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Archive for the ‘Union Transfer’ Category

Total Rubbish (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2021) [TIGERS JAW]

Posted in Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Kississippi, Philadelphia, PA, Tigers Jaw, Total Rubbish, Union Transfer on October 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 22, 2021] Total Rubbish

I had planned to check out Tigers Jaw at a small club in New Hope, but the show kept getting cancelled.  All I really knew about them was a Tiny Desk Concert they did that I really liked.  There were two of them and they wrote catchy poppy punk songs.  Their opening act was supposed to be Kayleigh Goldsworthy who is more or less a folk singer.  So I assumed that’s what kind of show this would be.

The opening band at Union Transfer was Total Rubbish, a new band based in Philly.  They have one EP out called Triple Negative.

The four young women took the stage and proceeded to play some great noisy grungey shoegazey rock.  It was hard to tell exactly what the dynamic should be because they weren’t mixed all that great.  The vocals were kind of buried (or maybe I was too close to the stage).  (more…)

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Lucy Dacus (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2021)

Posted in Bartees Strange, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2021] Lucy Dacus

Lucy Dacus announced that she’d be playing Philly on the birthday of someone in my family.  Clearly I wasn’t going to go to the show.

That sold out pretty quickly and she announced another show the next night.   I grabbed tickets immediately.

I’ve seen Lucy two and a half times already (she played Newport Folk Festival but we only saw a couple of songs).

The only problem was that I didn’t know her new album very well yet.  The songs I knew I liked, but I hadn’t really dived into the rest of it.  And this set was heavy on the Home Video. (more…)

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Bartees Strange (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, October 21, 2021) [LUCY DACUS]

Posted in Bartees Strange, Lucy Dacus, Philadelphia, PA, Shamir, Union Transfer on October 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2021] Bartees Strange

Lucy Dacus announced that she’d be playing Philly on the birthday of someone in my family.  Clearly I wasn’t going to go to the show.  Shamir was opening that show.

That sold out pretty quickly and she announced another show the next night.  For some reason Shamir wasn’t going to open, but instead it would be Bartees Strange.  I have really loved Bartees Strange’s album and his Tiny Desk Home Concert was great.  So I was really excited to see him–I’m sure I’ll see Shamir again some day.

Bartees started the night with a solo rendition of “Far.”  It was good, and showed off his voice, but I was a little concerned that he was going to be by himself.

But I needn’t have worried, as the band barreled out for a rocking “Mustang.”  It got us all moving and showed off how great his band is. (more…)

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Waxahatchee / Katy Kirby (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again and again] [POSTPONED]

Posted in Cancelled, Coronavirus, Jeff Tweedy, Katy Kirby, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Union Transfer, Waxahatchee on October 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: October 15, 2021] Waxahatchee / OHMME [rescheduled from April 14 and October 5, 2020 and May 16, 2021]

indexOriginally this concert featured support from OHMME, which was half the reason I wanted to see this show and not one of the other shows.  For whatever reason, OHMME was no longer at this show, and support was now from Katy Kirby, who has a very catchy song called “Traffic!” and plays some lovely folk songs.

This show has been postponed so many times it is ridiculous.  It was finally rescheduled on the night before a special day in our house.  So, although I had two tickets, S. wasn’t going to go.  Then on October 15, just hours before they were supposed to go on stage for their first sold out show at Union Transfer, they forwarded this message:

Waxahatchee has postponed the last few shows of their tour including the Philadelphia dates on October 15 & 19.

We are confirming new dates right now and will send out those details in a few days.

Your tickets will be good for the new date (no need to do anything). If you cannot make the new date, we will be happy to refund you, however, we ask that all requests be made after the new date is announced.

From the band: “This morning, a member of our touring party tested positive for Covid. The rest of the band/crew have tested negative, but out of an abundance of caution, we have to postone these last 4 shows of our 6+ week tour. We hope to be able to reschedule them for early in the new year.”

Thank you.

— xo UT

This one worked in my favor.  And I’m looking forward to that rescheduled show next year.

wxa

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OSEES (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 26, 2021)

Posted in King Crimson, Mr. Elevator, Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on September 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 26, 2021] Osees

I didn’t really know the Osees very well when I bought tickets to this show (which had been rescheduled, but I didn’t have tickets to the original show).  I knew them more from knowing their history of names changes.  [They have recorded as OCS, The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees and now Osees].  And also from the Levitation/Reverb Appreciation Society live stream/quarantine shows.

Because of this, and because of the chill nature of the opener, Mr. Elevator, I never expected the show to be as wild, raucous and mosh pit filled as it was.

The first indicator should have been when the two drummer set up at he front of the stage (nods to King Crimson, there).  But it wasn’t until main Osees guy (the only one who has been in all iterations of the band) John Dwyer came out on stage (off to the left as we faced the stage).  He noted that it was Sunday, the Lord’s day, then he started playing “The Dream” and the crowd went apeshit.

Within minutes I was pushed pretty far to the side of the crowd, safely out of the way of flying feet.

Their set covered albums from 2011 (their twelfth album) through to last year’s Metamorphosed (their 23rd album).  It was glorious. (more…)

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Mr. Elevator (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 26, 2021) [OSEES]

Posted in Mr. Elevator, Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on September 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 26, 2021] Mr. Elevator

I had I had never heard of Mr. Elevator and really didn’t know what to expect from them.

It turned out that they are a fun, retro-sounding psychedelic band.

I was immediately blown away by their drummer Jesse Gorman Conlee who was metronomically precise and playing complicated rhythms.  Which seemed at odds with, but which worked perfectly with the synthy grooves the rest of the band was making.

It also turned out that the keyboardist and main singer Tomas Dolas is (as of 2018) the keyboardist in Osees.  They started out as Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, but droped half of the name after releasing their first album Nico and Her Psychedelic Subconscious.

The show started with them spread across the stage–drums on the left, bass (Jon Tattleman), keys (Dolas) and more keys on the right (Justin Ruiz).  They played a series of mellow, but still rocking songs.  There were lots of cool trippy synths and some solid basslines.  Dolas has some lengthy jamming keyboard solos that were very retro. (more…)

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Bob Mould Band: Distortion and Blue Hearts (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 19, 2021)

Posted in Bob Mould, Hüsker Dü, Kestrels, Philadelphia, PA, Sugar, Union Transfer on September 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 19, 2021] Bob Mould Band

I saw Bob Mould play a solo show last year (just before the pandemic).  I had seen him 24 years earlier and thought it would be fun to see him again.  And it was.

When he announced this new tour, I didn’t feel like I needed to see him again.  However, since he was with a band, I thought it would be a different experience.  And it was.  Not radically different, but different enough to make it more fun.

Last time he played 22 songs in about 80 minutes.  And, in what I understand is true Mould fashion, a song would end and he would jump right into the next one.  He took a break every few songs to chat and then off he went.

It was much the same at Union Transfer, although this time he played 24 songs in 80 minutes.  Having the other two guys Jason Narducy on bass and Jon Wurster on drums added a much appreciated low end.

Plus there are some songs (especially Hüsker Dü songs) where the bass and or drums play something distinctive and it was nice to hear that part.

In 2020, Bob had not yet released Blue Hearts, although he did play four songs from it.  For this show he opened with four songs (two were different, like the appropriately angry “American Crisis“).  And then he was all over his lengthy discography (dating back to 1983). (more…)

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Kestrels (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 19, 2021) [BOB MOULD]

Posted in Bob Mould, Halifax Nova Scotia, Hüsker Dü, J. Mascis, Kestrels, Philadelphia, PA, Sugar, Union Transfer on September 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 19, 2021] Kestrels

I had not heard of Kestrels.  They are a trio from Halifax with several releases out.

According to the new release

Since 2008, Kestrels has been the primary project of singer/guitarist Chad Peck, who spends his time offstage as a high school English teacher.  [Do his students know that their English teacher rocks?]

They played an excellent mix of loud and soft, with ripping solos, an excellent bass sound and cracking drums,

When they first started playing I actually couldn’t hear Peck’s voice at all.  I was right up against the fence in front of the stage and assumed I was too close to hear the voices (that’s not a nice audio trick to play on people in the front).  I backed up a few steps and could hear him better (they may have turned up the vocals, too).

Peck’s guitar playing was really fun–big distorted chords and then pulling back for some quiet guitar picking.

One of the more amusing moments was when the bassist (whose name I didn’t catch) asked if they could change the lights (they had been on that terrible red for a couple of songs).  He said “I’m a ginger, anything but red.” (more…)

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Soccer Mommy (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 18, 2021) [rescheduled from March 30, 2020]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Phoebe Bridgers, Slowdive, Soccer Mommy, Union Transfer on September 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2021] Soccer Mommy [moved from March 30, 2020]

I was supposed to see Soccer Mommy open for Phoebe Bridgers a few years back.  I felt sick on the way down to the show so I wound up coming home instead.

S. bought me her CD for some holiday in 2020 and I thought it would be fun to see her live.  I was supposed to see her back in March of 2020, but the show was pushed back until September 2021.   And in that time, something big must have happened to her because this show sold out! And the crowd was really intense about her.

As soon as Sophia Regina Allison (who is Soccer Mommy) came on stage, the crowd went bananas.  It was kind of funny because Sophie is so low key.

She had a pretty full band with her. I stood in front of her lead guitarist who really made some outstanding noises –a component that made her songs even more interesting to me).  Her new bassist (this was his first tour with them) had an amazing sound–buzzy and noisy but groovy at the same time.  Guitarist-keyboardist Rodrigo Avendano on the far side added some great textures and drummer Rollum Haas whom I could not see because I giant cymbal was in the way, played some amazing fills and really added a lot of intensity to these songs.

What I’m saying is that the album is good, but live, the songs were amazing.

Soccer Mommy only has two albums out.  Most of the songs came from the new(ish) album Color Theory.  I have to say that I was really surprised she played “Circle the Drain” second because I thought it was her big hit and would come at the end.  She must have a lot of hits that I don’t know about.

I had a hard time getting clips of Julian Powell because of the way he was hiding behind the carboard TVs, but I loved the way that he and Sophie harmonized the guitar licks on “Crawling in My Skin.” (more…)

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Squirrel Flower (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 18, 2021) [SOCCER MOMMY]

Posted in Caroline Polachek, Philadelphia, PA, Pictoria Vark, Soccer Mommy, Squirrel Flower, Union Transfer on September 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2021] Squirrel Flower

I had heard of Squirrel Flower from All Songs Considered and I was interested in seeing her live.  So I was pleased when she was announced as the opening act for Soccer Mommy.

Squirrel Flower is the stage name of Ella Williams who has been releasing music under this name for about six years.

The show started a little late, so when Ella and her band came out, we all cheered, until we realized they wee just setting up the gear and setlists.  A few minutes later Ella came out by herself and sang “I’ll Go Now.”  It was a remarkably slow song.  She payed stretched out chords and sang slowly over them.   A few minutes in, she bent down and did something at her feet and a looping melody began–I couldn’t tell if she played it live, but it did have a not that was a slightly off.  The song ended and everyone cheered.

She apologized for the “fake out” earlier and then started “Desert Wildflowers” in that same slow style. (more…)

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