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Archive for the ‘Union Transfer’ Category

The Spirit of the Beehive / Kassie Krut (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2024) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Kassie Krut, Palm, Philadelphia, PA, The Spirit of the Beehive, Union Transfer on November 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 9, 2024] The Spirit of the Beehive / Kassie Krut [moved to March 5, 2025]

I saw The Spirit of the Beehive seven years ago and they were outstanding live.  I’d never heard of them before that show but they blew me away with their set which was a great mix of shoegaze and noise.  I said then that I’d like to see them headline a show.

They’ve been around a few times and I wasn’t planning on going to this show because it was the same night as Makoto Kawabata.

But then they had all of their gear stolen.

On October 5, SOTB announced on social media that their van and trailer were stolen at a hotel by the Seattle airport. The trailer had all the band’s gear and most of their merch inside of it. Later that day, they shared an update that they had found the trailer, but it was virtually empty. On Sunday morning, SOTB found out that the van had been found in Seattle and impounded, but before they were able to claim it, the van was somehow restolen from the impound lot.

Their GoFundMe raised over $75,000, and they are rescheduling shows.  I don’t know if they had any specialized gear. (more…)

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Touché Amoré  (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2024)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Portrayal of Guilt, Soft Blue Shimmer, Soul Glo, Touché Amoré, Union Transfer on November 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2024] Touché Amoré

I saw Touché Amoré open for Deafheaven last year and I knew I wanted to see them again as a headliner.

I was happy to see them at Union Transfer and I was happy that my son wanted to go with me.  But a four-band night was a lot to ask.  And having too much food for dinner and being way overdressed for a concert (it was cold out, but warm inside) meant that he didn’t enjoy the show as much as I hoped he would.  And his unhappiness always mars a show for me.

And yet, Touché Amoré was amazing.  My son admitted that even though he didn’t feel great, he was really impressed by them.

The band has a big, clean sound and singer Jeremy Bolm screaming the lyrics.  The best thing about his screaming is that it is intense like old school punk, but it is completely clear. so the powerful lyrics really show through.

Like last time, for every last line of a verse or chorus he put the mic out for the audience to sing the last word or phrase. And they did.

I love the sound of the band–not too complicated–but every song has something interesting going on in it.  Drummer Elliot Babin is a maniac behind the kit.  And I loved that you could hear both guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt very clearly. And bassist Tyler Kirby would punctuate songs with excellent thumping bass.

Some of their songs are really short.  Art Official is about 90 seconds, and Nine is 45 seconds! (more…)

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Soul Glo (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2024) [TOUCHÉ AMORÉ]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Portrayal of Guilt, Soft Blue Shimmer, Soul Glo, Touché Amoré, Union Transfer on November 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2024] Soul Glo

I had seen Soul Glo back in May and was happy to have seen them, but I didn’t think I needed to see them again.  So their appearance on this bill was enjoyable for me mostly because I thought my son would really enjoy their set.

Like last time, there is no setlist written out online, although setlists from a few days earlier make it seem like they played a longer show for this concert (which I don’t think was true).

I was on the other side of the stage this time, closer to GG Guerra on guitar.   But aside from that, the set was the same chaotic, wild fun.

Pierce Jordan has a pretty harsh voice–the better to scream the lyrics.  I really couldn’t understand much of anything, but the tone was quite clear.

But he has great stage presence and did engage the audience in a speaking voice where he made the point of the songs pretty clear. (more…)

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Portrayal of Guilt (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2024) [TOUCHÉ AMORÉ]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Portrayal of Guilt, Soft Blue Shimmer, Soul Glo, Touché Amoré, Union Transfer on November 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2024] Portrayal of Guilt

Portrayal of Guilt is a black metal band with an album called Christfucker.  They are a growly/screamy band and they are heavy as anything.

So it was kind of funny to see the guys in the band wearing Tshirts and jeans and baseball hats and then growling in an inhuman way.

I also get a kick out of when a band that sings so growly then speaks pleasantly between songs.

This kind of music isn’t really my thing, but my son and I agreed that seeing a band like this is such a visceral experience that we were both glad to have seen them.  He enjoyed them so much he bought a shirt.

I’m always happy to see a band like this open for someone (bring earplugs) and they were particularly good.  (more…)

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Soft Blue Shimmer (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2024) [TOUCHÉ AMORÉ]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Portrayal of Guilt, Soft Blue Shimmer, Soul Glo, Touché Amoré, Union Transfer on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2024] Soft Blue Shimmer

I invited my son to this show because I had seen Touché Amoré last year and they were fantastic.  He was at school and I picked him up and we drove to Philly together.  The plan was to get there really early and have dinner and then meander to the show.  If we missed any bands, that was okay because I didn’t really know the other bands (except Soul Glo).

I had listened to Soft Blue Shimmer and really liked them and I was a little bummed if we’d missed them.  But it turned out that our dinner was fairly quick and we arrived at Union Transfer in time to see almost the entire set from Soft Blue Shimmer (we may have missed one or two songs).

Given the rest of the bands on the tour, Soft Blue Shimmer seems like an outlier–their name is a great descriptor of their sound (while the other bands are pretty or very heavy).  It’s a testament to Touché Amoré’s tastes that their openers were so varied.

The band is Charlie Crowley on guitar and vocals, Kenzo Cardenas on drums, and Meredith Ramond on vocals and bass.  There was a fourth member at our show but I didn’t catch a name.

The setlist below is based on a show from the following night but seems pretty accurate.

Their songs are soft and shimmery, a delightful mix of shoegaze and pop.  Both singers sound great together and the rest of the band fills out the sound nicely.

I would definitely see them again.

2024
9090 ♥
Chihiro ≅
Shinji ∅
Emerald Bells ≅
Memory/Fantasy ♥
Canti §
Love Being ♥



§ single (2024)
♥ Love Lives in the Body (2022)
≅ Heaven Inches Away (2020)
∅ Nothing Happens Here EP (2019)

 

 

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Osees / Godcaster (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Godcaster, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 26, 2024] Osees

Three years ago I saw Osees and really enjoyed the chaotic energy of the show.  Since then they have returned every year in mid October.

Last year  had an appointment scheduled that ran really late and made me unable to get to the show.   This year, I bought tickets for the show in February.

But this year my daughter’s birthday conflicted (as it tends to do) and I wasn’t able to go out that night.  I really would like to see Osees again.  Maybe if they come back around this year I can go.

Godcaster is a screamy noise band from Brooklyn.  Pitchfork wrote of them that their music is “teetering right on the edge of irredeemable obnoxiousness, daring you to resist their charm and lightning-fast musicianship.”  Another reviewer says of their show “If you’ve seen Godcaster live, you know they put on a show as if they were in a crowd of thousands.”  That’s a cool recommendation, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard.

Maybe I’ll get to see them as well.

 

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Boris (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2024)

Posted in Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Boris 

I saw Boris last year.  It was great, of course.  And I ended my post about that show with

I wonder if we’ll get a drone show from them next time?

And did we ever!  This was a tour of their second album, Amplifier Worship.  65 minutes of loud heavy drone music.

When I arrived., the place was pretty crowded, but that’s because everyone was online to buy merch. The venue was almost empty because there were 150 people waiting to buy the kick ass poster.  I figured I’d wat until after the show to get the kick ass poster, but after waiting for ten minutes and the line not moving at all, I gave up and went home.

They came out.  Muchio was on drums.  This was the first time I’d seen him play with Boris (and I didn’t know he was on this tour).  This explained why there was a smaller drumset facing the larger drumset.  Then Takeshi came out with his double neck guitar and Wata walked out to her station.

Muchio smashed the gong, the music began to swell, Atsuo came on stage and commanded everyone’s attention.  He’s usually behind the kit so I’ve never actually seen him out from before.  He stood at the front of the stage, arms outstretched and half of the crowd raised their arms in (amplifier) worship.  I loved how long he stood there absorbing the adoration as the other three played a wall of noise.

“Huge” opened with heavy, loud chords from Wata and Takeshi.  Atsuo stood and absorbed everything.  Eventually he and Takeshi screamed the vocals.  “Huge” is 9 minutes on record.  I don’t know how long it was live. (more…)

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Starcrawler (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2024) [BORIS]

Posted in Boris, Philadelphia, PA, Starcrawler, Union Transfer on October 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Starcrawler

Starcrawler goes down as probably the biggest let down from a build up for me at a concert.

I had wanted to see Starcrawler for about 5 years because I had heard such great things about their live show.  Since then, their show had evolved (as it probably should) and instead of the crazy rockers I thought I was getting, instead, I got a cocksure LA band who were snotty to the crowd and way overconfident in an unpleasant way.

So, while I might normally have been really excited to see them, I was a little bummed that they were opening for Boris without hearing anything new from them.

There’s a few songs by them that I really do like.  And they didn’t play either “Hollywood Ending” or “No More Pennies.” But the did play the two songs that I liked least when I saw them last time, covers of two genuinely terrible songs, If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough and Pet Sematary (easily the worst Ramones song ever).

The one thing that made me happy was when Wata from Boris came out and played guitar on Kick Me. (more…)

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Yard Act (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2024)

Posted in Omni, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Yard Act on October 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2024] Yard Act

I had tickets to see Yard Act last back in 2022.  That show was cancelled at the last minute because Yard Act was called back home to do a live TV appearance for the Mercury Prize (surely a lot more lucrative than playing a gig at Underground Arts).

But they returned to Underground Arts last year and I grabbed a ticket.  My expectations were mild and they blew me away with their energy and fun.

Yard Act are very British (being from Leeds).  On record, “singer” James Smith mostly rants and speaks angrily in his accented English.  His lyrics are placed over some very cool guitars from Sam Shipstone and some really grooving bass from Ryan Needham.  Drummer Jay Russell keeps things together.

For this tour they added two backing singers Daisy Smith and Lauren Fitzpatrick who made a surprising difference to the show.  Their vocal contributions were great but it was their physical presence that added a lot to the show.  They also added a keyboardist Christopher Duffin who fleshed out the sounds–I’m not sure if he was making some of the really weird sounds that floated through the background, but I assume so. (more…)

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Omni (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2024) [YARD ACT]

Posted in Omni, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Yard Act on October 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2024] Omni

Omni is a trio from Atlanta. I hadn’t heard of them and thought they were a new band.  Well, they are, but the members of the band have been around for a while.  Guitarist Frankie Broyles on guitar was in Deerhunter.  Drummer Chris Yonker has been in some other bands that I didn’t know and Philip Frobos on vocals and bass has been in Carnivores.

This explains why this band of, what I assumed were young newbies, was so confident playing their off-kilter post punk.  And probably explains why I loved their set immediately.

I was in front of Frobos and it was cool watching him play bass lines that were more like lead lines than simply rhythm.  I also really liked the sound of his bass–clean but not sharp.

I was pretty far from Broyles, but I enjoyed that he played interesting guitar lines that complemented the bass–but it basically meant there was no simply chord playing going on.

Granite Kiss was staccato with fluid lead guitar lines over the stomping bass and drums.  (more…)

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