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Archive for the ‘Union Transfer’ Category

Aurora (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 2, 2022)

Posted in Aurora, Norway, Philadelphia, PA, Sub Urban, T., Union Transfer on June 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 2, 2022] Aurora

I love Aurora.  She puts on a great show and is just chock full of positive energy.  We saw her two years ago and I was excited to see her again.

After a break, Aurora came out.

Last time, she had giant jellyfish hanging from the ceiling.  This time she had a curtain in the back of the stage a giant circle behind her.  It acted as a backdrop and a light source.

Her new album, The Gods We Can Touch had just come out and she played a number of songs from it.  Even though many of her songs are dancey, she had an acoustic guitar for “everything Matters” (along with electronic keys and drums).  

Her song “Blood in the Wine” is a wonderfully passionate song with a fantastic hook that I can’t get out of my head.

Of course, Aurora has her dedicated fans.  Several of them brought her gifts.  Someone even gave her a teapot.  (How would she bring that home in her suitcase?)

It’s easy to think of Aurora and her fan base (“Warriors”) as a bit too much, as she is practically a living embodiment of a Norwegian fairy.  But she is so sincere, that her passion as she talks between songs (in her near-perfect English, faltering just enough to make it all the more effective) is palpable.  And if you aren’t moved by a song like “Warrior” (which everyone sings along to) then you are too hardened by life.

Aurora seems like her music would be ethereal and aloof, but a song like “A Temporary High” has a pounding drum beat. (more…)

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Sub Urban (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 2, 2022) [AURORA]

Posted in Aurora, Benee, Billie Eilish, Philadelphia, PA, Sub Urban, T., Union Transfer on June 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 2, 2022] Sub Urban

I love Aurora.  She puts on a great show and is just chock full of positive energy.  We saw her two years ago and I was excited to see her again.

I had no idea who Sub Urban was, but I enjoyed the name (it’s kinda clever and he’s from Ridgewood, NJ, right near where I grew up and also where the band Real Estate is from!).  Turns out that Sub Urban actually had a viral hit called “Cradles.”  

In fact, before the show started when I was waiting for my daughter to come out of the bathroom I saw a little girl with her dad and I said something about how great Aurora was and the girl reply “I’m not here for her, I’m here for Sub Urban.”  Huh.  

He also had a new single called “UH-OH” which featured New Zealand Singer Benee (who sounds so much like Billie Eilish it’s insane).  And, indeed, Aurora guests on one of his songs as well (“Paramour” which he did not play). (more…)

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An Evening with Jens Lekman and local youth orchestra / Leslie Deshazor (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 20, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Every Little Thing, Jens Lekman, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on May 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 20, 2022] Jens Lekman [original show was cancelled, so technically not rescheduled from April 19, 2020]

I have really enjoyed Jens Lekman over the years. His Tiny Desk Concert is tremendous.  He was even the subject of a request in an episode of Every Little Thing, a podcast that S and I really like.  (A caller could not get a fragment of a song out of his head and it was one of Lekman’s).

I have been wanting to see him for a while and this show with a local youth orchestra sounded kind of fun.

Jens Lekman originally announced a unique North American tour where he’d perform with local youth orchestras in various cities for 2020, but the dates were put on hold because of the pandemic. He’s now announced new dates for the tour, beginning this April and running through May. He’ll be joined by violinist Leslie DeShazor for the shows. “This is a tour that I have been working on and looked forward to for almost four years,” Jens writes. “The idea originally came to me in 2015 when I was invited to Cincinnati to perform a show with a group of young string players from the organization MyCincinnati. The show ended up being one of the most memorable moments of my whole career. The energy that is present when a young person is still exploring and mastering an instrument is something I’ve always been drawn to. As someone who’s been playing music more or less professionally for over 15 years I often have to go back to this youthful source to remember and learn. To let the students become my teachers.”

It’s unclear to me whether Leslie DeShazor played a set before or was a featured part of the orchestra. (more…)

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Beach Bunny (The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 18, 2022)

Posted in Beach Bunny, C., Deftones, Ky Vöss, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Union Transfer, Wednesday on May 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 18, 2022] Beach Bunny

T. was really into Beach Bunny when we saw her back in November of 2021.  I was pretty surprised that she was going to tour again in May of 2022 (in fairness, the 2021 tour had been rescheduled twice and I think she was ready to play new stuff, but she had all the gear from the old tour so….).  Plus, this new tour moved her from the 1500 capacity Union Transfer to the 2500 capacity Fillmore.

I had really enjoyed her at Union Transfer and was looking forward to what she’s do at this show.

Last time the stage was filled with old video game cabinets.  This time it had old small TV screens.

Lili Trifilio came out with bunny ears on and jumped right in with “Oxygen.”  The crowd seemed very young to me (which, I guess to me they were very young, but I believe the Fillmore was designed for a largely under 21 crowd).

My daughter seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowd and the show and decided to hang nearer to the back.  She felt like she could see better, which may have been true).  But i always feel disconnected from the show when I’m too far back.  (more…)

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Ky Vöss (The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 18, 2022) [BEACH BUNNY]

Posted in Beach Bunny, C., Deftones, Ky Vöss, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Union Transfer, Wednesday on May 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 18, 2022] Ky Vöss [Wednesday cancelled]

T. was really into Beach Bunny when we saw her back in November of 2021.  I was pretty surprised that she was going to tour again in May of 2022 (in fairness, the 2021 tour had been rescheduled twice and I think she was ready to play new stuff, but she had all the gear from the old tour so….).  Plus, this new tour moved her from the 1500 capacity Union Transfer to the 2500 capacity Fillmore.

Of course I got her a ticket!

It also happened to be the same night as my rescheduled (three or four times) Deftones show which I was incredibly excited to go to.  Which my son really wanted to go to having recently gotten into the Deftones.

I tried so many different ways to make this night happen for all of us.

Perhaps I could get a ticket for him for Deftones and we could go together.  Mine was GA, but GA was upselling for like $300 (NO!).  I could get him a seat in the balcony–that would suck) and even that was upselling for like $175 (NO!).  (more…)

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Kikagaku Moyo / Nina Ryser (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 18, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Kikagaku Moyo, Nina Ryser, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on May 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 18, 2022] Kikagaku Moyo / Nina Ryser

I saw Kikagaku Moyo in 2019 and they were amazing.  I’ve wanted to see them again, but they are from Japan, and the Pandemic kept them away.

They finally announced a new show for 2022 and I was psyched.  Too bad it aligned with the Deftones show that I’d been waiting to see for a couple of years. Too bad also the Beach Bunny show that I was going to take my daughter to see fell on the same night.

Then Kikagaku Moyo announced that this was going to be their last tour–they were going to break up.  So I’ll never see them again.

Alas.

Nina Ryser is one third of Palberta.

I happened to see her later on in the year opening for Tropical Fuck Storm

Nina Ryser is a member of Palberta.  ..  Like the rest of her Palbertans, Ryser is a prolific songwriter who is classically trained but who likes to push the boundaries of what music should do. …  For this little set, she and her husband played keyboards (and all manner of gadgets).  The set sounded improvised, but I’m sure it wasn’t. … Most of the songs were built around a beat and a simple chord pattern.  There was a droney component to it and Nina’s vocals were kind of deapan. … My favorite parts of the show occurred between songs where Nina would mess around with looping pedals and make these interesting collages out of bits of the song she’d just played.  There was definitely some improv in here and I enjoyed watching her manipulate the sounds to create something cool.

Wish I could have seen Kikagaku Moyo instead.

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Built to Spill (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022)

Posted in Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Cate Le Bon, Daniel Johnston, Philadelphia, PA, Prism Bitch, Union Transfer on May 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 11, 2022] Built to Spill [rescheduled from July 30, 2020]

I feel like I have seen Built to Spill a million times, but this was my fifth show.

The first time I saw him was at Union Transfer back in 2015 and he had a five piece band.  That was a couple of iterations ago and now he was back with a new band.

On this newly announced tour, his whole band was going to be different.  In fact, I have seen at least three different lineups for the band over the years.  This tour was going to feature drummer Teresa Esguerra of Prism Bitch (who opened for Built To Spill last time) and bassist Melanie Radford from openers Blood Lemon.

The last time I promised myself I wouldn’t get too close to the stage, but I did.  The problem with being so close is the way Doug Martsch has his guitar set up.  His amp is right next to him and it is so loud.  From where I was you could barely hear anything else.  Of course I’m there to watch Doug play, so it’s not too bad.  But I promised myself I would stand back to fully appreciate his band.

I love that Esguerra was on the side of the stage facing the other two (that’s how his band was set up with the previous trio as well).  This allowed for Esguerra  and Radford to communicate with each other while Doug was jamming.  And they had outstanding chemistry. (more…)

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Wetface (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Wetface on May 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 11, 2022] Wetface

Wetface is the one-man-band project of Montreal based songwriter Jordan Minkoff.   He writes and plays on a mid 80’s Yamaha organ, douses “bright and ambitiously crafted pop music with layers of wonky digital strings and orchestration.”  That’s according to his label.

According to me he is a tedious, goofy in a bad way singer who is very good at playing the keyboard.  There didn’t seem to be anything ambitious about his songs which were very far from pop.  He sang often in a crazy falsetto.  It’s possible he was making things up as he went along.  The sound (’80s Yamaha) was so cheesy most of the time that I had to assume he was joking, but that the joke just wasn’t all that funny because the sound was so pervasive.

I wanted to see if I was alone in really disliking this set.  I see that the reviewer from White Eagle Hall (the show I had tickets to two nights later but which I did not go to) loved him.  Thought he was hilarious both in his song craft and his banter.

Turns out that Jordan Minkoff created some of Built to Spill’s recent videos and Doug Martsch is a big fan (he also really liked Daniel Johnston, so…).  Martsch called Wetface up on stage to sing with them in Jersey City.  Maybe that would have made me like him more.  But honestly I couldn’t wait for his set to be over.

 

 

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Blood Lemon (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Wetface on May 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 11, 2022] Blood Lemon

When Built to Spill announced a new tour, I was pretty excited.  I mean, a Built to Spill tour is always exciting.  But this one was particularly interesting because he had an entirely new touring band with him.  So I bought tickets for two shows sort of back to back in May.  I wound up not going to the White Eagle Hall show, but I did make the Union Transfer show.

It was my first introduction to Blood Lemon.

Blood Lemon are a trio from Boise (just like Built to Spill) consisting of singer/guitarist Lisa Simpson, singer/bassist Melanie Radford and percussionist Lindsey Lloyd. They were described as having an alt 90’s sound with some heavy riffage.  I arrived a little ate for the show and walked in during the first of second song.

Whatever song it was, I was blown away by how much they rocked.  Radford had (more…)

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Indigo De Souza / Horse Jumper Of Love / Friendship (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 2, 2022) [rescheduled again]

Posted in Friendship, Horse Jumper of Love, Indigo De Souza, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Union Transfer on May 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: May 2, 2022] Indigo De Souza / Horse Jumper Of Love / Friendship [rescheduled from January 30, moved to October 10, 2022]

indexIndigo De Souza had to postpone her previous show here because of general COVID anxiety.  Now, just a few days before this show was supposed to happen, she had to postponed because of an actual COVID outbreak:

Thank you for purchasing tickets to see Indigo De Souza at Union Transfer on May 2. Unfortunately, due to a postive Covid test in the touring party, this show has been postponed to a date to be determined in the future.

From the band: “Unfortunately, our bass player and Horse Jumper of Love’s drummer have tested positive for covid so we have decided to postpone Monday’s show in Philadelphia ,PA :/ Please hold on to your tickets as we will be announcing new dates asap. We are sad to miss this show. It’s a sensitive time to be playing music. Thank you for bearing with us as we learn how to navigate it all. Sending love in all directions.“

Perhaps third time’s the charm

~~~~~~~

Indigo De Souza is a new (to me) musician who I heard about on NPR music.  Her song “Kill Me” is outstanding.  A great dynamic of sounds, very funny lyrics and memorable hooks.  I loved it immediately.  She announced a tour soon after I’d heard it and I grabbed a ticket to see her headline tour (!).

She’s ben making music since she was like 9 with a few EPs and a previous album.  I imagine she’ll be a fun and wild performer.

On January 13, Union Transfer announced:

Indigo has decided it’s best for all involved to move their tour to a few weeks later in the year. The Philly show will now take place at Union Transfer on May 2nd

That’s not too far off.

I hadn’t heard of either of the opening acts (such is the case when the headliner is fairy new herself).  (more…)

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