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Archive for the ‘XFinity Mobile Arena’ Category

Weezer (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on October 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] Weezer

This is my fourth time seeing Weezer.  I’m not a huge Weezer fan and I know they’ve released some real stinker songs, but when they hit it right, they absolutely nail it.  And their shows are a lot of fun.

This is the first time I’ve seen them headline in a pretty long time.  I remembered their 2018 show was a great spectacle showing the band progress through the years.  But they went all out for this show and it was a blast!

The show began with a video of a kid drawing pictures like those in the poster to the right.  Some bullies mocked Nicholas for drawing his weird Ws and Nicholas said that Weezer were playing at his house tonight.  The kids don’t believe him.  Nicholas wishes really hard and the weird symbols he’s drawing start to glow and Rivers received the message about a show that night.  He grabs the band and they head to Nicholas’ house.

The stage had been setup to look like a back yard.  There was a house (!) as well as telephone poles (with sneakers on the wires) artificial turf and a picket fence.  On the screen, the guys approach a fence and then walked through the fence on stage. A simple detail, but really fun.  The screen converted to a backyard scene with a swimming pool and trees and everything.  It looked really convincing (despite being obviously fake).

The story was played out though the whole night (even if the guys in the band are TERRIBLE actors–so bad!  Rivers’ “let keep this party going” and things were pretty sus but who cares).

They started playing a brand new song (I don’t now the album all that well, but everyone on the floor sure did).  In addition to showing the band on the stage, the cameramen in the front row went back an forth to the folks in the front row, and most of them were singing along.

And then came what was mostly a greatest hits selection of songs, but with quite a few deep cuts as well.  (more…)

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The Shins (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026) [WEEZER]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on September 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] The Shins

I have been a fan of The Shins since their debut album came out and I have never seen them live.  I put them very high on my list of bands that I wanted to see.  But I assumed I just never would.  (They played Franklin Music Hall in 2022 and The Fillmore in 2017).  And yet, here they were opening for Weezer.

I don’t know what James Mercer (the only real Shin at this point) has been up to for this last decade (their last album came out in 2017), but whatever it is, he’s been keeping his voice in amazing condition.

They opened with Simple Song and I immediately remembered how much I love The Shins.  And as soon as he hit the first high notes of the song–and hit them confidently and easily, I knew this set was going to be fantastic.  They made some use of the video screens.  The camera zoomed in on the musicians from time to time and behind them, for each song there was a different band name logo, which was really fun.

Up next was Australia (I realized I have no idea what the names of these songs are) but as soon as the “la la las” came along, the whole song flooded back.  And Mercer seemed like he was having a really good time up there.  He commented about how he had never been on an arena tour before and how much fun he was having. (more…)

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Silversun Pickups (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026) [WEEZER]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] Silversun Pickups

I had been wanting to see Silversun Pickups for a pretty long time and finally managed to see them (after missing easily a half dozen shows in our area over the course of a year or so) in 2024.  And they were great.  I really wanted to see them again, but once again, their headlining show fell during a vacation.

So, at last here they were again, this time opening for Weezer.

Initially, my wife said she didn’t want to go to this show, but upon hearing that The Shins were opening, she changed her mind.  I wound up getting cool seats in the club section (which includes a personal food and drink and bathroom area) and we fought the traffic (why would you AC/DC playing at the football field next door at the EXACT SAME TIME as this show?

We arrives in time, found our cool seats and even ordered food (which we never do) because we hadn’t had time for a pre meal dinner.  Hint: go for the kid’s meal, it’s a decent sized portion for half the price).

We were on the left side of the stage.  Almost parallel to the stage but not quite and really rather close.  Great seats.  And even if you couldn’t see the screens behind them straight on, they were done really well and were easily viewed from where we were.

The Silversun Pickups came out and Nikki Monninger’s bass rumbled the opening notes of Well Thought Out Twinkles. The sounded great.  The venue’s sound quality isn’t perfect or anything, but they sounded really good–that bass was so clean.  It’s always fun to watch drummer Chris Guanlao, going crazy pack there–hair flying, sticks smashing things.  He shows you how fun being a drummer can be. (more…)

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Phoebe Bridgers / Alex G (Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA, September 28, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Alex G, Philadelphia, PA, Phoebe Bridgers, XFinity Mobile Arena on September 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 28, 2026] Phoebe Bridgers / Alex G

I saw Phoebe Bridgers at Asbury Lanes back in 2018.  It was intimate and very cool.  A few years later, my daughter became a massive Boygenius fan.  I have seen Lucy Dacus like 6 times and Julien Baker 3 times.  But in that time Phoebe hadn’t toured again except with Boygenius.

When this tour was announced, I knew I wasn’t going to go because I didn’t want to go from Asbury Lanes to the Xfinity Center (even if the show was bigger and presumably exponentially better).  But I also knew that my daughter really wanted to see her (we saw boygenius together, but at a festival, not a more personal show).  And, she was going to be away a college when the show was going to happen.

So I managed to get tickets for her and she had a great time.  And I’m super happy for her.

I’ve seen Alex G twice, sort of.  I saw him ten years ago open for Built to Spill (he may have still been (Sandy) Alex G at the time.  Then my daughter and I saw him at the same festival, but he was on a video screen, so that sort of counts.  My daughter really liked him, but I’ve been kinda meh about him for a while, so this opener wasn’t that exciting for me.   She said he was okay.

 

 

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Rush (Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA, August 21 & 23, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Rush, XFinity Mobile Arena on August 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 21 & 23, 2026] Rush

Rush concerts part 2.  It’s crazy that I could have seen them six times.

So, having missed the MSG shows, and really knowing I wasn’t going to go to any of them, I kept my eyes on the Philly shows.  Those did not sell out entirely and I did keep watching those special seats to see of the prices ever went down.  And they just never did.

By this time we were back from vacation and were not quite on crunch time for bringing our daughter to school.  But initially I had a ticket to a show the night before this (and didn’t go because of the weather) and we had a ticket to a comedian the following night (but didn’t go because we’re lame).  Nut in all honesty, a Friday night going to Xfnity Mobile Arena sounds like a nightmare.  You’d have to leave at like 4.  Insanity.

So really that only left the 23rd.   But by the time that show came around I had accepted that I wasn’t going to go so I didn’t even look.

And despite the massive accolades from strangers and relatives (Montreal), I’m really not that bummed I missed out.  It sounds like it would have been fun, but I really don’t feel like I missed out.

And good for me.  Plus, there’s always that DVD.

~~~~~~

In high school and some of college, Rush was my favorite band.  No questions asked. My best college friend and I bonded over the band.  I didn’t go to enough shows during college–why didn’t I drive to Binghamton with him?

Since college I have listened to them a lot less, although i did really enjoy all of the albums they put out.  And I was super psyched to see their final tour before Neil died.

Geddy and Alex said they would never be Rush again and it sounded like they were both content to play music with other people and do their hobbies.  And then this was announced.  I wasn’t upset (it’s not like The Who or Slayer who have farewell tours all the time).  And I Was really excited that they had replaced Neil with Anika Nilles–if only because it upset so many people that there was a “girl drummer.”

When the shows were first announced I didn’t intend to go.  I didn’t feel it was necessary even if it had been over a decade since that last show.

And then I saw the prices.  Jaysus.  I have local friends who are much bigger Rush fans than me and they were jumping in paying $500/$600 a ticket, which is crazy–but was nowhere near the high end of prices.  As the dates grew closer and I heard great things about the shows, I kept my eyes on tickets.  Despite the immediate crush of sales, I don’t think all of the nights sold out.  And I’d also heard that dynamic pricing tends to get cheaper the day of the show.  Of course, that would still mean driving all the way into New York for a pain in the ass trip to MSG.

Ultimately, I decided not even investigate tickets.

And let’s see.  The 28th, I had a ticket to see Metric.
The 30th, I could have gone, but we were going on vacation two days later and that felt like a huge time commitment–this was the only day I seriously considered though.
And Aug 1 & 3 were were on vacation.

Back in the day, a Rush show was exactly the same night after night.  Possibly even note for note.  But this tour, they have been mixing up setlists like crazy and, while I’m not mad that I missed all the shows, I would have been really bummed if I went to one of the nights and the setlist was better on a different night.  I mean, let’s be honest, any Rush setlist is a good one, but …  The 30th featured all of 2112, which was pretty cool.

Plus, I’ll BET they release a show or two on DVD.

 

 

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Laufey / Suki Waterhouse (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, October 24, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Laufey, Philadelphia, PA, Suki Waterhouse, XFinity Mobile Arena on October 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 24, 2025] Laufey / Suki Waterhouse

I first heard Laufey on WXPN and liked the weird, unexpected song she had released, Silver Lining.  It was a fun breath of unusual jazzy standard style music.  I assumed it was kind of a fluke song like when Bjork released It’s Oh So Quiet (Laufey is also Icelandic).  But then I found out that that is the kind of music Laufey releases–jazz pop standards.  Nothing wrong with it, indeed, I like it in small doses, but I wouldn’t want to see a full concert of it.  And that’s how I know I’m completely out of step with the world because she played XFinity Mobile Arena, the largest venue in Philly.

I blew off seeing Suki Waterhouse earlier this year and regret it.  I would like to see her, but this would be a terrible way to see her, I suspect.

And on a purely personal level, we came to this venue the night before for Billie Eilish–I can’t imagine going to this huge place two nights in a row.

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Billie Eilish (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, October 23, 2025)

Posted in Billie Eilish, Philadelphia, PA, XFinity Mobile Arena, Young Miko on October 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 23, 2025] Billie Eilish

Our history with Billie Eilish shows is interesting.  I bought tickets in 2019 to see her in NJ.  Then COVID came along and the show was postponed and then cancelled.  I bought tickets again in 2021 and we finally got to see her in 2022.  When she announced a show at Wells Fargo Center in 2024 I wasn’t sure if my daughter cared that much and so I didn’t get tickets.  The show sold out and everyone raved about it and she was bummed we didn’t go.  And then, ever so nicely, Billie announced that the tour was continuing and she was going to play in Philly AGAIN at the same venue.  So this time I was able to surprise her.  The tickets weren’t as close as they were in Newark, but her stage design was a huge rectangle on the floor and she came pretty close to us throughout the show.

And this show was basically the same as the 2024 show.  The only real difference was the middle acoustic songs that she and her backing singers played.  And the fact that the venue was then the Wells Fargo Center and is now the XFinity Mobile Arena.

As happened half the time at this venue, the traffic was terrible.  We left early and assumed we had plenty of time.  But even when we pulled in the lot, all of the ADA was taken!  Good grief.  However, it was cool that we parked right near the Billie 18 wheeler which had her logo on it (photo op!)  Nevertheless, we were going to miss some if not all of Young Miko, the opening act.  I didn’t know anything about her.  She seems to be a chill rapper who sings in English and Spanish.

Since we has already missed half of her set, we decided to just get on the merch line (which moved really quickly!). Having acquired our merch, I did the typical dad thing of figuring out that if half of the people there bought a shirt she made $500K on merch alone.  But good for her and even better for her because she happily donates to good causes and calls out rich men who don’t.

We had pretty great seats, unexpectedly.  I mean, I knew where the seats were that I bought, but I didn’t expect them to be so good.    So her stage was a square (rectangle?) on the floor of the arena.  There was a vertical lighting rig in the middle of the square on which they projected videos and also had a crane of some sort that lifted her up and down throughout the show.

The show started with some videos on the middle screens–mostly static.  And then suddenly Billie was floating above the screens.  On either side of this big screen in a lower area were her band members–2 on either side facing each other.  We were closest to the bass and drums.

When Billie lowered to the stage, she proceeded to run (pretty fast) all around the stage.  She sang and waved to all sides of the square. She stood at corners and sang. She lay down in some places.  She made sure that everyone had a good view of her.

I don’t really know her new album all that well, but she is such a great performer that I didn’t care.  I enjoyed her delivery, her energy and the whole entertainment package of her show.  Like last time the girls screaming around me were far louder than the music.  In fact, listening back to the videos I took, the audience is always louder than Billie (but are in fine rhythm).

Perhaps the most interesting part of the show was when she asked everyone to be quiet so she could loop her vocals for When the Party’s Over.  She explained that she needed silence or the looping wouldn’t work.  People were okay and then people yelled at them to shut up and the Billie started and of course someone shouted I love you and Billie just shook her head and carried on (that voice did not get looped that I could hear).

During Bad Guy (easily my favorite of her songs), she grabbed one of the many cameras ringing the stage and ran around with it showing all of the band members.  And of course the crowd shouted every word.  Duh! (more…)

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