Sidney Gish is a singer I’d never heard of, although clearly everyone else in the room had.

She has released two albums (the second one in 2017) and now is about to release a third.  What’s she been doing for the last few years?  Graduating from Northeastern apparently.

Anyway, it seems that her first two albums were viral sensations (especially her second album No Dogs Allowed).  Because everyone was singing along to all of the songs (except the new one). (more…)

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Dry Cleaning / The Spirit of the Beehive / Nourished By Time (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, February 1, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dry Cleaning, Nourished By Time, Philadelphia, PA, The Spirit of the Beehive, Union Transfer on February 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 5, 2022] Dry Cleaning / The Spirit of the Beehive / Nourished By Time

Dry Cleaning are a kind of trendy British band.  They are of the spoken deadpan vocal/wild guitar noise variety.  I don’t love them, but I think their music is really interesting.  I thought they’d be fun to see live once.

But we had a family emergency and it wasn’t time to go to a show.  So, I didn’t really mind missing this one. (more…)

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They Might Be Giants: 30th Anniversary Flood Show (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, January 12, 2023)–[at last!]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Tár, They Might Be Giants, Union Transfer, Whiplash on January 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 12, 2023] They Might Be Giants [rescheduled from March 13, 2020, September 8, 2020, April 15, 2021, March 22, 2022 and June 16, 2022]

After five failed attempts, They Might Be Giants FINALLY got to play Union Transfer.

It was only mildly anti-climactic that they played Union Transfer the night before with a show that was billed as an entirely different show but which, when setlists were compared, turned out to be almost exactly the same.

January 11 (left): note the similarly-named show title which implied something different.  From the venue:

We assume that means songs from their latest album, ‘Book’ and some ‘Flood’ “faves”, and a bunch of horns on stage. How many horns? We can’t say for sure…Maybe 5, maybe 100!?

It felt a little cheaty that this day-ahead show got the same (more or less) show as us.  But hey, who cares, at least we didn’t splurge for the second day.  Because I’d have been a little cheesed to get the same show two nights in a row, no matter how good it was.  And it was really good!

So I saw They Might Be Giants about twenty-five years ago in Boston.  I don’t remember a lot from the show, but it was the Factory Showroom tour and they played a lot of my favorite songs as well.

I haven’t seen them live since then, even though I know they put on a good show.  I’m not sure why it neve happened.  Possibly because when I try to see them a pandemic occurs.

We arrived a little later than intended, had to stand on a huge line (there was no opening act), although everyone at a TMBG show is friendly, and then wound up on the side lower balcony in Union Transfer–where I’ve never stood before.  It was actually kind of nice-we were above most of the heads and still felt a part of the mass of people.

The band also was giving out “paper crowns” that said THEY on them.  John F:  “Be sure to grab one so you can sell it later.”

The Johns came out at 8 as promised and jumped right into “Letterbox” from Flood.  But it’s not the first song from Flood.  So clearly, they weren’t going to play the album in order.  They never said they were going to, just that they were going to play the whole album.  Aha! (more…)

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Lemonheads (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, December 14, 2022)

Posted in Juliana Hatfield, Lemonheads, On Being an Angel, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on December 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 14, 2022] Lemonheads

Back in 2018, I saw Evan Dando play a solo set in Jersey City.  It was him with an acoustic guitar and he played over forty songs.

It was a shambolic affair, but fun.  I didn’t really feel compelled to see him again, but I thought it would be fun to see him with a band.  And when he announced this 30th Anniversary of It’s a Shame About Ray, my favorite album of theirs, I grabbed a ticket.

Juliana Hatfield finished and didn’t really need to clear her gear (as we’ll see).  And yet for some reason, it took Evan and the other two guys almost 45 minutes to come out on stage.  

This wasn’t an auspicious sign.  I was actually 40% surprised the show hadn’t been cancelled outright.  But it sounds like Evan Dando has gotten his shit (somewhat) together, so maybe this is a new lease on life for him.  

Eventually the band came out on stage.  Bassist Farley Glavin and drummer Lee Falco came out first.  Then Evan came out on stage, grabbed an acoustic guitar and they launched right into “Into Your Arms.”  This is one of my favorite songs of the 90s–so sweet and delightful.  I had literally no idea that it was a cover until I was reading someone else’s review of this tour (it was written by Australian duo Love Positions (Robyn St. Clare (who wrote the song) and Nic Dalton).  It sounded like he hadn’t really warmed up yet and this was his way of easing into the show.  He didn’t hit any of the higher notes.  But he still wounded quite good. (more…)

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Juliana Hatfield (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, December 14, 2022) [LEMONHEADS]

Posted in Juliana Hatfield, Lemonheads, On Being an Angel, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on December 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 14, 2022] Juliana Hatfield

I was a big fan of Juliana Hatfield back in the 90s.  I thought she was the bomb.  And I was really excited to see her play live when she opened for the B-52s at Boston College back in 1993.  I actually hated the B-52s (they were so overplayed at my college in 1991 that I never wanted to hear “Love Shack” again in my life) so I left before they came on.

And then, some time around 2000 I lost track of her.  I was always happy to hear she was putting out new music, but I didn’t give it much of a listen.  However, her 2018 album that is all covers of Olivia Newton John songs is pretty sweet.

She had toured Philly back in 2015 and I considered going because it was the Juliana Hatfield Three playing again (I should have gone!).  She also played in 2019, but I wasn’t quite as sure about that one for some reason.  But here she was opening for The Lemonheads!

A few minutes after On Being an Angel cleared their stuff, Juliana came out.  It was just her and her guitar plugged into a tiny amp.  The volume was perfect  She sounded great as she started singing a song I knew immediately.. (more…)

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