Posted in Demetri Martin, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on September 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: September 24, 2022] Demetri Martin
Demetri Martin is one of my favorite comedians.
I would love to see him live. But this show was scheduled for the same day as the Frantic City Festival that we had tickets for.
I hope he’ll come back around some day.
Posted in Anthrax, Black Label Society, Hatebreed, Montclair, NJ, Ozzy Osbourne, Wellmont Theater on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: August 28, 2022] Anthrax / Black Label Society / Hatebreed
Anthrax is the only band of the classic heavy metal landscape that I’ve never seen (who I want to see, anyhow). They’re back to almost their original lineup (okay, not original, but “classic” lineup).
This is the third or fourth time they’ve come around recently, but they’re never with anyone else that I want to see.
I don’t really care about Black Label Society, the band created by Zakk Wylde. I’ve never cared about him and his silly name (although I didn’t realize he was from Bayonne, so that’s kind of cool). I now he played with Ozzy, but that was long after I cared about Ozzy too, so whatever. When this tour was announced, I listened to couple of songs and thought they were okay. Their presence on the bill definitely impacted my decision not to go. If it had been a band I liked more, I might have stuck it out. (more…)
Posted in Guster, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on August 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: August 10, 2022] Guster [rescheduled from January 14, 2021, I guess]
Back in January, Guster was supposed to play the Wellmont (after postponing a seated acoustic show in 2020).
This show seems to have been the rescheduled show–does it even matter at this point?
The show sold out and we had pretty good seats. Seats? For a Guster show? The seats thing proved to be the real downfall honestly because I was seated behind a freaking behemoth of a guy. The entire row was full of normal sized people and this hulking dude who clearly did not care about Guster. What a travesty that was.
The guys came out to raucous applause and they opened with “Careful.” Surprisingly, this was only the third time we’d seen them play this. By the way, this was our ninth Guster show, we are definitely getting into territory where if they play anything we haven’t seen before we will be surprised.
Ryan was wearing one of his new wild fruit suits and looked wonderful. (more…)
Posted in Ben Kweller, Guster, Laura Stevenson, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on August 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: August 10, 2022] Laura Stevenson [rescheduled from January 14, 2021, I guess]
Back in January, Guster was supposed to play the Wellmont (after postponing a seated acoustic show in 2020). Ben Kweller was supposed to open that show, which would have ben pretty fun as I don’t really know him very well, but I know he is tangentially related to Guster.
For this new show, Laura Stevenson was the opening act.
I only new Laura a little–from a Tiny Desk concert many many years ago, which I enjoyed.
I assumed she’d be fun–Guster tends to have good opening acts.
But we had a terrible time getting to the show and parking for some reason. Usually it’s not a problem parking in Montclair, but this show (which was sold out–good for Guster, but bad for us, I guess), made Montclair really crowded.
It seemed to take a long time to get in. (more…)
Posted in Battles, Bethlehem, PA, Don Caballero, Helmet, Montclair, NJ, Primus, Rush, Wellmont Theater, Wind Creek Event Center, Wolfmother on May 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: May 21 & May 25, 2022] Primus: A Tribute to Kings / Battles
I saw Primus on the tour back in October and it was pretty great. I would happily have seen them again, even playing the same songs (although I think set two varies somewhat).
I didn’t love the crowd around me (I didn’t realize Primus fans were bros, but I guess they are).
However, this first date was the same day that my wife and I were going to see The Music Man on Broadway. And the second date was the same day that my family was going to see Blue Man Group. So, this leg of the tour was not to be.
Battles are a weird band that I tend to forget about.
The two main guys in the band were once in Don Caballero and Helmet, and their music should be really heavy. But as I wrote when I first heard their song “Ice Cream” back in 2011
But they’re not so much heavy as noisy and crazy. And this track is a head-spinning amalgam of keybaords, unsettling rhythms, processed guitars and singing from Argentinean techno producer Matias Aguayo. The lyrics sound like they are not English, but they are (with heavy effects on them).
The song is weird, indeed. But after just one listen, I was totally hooked. It’s catchy and bouncy and very sunny and it’s a real joy to listen to.
Boy I’d like to see them live.
Posted in Celisse, Lucius, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on May 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: May 6, 2022] Lucius / Celisse
Lucius had played a Free at Noon show earlier in the day and I could have gone. But for a couple of reasons I didn’t.
I’m not even 100% sure I want to see them live–I really like some of their songs a lot, but a lot are just kind of okay for me. Although their harmonies are absolutely dynamite.
For this show, I was even offered free tickets the night before:
Sign up now to claim free tickets to enjoy the sweet sounds of Lucius w/ Celisse
I absolutely would have gone to this for free. (It also tells me it was not selling very well).
But, it turns out that I had SIX shows to choose from this evening: Gogol Bordello, Sunflower Bean (which was actually cancelled), Destroyer (which I had bought a ticket for a long time earlier), Olivia Rodrigo (which sold out long before I could get a ticket), Lucius and Pup (which my son and I went to).
So Pup it was (and it was great).
Celisse Henderson is a wild rocking woman who plays a killer guitar–I think she’s more of a blues player than anything else, but with a modern, female spin on the blues.. I don’t think I knew who she was at the time, but I have since learned that she is a killer and I would have loved to see her.
Posted in Ben Folds, Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Guster, Montclair, NJ, Quarantine, Wellmont Theater on January 14, 2022| 2 Comments »
[POSTPONED: January 14, 2021] Guster / Ben Kweller [moved to August 10, 2022]
COME ON!
In March of last year, Guster was supposed to come to NJ to play An Evening of Acoustic Music & Improv–a tour that had been going great.
Then it was cancelled.
The band waited almost a year to reschedule a NJ show–who knows if they were going to do an acoustic show or not. (Probably not as the last show all tickets were seated).
And then the jackasses who didn’t get vaccinated caused the virus to mutate and infect all of us.
I tested positive last week and tonight was going to be the date I was allowed back into society. I don’t blame the band for cancelling–literally everyone is catching it. I blame the idiots who trust Facebook more than science.
Who knows when they’ll want to come back–although come back they will because Guster doesn’t give up!
UPDATE: Until Maryann commented, I didn’t realize (or I forgot) there was a special guest (I didn’t look at this poster very clearly, obviously). I know Ben Kweller from the compilation The Bens, which has Ben Folds and Ben Lee on it. I didn’t think I knew much else from Ben Kweller, until I just saw that he sings lead on “I Hope Tomorrow is LIke Today.” which, how did I not know that?
I hope that he is still the opener for the rescheduled date.
Posted in Coronavirus, Corrosion of Conformity, Depeche Mode, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Front Line Assembly, Igorrr, KMFDM, Ministry, Montclair, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rammstein, The Melvins, Wax Trax!, Wellmont Theater on October 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
[POSTPONED: October 17, 2021] Ministry / Helmet / Front Line Assembly [rescheduled from July 18, 2020, April 17, 2021; moved to March 9, 2022]
Out of the blue, and very close to the time of the shows, this tour was cancelled and postponed until next year.
The lineup has completely changed as well. Initially, the support was from KMFDM an Front Line Assembly. Then KMFDM was replaced with Helmet. Now for the show next year, we have The Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity. I had pretty much decided i wasn’t going to go to this show anyhow, but it always lingered in the back of my mind as something I might want to do. Of course, I’d much rather go to the Wellmont than Franklin Music hall, so it’s unlikely I’d go to this show anyhow.
~~~~
This show was moved to April which seemed reasonable at the time. I see now that it has been pushed back to October which actually seems optimistic. I am very bummed to see that KMFDM is no longer on the tour, as They would have been a great opener. I like Helmet, but I think KMFDM would have been more fun. If I’m going to one of these two shows (Montclair being the other one) it would certainly Montclair.
I’ve been a fan of Ministry for decades. I even liked the first album With Sympathy (and listen to it now more than their hardercore stuff). But when Land of Rape and Honey came out, it was the most intense thing in the world. It was incredible.
They put out a series of great heavy albums, although by 1999’s Filth Pig either I stopped enjoying it or they just weren’t as good.
So I guess it has been two decades since I cared about Ministry. However, Al Jourgensen and his band keep touring and, since I’ve seen Slayer now, I thought I should see what a ministry experience is like.
I wanted to go to their show in 2018, (I was really interested in seeing opening band Igorr) but the date just didn’t work for me.
Although I hadn’t yet gotten tickets for this show, I was looking forward to this retro bill.
I liked KMFDM more in theory than actually listening to them–I have one album I think). But I always appreciated them (especially the joke that their initials stand for Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode–actually it is Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, “no pity for the majority”). Only one guy is still in the band, but I’d be curious to see what their proto-Rammstein show would be like.
Front Line Assembly was one of the few bands on the industrial label Waxtrax that I never really got into. I liked many bands on the label, but really never had much exposure to FLA (in the days before you could listen to things online). I’m curious what 1980s industrial music sounds like in 2020.
Now that I see that the show is also going to be at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, I will definitely try to get to that one instead.
Posted in Coronavirus, Corrosion of Conformity, Depeche Mode, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Front Line Assembly, Igorrr, KMFDM, Ministry, Montclair, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rammstein, The Melvins, Wax Trax!, Wellmont Theater on October 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
[POSTPONED: October 16, 2021] Ministry / Helmet / Front Line Assembly [rescheduled from July 18, 2020, April 16, 2021; moved to March 12, 2022]
Out of the blue, and very close to the time of the shows, this tour was cancelled and postponed until next year.
The lineup has completely changed as well. Initially, the support was from KMFDM an Front Line Assembly. Then KMFDM was replaced with Helmet. Now for the show next year, we have The Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity. I had pretty much decided i wasn’t going to go to this show anyhow, but it always lingered in the back of my mind as something I might want to do. Of course, I’d much rather go to the Wellmont than Franklin Music Hall, although I’m in no rush to get tickets for this.
~~~~
This show was moved to April which seemed reasonable at the time. I see now that it has been pushed back to October which actually seems optimistic. I am very bummed to see that KMFDM is no longer on the tour, as They would have been a great opener. I like Helmet, but I think KMFDM would have been more fun. If I’m going to one of these two shows (Philly the other one) it would certainly be this one.
I’ve been a fan of Ministry for decades. I even liked the first album With Sympathy (and listen to it now more than their hardercore stuff). But when Land of Rape and Honey came out, it was the most intense thing in the world. It was incredible.
They put out a series of great heavy albums, although by 1999’s Filth Pig either I stopped enjoying it or they just weren’t as good.
So I guess it has been two decades since I cared about Ministry. However, Al Jourgensen and his band keep touring and, since I’ve seen Slayer now, I thought I should see what a ministry experience is like.
I wanted to go to their show in 2018, (I was really interested in seeing opening band Igorr) but the date just didn’t work for me.
Although I hadn’t yet gotten tickets for this show, I was looking forward to this retro bill.
I liked KMFDM more in theory than actually listening to them–I have one album I think). But I always appreciated them (especially the joke that their initials stand for Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode–actually it is Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, “no pity for the majority”). Only one guy is still in the band, but I’d be curious to see what their proto-Rammstein show would be like.
Front Line Assembly was one of the few bands on the industrial label Waxtrax that I never really got into. I liked many bands on the label, but really never had much exposure to FLA (in the days before you could listen to things online). I’m curious what 1980s industrial music sounds like in 2020.
Now that I see that the show is also going to be at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, I will definitely try to get to that one instead.
Posted in Coronavirus, Grateful Dead, Guster, Joe Russo's Almost Dead, Marco Benevento, Montclair, NJ, Postponed, Quarantine, Ween, Wellmont Theater on October 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
[DID NOT ATTEND: October 7, 8, 9, 2021] Joe Russo’s Almost Dead [rescheduled from September 24, 2020]
I don’t actually know Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. The only thing I really know about them is that Marco Benevento is the pianist for the band. Honestly that’s good enough for me.
They are playing three nights in Montclair and two of them sold out almost immediately.
It didn’t actually occur to me that the Dead in the band name is a Grateful Dead reference. But I see that JRAD is like a Grateful Dead cover band plus more. They are known for their intermingling of the Grateful Dead’s recognizable folk-rock and Americana sound with more contemporary Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion influences.
So I had a lot going on that week and decided I didn’t need to see a Grateful Dead band. Especially since I don’t especially like the Dead (althouh it’s more their recording sound (too tinny) than their songs. But according to GratefulWeb, the run was a hit. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 